PonyCam

23/12/2023

Proof that Mr Toby does actually quite enjoy being a reindeer! 🦌

20/12/2023

The things this poor pony puts up with 😅

17/12/2023

This grumpy reindeer has worked so hard with his schooling this week, and his canter is feeling really strong, especially now he’s able to hold himself together a little bit better 💪 He also seems to be enjoying his schooling more now he’s fitter & stronger and doesn’t find it all quite so much hard work, which is a nice feeling!

02/12/2023

My beautiful boy in the frost today ❄️

26/11/2023

One day I’ll post a photo where my pony isn’t covered in mud!

31/10/2023

Toby spotted a scary monster in the distance at the end of our last ride and grew about 2 hands taller 🦙 Such a big brave man (at least that’s what I tell him) 🤣

29/10/2023

Who else’s grey has gone from sparkling clean to bog-creature in the last 2 months? 🐷

09/10/2023

My pingy pony ❤️

08/10/2023

The coolest coblet 😎

04/10/2023

I was just scrolling back through photos from a few years ago and I can’t believe I never noticed how absolutely identical mine and my Mum’s jumping positions are in these pics! 👯‍♀️

It makes me feel a bit better about my dodgy legs and sticky-out feet though, at least I can say they’re inherited 🤣🤣

#🐴

28/09/2023

Our first go at XC! I haven’t ridden in almost three weeks and have only jumped Toby properly once before, so naturally this seemed like a good idea 🤪

We kept it all nice and small & simple to make sure we both had a positive first try at XC together, and it was great! He was loving life and I’m really glad I’ve got these videos to watch back and see what to improve on for next time!

10/09/2023

The boy can jump! So happy after our first proper jump together over all of the showjumps and fillers 😍

08/09/2023

One of my biggest hopes when buying a pony was finding something that was safe in traffic. I think it’s fair to say Toby fits the bill!! This was his first time meeting bigger/busier traffic since arriving and he really couldn’t have cared less. We love an unbothered king 👑

*Any cars I didn’t wave thanks at got a slightly crazy-looking smile, nod and ‘thank you’ mouthed at them. Poor drivers. 😬

04/09/2023

https://youtu.be/tlxIHZQKfK0?si=s3EguyoUcjWeSKFA

Everybody say hello to Toby! Massive thank you to all of you who have stayed subscribed while I've been gone ❤️If you have any questions that I didn't answer...

23/08/2023

My Mum’s now ridden Toby more times than me since he came home and I have a feeling she’s his favourite person. Think I need to start a bit of bribery to win him back 🍬😂

20/08/2023

❤️☀️🌾

19/08/2023

Welcome home Toby, my first pony of my very own! It still doesn’t really feel real and I know how very lucky I am! 🥰

Now if anyone has any tips on dealing with so much hair/greys in general, let me know 😂

05/11/2022

Today I’m posting a photo of a horse that is special to me, to celebrate 7️⃣5️⃣ years of The British Horse Society 🌟

Horses are at the very heart of everything The BHS do and to mark their 75th birthday, they would love to see photos/selfies of people and their horses to celebrate those horses that have been by your side through the good, the bad and the in between. It only felt right to choose Zubie for my photo given how much he meant to so many people ❤️

I’m encouraging you all to post just one photo of you and the horse(s) in your life using the hashtag to help celebrate with The British Horse Society 🎉🎈

30/10/2022

Magic making my dreams come true today! Ok, a bit cheesy 🧀 but I’ve ALWAYS wanted to jump this ditch & brush fence but knew I would never be confident enough to do it on Roger (even though he’s more than capable), but I was feeling very happy on reliable Magic by the end of our ride today and he didn’t let me down! 🌟

16/10/2022

I had a sit on Cosmo yesterday for the first time in about a month and he worked very hard! We were both a bit tired by this point as it was right at the end of our lesson, but he’s come a long way from the very fluffy unbroken cob that arrived from Redwings Horse Sanctuary, into a fully fledged riding school pony! 🥰

17/09/2022

It’s been a while since I posted one of these!

Roger worked well this morning - funnily enough he usually does when I remember that my inside leg exists! 🙈

I might have a couple of YouTube videos coming out in the next couple of weeks of some jumping lessons / hacks from the spring & summer, but I need to remember how to actually upload a YouTube video first!

26/08/2022

A chilled out play around the XC course this afternoon 🐴

We stuck to all the mini stuff as we had a mixed group of horses & riders and there weren’t a lot of ‘middle sized’ fences out, plus the ground is still hard in places, but tbh it was quite fun to just point & shoot Rodge over the mini hunter trail course and know he’d pop over everything with no drama! 😁

30/07/2022

Very nice ride on Roger Dodger today, and I was happy to jump a spread for the first time in a while after riding lots of tiny / green ponies over the last 6 months!

Of course Roger was still a muppet with one of the fillers, which he has jumped 1000 times before, but it wouldn’t be Roger without some kind of small drama 😈 Once he’d decided it was safe he felt great and didn’t try to 1) run out, or 2) rush through the combination to get it over and done with.
He felt the nicest I have personally felt him jump in a while over the last double 💕

29/07/2022

About to make a splash ➡️🌊

Weirdly, considering how many times I’ve ridden through this water complex over the years, I think this was my first ever time doing a drop into water (rather than just a step down), but luckily Roger knows what he’s doing and isn’t over dramatic about drops!

I was going to attempt the slightly bigger drop after our first try, but I didn’t quite have the control / speed coming in that I wanted, so stuck to the smaller one 😂

17/07/2022

Lovely morning XC schooling on my favourite little piebald (we went early and managed to beat the heat) ☀️

After a sticky start (are the little 60/70cm fences you’ve jumped dozens of times before really that scary, Roger?), we got into the swing of things and had a very positive ride 👍

Massive well done to my mum (Robin) for taking some brilliant photos! 📷

09/07/2022

Not convinced we needed to take off from quite that far away, Bramble 🤔🚀

I’ve booked in to go cross country with the yard next week, so hopefully that will be fun 😊

PC: Sophie Taylor Photography

29/06/2022

I had a very fun little ride on Bryn today! Bryn is not one of the new Redwings ponies, he arrived separately a few months ago and was already broken in when he came here, so he’s just been getting used to riding school life, working on his flat & jumping and getting fitter. I’ve seen Bryn ridden a handful of times already so I sort of knew what to expect from him, but I wasn’t quite expecting him to be so much fun 😂

I always forget what a blast the size XS pocket rocket ponies are to ride, especially when they have a decent jump on them, so I had a great time being enthusiastically flung over little fences by Bryn out in the grass paddock!

Obviously Bryn is rather small, but so am I 🤏 so while he’s not the size of pony I would be riding every day of the week, a once-off to help get him a bit fitter isn’t going to do any harm (other than to my bum, which barely fit in the saddle…). He was more than capable of cheerily dragging me around the field at any rate! 😊

18/06/2022

I’ve been very lucky over the last week to have a fun couple of rides on Bramble, who belongs to ST Equestrian (find her on YouTube & Instagram). Despite only being six he’s a lot more experienced at cross country than I am, but I was just about getting the hang of him by the end!

There will be a GoPro video of the cross county ride on YouTube tomorrow (Sunday)

26/05/2022

Well done Redwings Horse Sanctuary Cosmo! He was just perfect on our lovely long hack this morning, totally happy with the ford 🌊 tractors 🚜 bicycles 🚴🏻 buses 🚌 plus calmly waiting at gates and cantering together as a ride. We just had one little moment when some ponies in the next field popped out of nowhere, but to be fair they scared the living bejesus out of me too ☠️

Cosmo’s been doing plenty of hacking at the yard and is now used to all the goings on in the outside world, but this was my first time outside of the arena on him! 😊

Redwings Jonsey also came with us with my mum on board, but he’s only got little legs and stayed at the back, so isn’t in the video 🙈 He was also a star and seems to really enjoy his hacking! ❤️

17/04/2022

I’ve just uploaded a new YouTube video of my flat lesson on Roger! I’ve left the clips/audio unedited so you can hear some of my instructor’s comments to me throughout the ride 🗣

Hello! I managed to drag someone along to my lesson this week to take videos AND I was back on my favourite Dodger pony for the first time in almost 5 months...

16/04/2022

Look who I got to ride this morning! It felt so nice to be back on Roger after riding the green ponies recently!

01/04/2022

Someone was feeling a little bit full of themselves this week, with their new go-faster clip and a sudden temperature drop! 😂❄️

Very pleased with Homer in our jumping lesson, despite him getting a little bit big for his boots at times! My first double on him, and off quite a tight turn just to make things more tricky - it’s so much fun to feel him improve every week, especially as he seems to be enjoying it all so much!

28/03/2022

Little Homer continues to improve with every ride! Here we are before our lesson, rather overshadowed by my Mum & giant Rocket! I’m particularly pleased with Homer’s canter at the moment, he’s very balanced for still being so green 💚

If you’re interested in seeing more of our progress from the last few weeks, I’ve made a new YouTube video with lots of clips of our last 3/4 rides: https://youtu.be/kGqGAP0QBz0

12/03/2022

Look at him go!! This was Homer’s first time jumping in a real riding school lesson (aka me riding him, not the lovely staff at the yard who have jumped him over a handful of fences previously)!

Hasn’t he got such a sweet little pop?! Hopefully I’ll get to jump him from canter at some point which I think he finds easier, but he’s got to learn to jump from trot too and work out his distances! 👀 Me too, Homer, me too 😂

27/02/2022

How cute is this pony ❤️ Little Homer came unbroken to the yard from Redwings Horse Sanctuary in December. Yesterday he did his first proper outdoor riding school lesson with a paying client (me!) and he didn’t put a foot wrong!

Circles and serpentines in trot, cantering on both reins and doing a fantastic job over some trot poles - you would never know he was only sat on for the first time in January! The riding school have done a wonderful job breaking him in and preparing him for lessons ⭐️

31/12/2021

2021 - a year of fun loaning, finally feeling a bit brave again and somehow managing to not fall off! Excited to see what 2022 brings and wishing you all a very Happy New Year ❤️