Manky Monkey
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« on: July 23, 2010, 11:07:47 PM » |
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Spent an interesting couple of hours down at Taz's livery yard this afternoon, watching some of the girls training their ponies.
If you haven't met her, Taz manages the stables at Clandon Park, here in Surrey. People pay to keep their horses here & have the use of the facilities, including the schooling arena. The all weather ground covering is made from recycled car tyres, laid on sand by the way.
Most of the owners enter their horses in weekend competitions, which often include jumps & obstacles. Here, Lily is training Cherokee to walk across a bridge -looks simple, but it's not a natural thing for a horse to do -they're very nervous animals & wary of anything new. So getting him to walk across the improvised platform, especially as it moves as he puts his weight on it, takes lots of encouragement, (using a bag of treats), & repetition. Eventually, he gets the idea. You can see here that he trusts Lily not to put him in any danger & is watching her, not the bridge.
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« Last Edit: July 26, 2010, 11:35:40 PM by Manky Monkey »
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2010, 11:14:42 PM » |
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She's trained him to respond to various signals so he'll stop, turn & even walk backwards with just hand gestures from her.
Here he's actually reversing back off the platform.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2010, 11:16:51 PM » |
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Once he knows what's being asked of him, Lily removes the guide rope & he happily crosses back & forth over the bridge following her signals.
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« Last Edit: July 26, 2010, 11:35:57 PM by Manky Monkey »
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2010, 11:20:02 PM » |
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The next stage is to add rails either side of the "bridge". Again, horses are naturally very wary of confined spaces & many would refuse to do this.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2010, 11:24:10 PM » |
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"Whisper" tries the scary wobbly bridge, led by Vicki. Scattering some of the rubber granules on it helps to make it less intimidating.
First the wooden platform.
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« Last Edit: July 24, 2010, 07:26:34 PM by Manky Monkey »
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2010, 11:25:42 PM » |
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Then with the poles laid on the ground either side.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2010, 11:27:44 PM » |
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And eventually with both rails in place. Success.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2010, 11:31:04 PM » |
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Cherokee again, getting airborne.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2010, 11:31:33 PM » |
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2010, 11:33:55 PM » |
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Watched with interest by newcomer Johno. This guy is absolutely enormous -17.2 hands high.
Up to 14.2 hands tall is a pony. Above that, they're a horse. I think this one's a giraffe.
One hand equals 4 inches which makes him 70" tall, or nearly 6 feet, measured from the ground to the top of the withers, (the top of the shoulder).
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« Last Edit: July 26, 2010, 11:04:05 PM by Manky Monkey »
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2010, 11:34:16 PM » |
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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tbone
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« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2010, 07:14:40 PM » |
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Do these guys get daily visits from their respective owners or are they abondoned all week n play things at the weekend?
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NO I WON`T. aye ok then, i will
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morrag
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Carpe diem!
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« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2010, 07:29:29 PM » |
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I never realised that horses were delivered on pallets!!!amazing, what do you strap them down wiv........ nurse, nurse...
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Beware the Ides of March, But!
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Manky Monkey
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« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2010, 07:58:15 PM » |
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They arrive in boxes -horse boxes.
TB, half of the horses are on DIY livery & half on part livery. The DIY ones are looked after entirely by their owners, so they see them twice a day. The part liveries are cared for by the staff, but most owners still come to groom & exercise their animals as often as they can.
Horses ain't cheap -Taz will no doubt correct me, but stable fees are something like 100 quid a week, plus equipment, new shoes every 6 weeks, vet's fees, food supplements etc. So a lot of people share, which means the horses have plenty of company. They're herd animals & fret if they're left alone, so always have a field buddy when they're turned out to graze.
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On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
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twistgrip
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« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2010, 10:15:10 AM » |
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More happy memories of my mispent youth.
Being bored playing on my own down on Ham Common ( yeah I know - poor old billy no-mates!), I popped into the stables based down there - asked for a part time job as a stable lad and got it.
Best move I ever did - got to look after Jimmy Edward's polo pony ( Star ) and take it out for exercises, the only time Jimmy saw his horse was when we took it to the polo pitch as far as I can recall - i certainly never saw him at the weekends when i was working. Got taught to ride on a very wilful shetland ( memory tells me I spent more time on the floor than on the pony! ) and from then on could take the ponies out to whichever Polo pitch they were using - got to meet members of the Royal family radio stars and got bitten on the shoulder by one of the royal horses!
Now just what other memories are you going to drag out of the recesses of my mind!
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Regards
David
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