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The Herd Explore

Come on an adventure with our herd of Dales ponies and their native friends
(12)

11/09/2024

Some of The Herd Explore gang foot stomped our way over to Sovereign Quarter Horses to have a go at a line dancing lesson with Amy at Buckin' Boots Line Dancing as a bit of a surprise send off to Hattie who is off to uni next week. Thank you Amy! Oh my goodness we LOVED it! It was so much fun and such lovely, welcoming people. Totally want to do that again!!!! 🤠.

Off to buy a hat and boots...🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

10/09/2024

Share team member Clare arranged for her sister Kate and husband Luke to come over and ride the ponies yesterday. Luke has Motor Neurones Disease so we chatted about it and decided we had one pony for the job...my right-hand man Matt.

Luke is a truly inspirational man, he is 35 and was diagnosed with MND just last year. He's a medically retired GP and mountain and lowland rescue volunteer. Despite his diagnosis last year he went on a three week expedition on horse back around Mongolia as the medical support for a team helping with community aid and scientific work within Zoology and Archeology. He told me the most incredible stories about his trip (it's always been on my buckets list) and my mind was totally blown by how he had not just embarked on such a trip but embraced and succeeded at it whilst grappling with his recent diagnosis, and also how he is clearly not letting this flipping awful disease define him - he is still determined to get out there and do the things he loves.

Earlier this year he helped to fundraise for MND and changed the narrative of it by walking Hadrians Hall - a whopping 84 miles and helped raise £52k towards MND charities he is immensely proud of the two incredible achievements and I'm sure there are more achievements to come. Yesterday he was very happy to simply be back in the saddle and to be able to immerse himself in the countryside alongside his wife kate, and Clare and I were very happy to help provide this experience, although it was Matt who truly enabled this to happen - he stood like a rock while Luke got on and off and was his usual calm, collected self. He is an incredible pony, one in a million.

If you want to check out Luke's Instagram account click below

https://www.instagram.com/lukesmndhadrianswallchallenge?igsh=d29pdnFoYzBsZjJy.

07/09/2024

Morning Burghley traffic 👋

06/09/2024

As it was hot today we decided to wander slowly down to the lake, have a picnic and treat the ponies to a dip.
Shock news...Pearl wasn't keen!! Gina on the other hand...

05/09/2024

Some of you will know just how incredibly special and moving this moment was this evening ❤️

Danny & Hattie

04/09/2024

There's a couple of spaces on our 2 hour trek on Saturday if anyone fancies it? You could always ride and then go onto Burghley as we're just 5 mins away in the car 👀

04/09/2024

This week we are celebrating getting our new field and are looking forward to the ponies enjoying it later on in the year, it's such a beautiful and peaceful field and is literally next door to our other one. As I've said before we've got exciting plans in the pipeline and one of these plans is to look at offering some limited retirement livery spaces to people who want their ponies to retire and be cared for in a natural grass kept, herd environment. We have our own herd of retirees so adding to their gang seems like a very natural progression and something that they would very much benefit from too. We've always strived to ensure that these guys have a varied and stimulating field/social life including in hand walks with the ridden gang - you've only got to meet them to see that they enjoy life, have strong friendships, are healthy emotionally and physically and they even have good muscle tone.

Our non ridden ponies have never been any less important to us than our ridden ponies so I get it, I really do. If you are interested in this particular development and would like your pony to join our equine community send me a message and I'll keep you posted on our plans 😊

03/09/2024

The strength, importance and draw of friendship.

Retirees Dolly and Dylan have just come to graze next to their herd friends Danny and Magnus. Although they are all away from the main herd ATM for various reasons they are long standing herd members. The other side of their field are two ponies they have never met before (circled in green) When we released them they went over to the new ponies, briefly said Hi, but then quickly headed back to their friends where a session of serious grooming/bonding began! If you're wondering why the four friends aren't together, it's just to make sure that Danny doesn't get too excited and put pressure on his heart, so until we know his heart is stronger he's living a quiet life with everyone's mate Magnus! Hopefully it won't be long before they can join their herd once again.

It's so lovely to see that friendships last even when they have time apart.

31/08/2024

Our beautifully awesome/ awesomely beautiful share member Sinead is off to live permanently in Abu Dhabi 😭😭❤️ (pick self off floor, do a big tear filled snot sneeze and get myself together)so we are on the look out for a new member to join our crew👀.
If you would like the opportunity to regularly ride these beautiful rare native ponies and make new friends at the same time ping me a message!

Oh, if you are unable to commit to riding weekly take a look at our community share which offers various levels of commitment (link in the comments)

NB (you must be over 18, an independent rider in all gaits and for the full share you must be available to ride weekdays)

30/08/2024

This week ❤️

25/08/2024

The ponies are currently doing some conservation grazing in the village for The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants. It's such a great field with lots of enrichment and some lovely grasses and herbs.

17/08/2024

Regular riders Jodie and Claire joined myself and share rider Sinead on a lovely chilled out early morning ride today. The ground is so hard that we are just enjoying pootles at the moment - but who doesn't love a pootle?!

We are so lucky to keep our ponies on The Walcott Estate with so much beautiful estate land to ride through. We now have over 30 acres of grazing here, along with some Wildlife Trust conservation grazing in the village, so we are a very happy gang of humans and ponies! I took lots of positive learning from our temporary spring/summer track and I'm currently designing a track for our 18 acre field so that we can manage any differing needs that may arise - it's not a one-size fits all environment and I want to be able to adapt for individual ponies when needed.

We are also excited to welcome Tracey and her two beautiful ponies Hattie and Dutch to our herd. Tracey is an Equine Assisted Therapist (amongst other therapies) and we are really looking forward to how having Tracey based here can develop that part of our offering

I will keep you posted on all our developments...we are excited!

17/08/2024

If anyone is wondering how Danny is doing...here he is waiting for his breakfast this morning!

It's very weird having a pony who looks so well on the outside but you have know idea what's going on inside. But if the outside is anything to go by the inside is doing ok! And most importantly he is definitely feeling well!!! ❤️ (The heart emoji seems very apt!...keep mending that heart Dan!)

16/08/2024

A beautiful morning ❤️

21/07/2024

We are closed from Wednesday 24th to 5th August for our summer break. However, we have some last minute availability this week, so if you want to get an adventure in before we go then get booked in!

20/07/2024

A beautiful morning ride with a mix of regular riders and the share team.

18/07/2024

Early morning ride for some of the share team. We had a lot of fun! You really can't beat being out in nature early ❤️

Sarah Woods look at Hattie and Blossom go 🥰

09/07/2024

When you get picked up from work with a pony

05/07/2024

The only boy that matters on prom night and will always have her heart. Lowhouses Danny Boy ❤️

04/07/2024

New membership rider Holly loves to be matchy matchy and this includes the saddle pad...so today I organised for the flowers to be matchy matchy too. Next week I need to look out for something Dijon 🤔

03/07/2024

What a beautiful, beautiful evening ride out with our membership riders Kelly (Matt), James (Gina) and Helen (Peanut). We love our membership gang, it has grown so much and is full of wonderful characters who are an joy to be around 🥰

01/07/2024

It was like trying to get through a picket line, I thought Pearl was going to hand out a leaflet about "More Grass for workers" any minute and Matt was a passive protestor who needed manhandling to move!

01/07/2024

And how do you give juice to a child in a back pack when the cup is too big to fit? You bring in Corrine and Aunty Gina for assistance 🙌

01/07/2024

Ponies surrounded by daisies 😍

Membership riders Corrine (left on Gina) and Emelyne (middle on Matt) had a peaceful ride out today with Hattie (right on Blossom)

29/06/2024

The bottoms of Fell pony Pearl and Dales pony Blossom 🍑

29/06/2024

Well this was a thing 🤣🤣. Not sure who was more "what the flippin' heck is that?" the ponies or the alpacas...there was def some rolling of spit going on in that mouth, but thankfully nothing came out!

29/06/2024

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE...

Matt is grooming a girl 😱😱😱😱😱 apart from Dolly, who he's been with since he was a yearling this has never ever happened. Doesn't have the time of day for them usually, but Blossom clearly has been accepted into a very privileged place! 🥰

28/06/2024

Look at these girls 😍 Here's Dales pony Blossom with her owner Sarah Woods (right) whose come to stay for a few days to spend some time with Blossom, and Hattie on Fell pony Pearl, owned by Katie Lamyman . So proud of both these ponies. We love having them in our herd. Looking forward to adding them into the trekking team very soon...but for now we'll just enjoy keeping them to ourselves for a bit longer 🤭

27/06/2024

As you may know in September we take on a further 18.5 acres at our base. This means there will be some limited spaces for training and support.

No sales pitch required here...come along, meet the herd with some lovely humans thrown in, oh and enjoy a trek if you like...The End ❤️

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Exciting Plans

This week we are celebrating getting our new field and are looking forward to the ponies enjoying it later on in the year, it's such a beautiful and peaceful field and is literally next door to our other one. As I've said before we've got exciting plans in the pipeline and one of these plans is to look at offering some limited retirement livery spaces to people who want their ponies to retire and be cared for in a natural grass kept, herd environment. We have our own herd of retirees so adding to their gang seems like a very natural progression and something that they would very much benefit from too. We've always strived to ensure that these guys have a varied and stimulating field/social life including in hand walks with the ridden gang - you've only got to meet them to see that they enjoy life, have strong friendships, are healthy emotionally and physically and they even have good muscle tone. Our non ridden ponies have never been any less important to us than our ridden ponies so I get it, I really do. If you are interested in this particular development and would like your pony to join our equine community send me a message and I'll keep you posted on our plans 😊

If anyone is wondering how Danny is doing...here he is waiting for his breakfast this morning! It's very weird having a pony who looks so well on the outside but you have know idea what's going on inside. But if the outside is anything to go by the inside is doing ok! And most importantly he is definitely feeling well!!! ❤️ (The heart emoji seems very apt!...keep mending that heart Dan!)

A beautiful morning ❤️

We are closed from Wednesday 24th to 5th August for our summer break. However, we have some last minute availability this week, so if you want to get an adventure in before we go then get booked in!

Early morning ride for some of the share team. We had a lot of fun! You really can't beat being out in nature early ❤️ Sarah Woods look at Hattie and Blossom go 🥰 #dalespony #ponytrekking #rarebreed