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Cheshire Pony Parties

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Newsletter Issue 1 - May 2010
Cheshire Pony Parties Newsletter
May 2010 Issue 1

Welcome to the first newsletter from Cheshire Pony Parties.
We aim to produce these monthly on current topics of interest to pony lovers

In this issue;
News and what’s on-half term activity dates announced
Ponycare this month-hair and feet
In the garden -blossom
Native ponies of Great Britain -The Shetland Pony
Ask Amanda
Tips and Tricks
Websites worth a peek
Feedback
Letters
Next month -pony colours
News and what’s on
Half term pony activity dates have been announced! Book now to avoid disappointment.
Our pony experiences are also popular during the holidays-select your preferred date and book here.
We’re getting booked up for parties, so email us now to see if we have availability for your childs party.

Feedback from visitors has been great-people love the fact that ours is an outdoor activity in a natural setting and I’m not sure who enjoys the pony decorating more, the children or the adults!! (Mums check out our ‘Mares Club’ > just for you!)

Ponycare this month-hair and feet!
Our ponies are rapidly losing most of their thick winter coat now, so that they’re not too warm in the hot Summer. The long coarse hairs have now gone from their necks but still remain on their tummys! Some of them change their coat colour slightly in the Summer-Jinny has a definite red tint to her winter coat, but her summer coat seems to be a rich black colour. My big horse has a chocolate summer coat, but a mahogany winter coat. The ponies try to get rid of their winter coat by rolling and wriggling around on the ground (sometimes in the mud!) or by rubbing themselves on gateposts and trees and sometimes us! They’ll stand for ages whilst we groom them with a curry comb-a brush with lots of plastic ‘teeth’ which helps to pull the hairs out-it doesn’t hurt! Recent visitors have seen how the hair just lifts out if when you groom them. In fact when they arrive the ponies are usually clean and I’m usually covered in horse hairs!
Our Shetland ponies (Jinny and Poppy) have the thickest winter coats and we find that a metal sheep comb the best for removing the hairs-it’s a piece of serrated metal bent in half with rubber grips at the end for the human to hold. Sounds rather dangerous but it’s not sharp and it does the job brilliantly!
The ponies are also (over) due to have their hooves trimmed this week. This has to be done about every 3 months. The blacksmith comes to us and removes the extra hoof with a sharp knife and trims the hoof into shape. This doesn’t hurt at all-it’s just like us having our nails trimmed. It has to be done otherwise the hooves become very long and sometime mis-shapen and this can mean the ponies walking awkwardly and causing damage to their feet and legs.

In the garden
We’ve got lots going in our garden and Orchard. Our Cherry tree blossom has nearly all gone, as has the pretty white plum tree blossom, but our pear tree is in full blossom at the moment and our 2 Magnolia trees are in full flower-pretty white with a hint of pink –unfortunately the flowers only last a few days. Our hawthorn hedge has ‘gone green’ now it’s new leaf growth has arrived. I still have around 80 hawthorn hedge plants from 250 I ordered in February that need planting-they should have been planted by now but are happily growing leaves in their temporary house in my muck heap!
We have some bluebells in flower at the moment and are awaiting the pale apple blossom, which should arrive very soon.

Native Ponies of Great Britain-Shetland ponies
Each month we’ll focus on one of our native breeds-ponies that have lived wild in the British Isles for hundreds of years. There aren’t many native pony breeds left but as Shetlands come from the Shetland islands to the North of Scotland, Welsh Mountains ponies come from Wales, Dartmoor ponies can still be seen living wild in the Dartmoor in Devon in the south of England, and the Connemara pony comes from Ireland. See if you can find all these places on this map.

The Shetland pony
Shetland ponies are thought to have lived on the Scottish islands for over 2000 years. They are the smallest native breed and are small because the Scottish islands are only tiny and didn’t have enough feed for large ponies or horses. They are extremely strong ponies and can carry a relatively large weight and even pull a carriage! They make ideal children’s ponies as they are quite quiet and very willing.
Horses and ponies are measured to their withers-their shoulder and Shetlands should not be over 40” approx 1m tall, with some being as small as 32”. They come in all sorts of colours but apparently spotted is not a true colour for a Shetland. Black is a very common colour for Shetlands.
We have 2 Shetlands, Poppy and Jinny who can be seen on our meet the ponies page ;
A great source of information and pictures is available on the Shetland pony stud book society site;

Ask Amanda
We try and mix in a bit of information about the ponies and what’s going on in the orchard when people visit but if you have a question you’d like me to answer just email me and I’ll do my best to answer!

Tips and Tricks
My tip for this month has GOT to be the sheep comb for removing winter hair from Shetlands!

Site Review
There are lots of informative and fun sites for pony lovers, a couple of which I’ve listed here;
The pony club uk-as well as having some useful information it does have some interactive pony games .
Another great fun site is fun4ponies, which aims to help children learn about ponies in a fun way. fun4ponies

Feedback
Good or bad, let us know what you think, or what you’d like us to include.

Letter
Got a letter you’d like us to publish or photo of you and/or a pony you’d like us to publish-just email it in and we’ll try and include it for publication. (please make sure the photo is not copyright).

Next month
We’ll be looking at pony colours-why not see if you can find the correct names for 10 different colours of ponies! Email us your answer and if you’re correct we’ll publish your name in the next newsletter!

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