I wrote recently about foraging for supplies to make some Christmas wreaths for my home, and when I was buying wire and such from a craft shop I noticed some jingle bells and couldn’t resist buying them.
I had them in the house just waiting for the right moment to have a little play with them and Diva (Melland Queen of Scots). When I opened my bedroom curtains one Sunday morning to see a covering of snow, I couldn’t get down to the yard fast enough with jingle bells in hand!
When I parked the car up I could see Charlotte and Erin had the same idea and Tilly the miniature Shetland pony was proudly wearing an elf outfit complete with hat.
Like a child, I jumped out of the car, yelling: “I have jingle bells!”
We decided that Tilly wouldn’t mind letting Diva play dress-up with her outfit. I got the stable chores done whilst Tilly was taken for a walk. When they returned to the barn we put the little fleece rug on Diva and then on went the hat to much chuckling. To complete the outfit I wrapped the jingle bells around Diva’s neck, after giving them a good jingle to make sure that she wasn’t bothered by the sound. As expected, Diva didn’t bat an eyelid at the noisy bells.
We carefully made our way to the arena as the yard was quite slippery. Diva again made me chuckle as she adjusted her stride, taking small steps to ensure she did not slip. Once in the school, as usual, off she went trotting and cantering about with no encouragement from us. Thankfully, despite the snow, she didn’t get down to roll.
Like all good Divas she had a change of outfit, but the reindeer antlers and red nose didn’t quite compare to the wonderful elf outfit.
Thank goodness I don’t have to put this little elf on a shelf!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.