Happy New Year 2014!

First:

And todays "fun":

So today we got snow so driving a pair is out of question again due to too slippery wheels on the pair carrige. I thought then that it is time to try to drive the same ponies in tandem as we have tried it long reining already. Well it did not quite work as expected - first Ivanhoe was the leading pony but lazy as... a shetland can be. Paulette was energetic and almost bumping into Ivanhoe. Sooo we took off all harnesses and change position of the ponies and what happens, suddenly Paulette became the lazy one and Ivanhoe energetic. Neither one of them would have moved properly as the leader if my husband had not been leading as if the position suddenly made them forget the meaning of "forward" Summa summarum - no more tandem for me thank you I'll be perfectly happy with a normal pair... Shetlands <3

Christmas fun

Today we packed Ivanhoe&tack in our van and drove to the medievel church in Kokkola as there was a Christmas market and we had been asked to give some pony driving for kids. It was fun as both me and Ivanhoe had our elfbeanies on and children told their Christmas present wishes for us. Of course we promised with Ivanhoe to tell their wishes forwards to Santa Claus!

Becoming a driving pony!

Oh my! Did not think really that our "little boys" Topi and Vergu will turn 2 years soon! So I have to add them to the wannabe driving ponies-page too don't you think?! Well, they took their first baby step towards driving in the weekend and tasted bits :) As one would guess the bit bothered them a bit ;) but still they behaved nicely and we went for a short walk leading as well. Here photos of the guys:

This is THORIN AX, yearling colt by our stallion Verano Lee v.d. Zandkamp and dam our mare Swinghill's Paulette. Thorin was the best yearling colt of all shown yearling Shetland Pony colts this year at official shows!

This is DUNEDAIN AX, sire Verano and dam Dalia, Dalia is the mother of Swinghill's Paulette, too, so these boys have the same maternal bloodline, too.

Though these boys are realtives both from their fathers and mothers side, they are quite different personalities. Thorin is more energetic and thinks he is a great stallion (except when he meets Verano, then he is the smallest creature in the world :D ), Dunedain is as cool and caaaaalm as you can get.

You will probably notice the strange choose of first bit if you look at the photo of Dunedain. Well I always use straight iron bits as first bits and this happened to be small enough for these guys, though it is a bit I only use with Verano at breed shows. Well in fact, the bit is not totally straight, it is a bit curved which is just what it should be to fit in an organic mouth. Often normal straight bits are too thick for shetland ponies small mouths and very often very straight. Many bitmakers tend to make them just a shorter version of horse bits not thinking of that it should be thinner too. I never use rubber bits in the beginning though I know most people do, I think they make the same reaction as a snaffle bit would do, the foal just starts playing with the bit. I just think it is better to use straight away a normal, a bit bended straight and thin iron bit so that it just stays at its place in the mouth though the foal would try to play with it with the tongue or chew it. With rubber the try to chew it as it is fun to do with a soft bit and with snaffles they start playing with the tongue. It is just unnecessary and pointless to let them play with the bit in the beginning as we wish them to accept the bit, it is much easier and faster to learn them to have the bit in the mouth with a simple straight bit - and it is the one I will be driving them with, too. Then when they are more driven and we move forward to learn more about driving it it time to change to driving bits as liverpool or butterfly - but always straight there too, never ever snaffle.