@Wally following on from your thread the other day about the people swimming the horses on countryfile for the sake of ‘tv’, you’ll have no doubt seen whats on the One Show tonight?
On your thread I mentioned a previous episode where emma massingale took 2 unhandled highlands across the Highlands and backed them enroute. Everything Ive read is full of positivity and I do love the liberty work she does BUT to me it was an unacceptable risk to turn 2 ponies loose, in the dark at night in the middle of the Cairngorms They didn't even have trackers on! Oh yes it was all good and well that she found them close to camp in the end but so many things could have gone wrong. Everyone was amazed at how she was riding one of them bareback in a rope halter by the end. The majority of young highlands I know , even those that have had minimal handling, are the types you could clamber aboard and sit quietly on with very minimal input. (Brook excepted lol but thats what I thought I would get when I bought her).
So, tonight, she is taking 2 shetland ponies up to the Shetland Isles on a small motor boat, camps with them and tuns them loose with a herd up there. Wally Im guessing you must know about this? Nothing stays quiet in your neck of the woods.. will I be smiling at the TV this time? I have to admit Im already wondering why you would turn your ponies out with an established herd. Looking forward to seeing it !
On your thread I mentioned a previous episode where emma massingale took 2 unhandled highlands across the Highlands and backed them enroute. Everything Ive read is full of positivity and I do love the liberty work she does BUT to me it was an unacceptable risk to turn 2 ponies loose, in the dark at night in the middle of the Cairngorms They didn't even have trackers on! Oh yes it was all good and well that she found them close to camp in the end but so many things could have gone wrong. Everyone was amazed at how she was riding one of them bareback in a rope halter by the end. The majority of young highlands I know , even those that have had minimal handling, are the types you could clamber aboard and sit quietly on with very minimal input. (Brook excepted lol but thats what I thought I would get when I bought her).
So, tonight, she is taking 2 shetland ponies up to the Shetland Isles on a small motor boat, camps with them and tuns them loose with a herd up there. Wally Im guessing you must know about this? Nothing stays quiet in your neck of the woods.. will I be smiling at the TV this time? I have to admit Im already wondering why you would turn your ponies out with an established herd. Looking forward to seeing it !