MEET THE RESIDENTS

This blog is about the day to day stories of Tally the horse, Freddie the Shetland pony, and three goats (Hurst, Pierre and Point) who live together on a smallholding in West Sussex, UK. The stories will be interspersed with ideas from books that are relevant to the animal’s behaviour. My research interest is in social influence in humans and animals. 

TALLY

Tally, my 27 year old horse, and I have been together for 22 years. After 17 years of livery yards, I promised Tally that in his later years he would have the freedom to live out 24/7 in a peaceful but interesting environment. Five years ago (2018) I moved Tally to a delightful smallholding where he has his own shelter and fields to roam. There was only one problem – he only had goats and sheep to keep him company. Horses are social animals and generally like to hang out with other horses.

I bought Acrobat Talon (Tally) as a four year old. Some observations on his early life and behaviour are included in my ‘straight from the horses mind’ blog. 

Tally has radically changed colour since he first came to me as an

iron grey four year old and he is now almost pure white.We still call both colours grey! To a certain extent you can guess the approximate age of greys by the colour of their coat.

 Tally’s grandsire, Kalaglow, looks like he is about eight years old in the painting of him. 

Here is Tally at eight years old.

I still ride Tally across the surrounding fields, woods, rivers and South Downs of West Sussex. Our combined age is 99 years but I am by no means the oldest rider in the area!

FREDDIE

Freddie is a chestnut Shetland pony with a flaxen mane and tail. He will be 7 years old on April 16^th 2023. The picture shows him engaging in his favourite activity – eating! He was supposed to be playing with the black ball.

Freddie came to the smallholding in September 2018 from a farm shop where he lived with other Shetland ponies. He had not been handled and had never worn a head-collar. In order to get him to our smallholding he needed to be led a mile across country. We achieved this by leading Tally over to the farm and then Freddie followed Tally all the way back to his new home.

Here is Freddie being led along the lane near the smallholding by my eleven year old granddaughter. I have had lots of guidance from another smallholder who is an expert with Shetlands. You will notice he is leading from the shoulder – walking beside my granddaughter rather than being pulled along. This is important for when he has someone on his back.

As soon as Freddie arrived Tally settled down with his new companion and became less anxious. It is not natural for a horse to live a solitary life; horses are herd animals and their sense of security is achieved through close contact with other horses. Despite their difference in size Tally and Freddie still manage to groom each other – a natural and affiliative behaviour in horses. 

Freddie has a lovely nature and has become popular with all visitors to the smallholding. In the year he has been with us he has readily accepted a head collar, had a saddle on his back, is lunged every day and knows the commands for walk, trot, and stand. Freddie has also accepted a rubber bit in his mouth.

Meet Jumble

So the next step is to combine all this and put a small child on his back. But before that we need to try him with a large teddy bear (Jumble) on his back – a lot safer! 

PIERRE, HURST AND POINT

The three pygmy goats were residents of the smallholding long before Tally and I arrived in the early spring of 2018. The goats had been part of a petting zoo at a nearby school but they proved to be too scary for the children. The environment at the school was also less than stimulating for the goats, consisting of an enclosure with no hedges, climbable items or platforms. 

Here is their current environment complete with climbing frame, rocks, old trees, platforms and two shelters – goats do not like the rain!

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Goats are highly intelligent, very capable of escaping, and thoroughly enjoyable to have around.

Point (Mr. Greedy!)

Point is the greedy one and will readily butt the other two out of his way if there is food around.

Hurst (the adventurer!)

Hurst is the most timid but also the most intelligent one and is always finding new ways to get out of his enclosure and explore. Pierre is the most delicate of the three and can easily get stressed by things. All three have a great aversion to having their feet trimmed. Dear little Pierre died peacefully on 6th March 2023. He was definitely old as he had started to lose some teeth. This winter I had started to feed all three goats with sugar beet mixed with some hifi rather than their pygymy goats mix (which is harder to chew). 

Why the 'Inadvertent Smallholder'?

There were already other residents on the smallholding when Tally and I arrived early in 2018 – Hurst, Pierre and Point (the pygmy goats), two Nubian goats and six sheep. So although Tally didn’t have another horse to keep him company he had five goats in an adjacent field and six sheep in with him.

The owner made us very welcome and I thought we had found a haven in our later years. Sadly and unexpectedly, the lovely owner died within three months of Tally moving to the smallholding. The two Nubian goats went to an animal sanctuary (Nubian goats can jump over very high fences!) and the sheep went back to their owner. The widower asked me to take care of the place and of the three pygmy goats. Essentially, he said to treat the smallholding as my own.

My plan was to give my veteran horse a happy home in his later years. Inadvertently I became a smallholder with all the responsibilities inherent in that role e.g. fencing (more about that later). It was a steep learning curve!

Horses and goats socialising across the fence

A local farmer came up to show me how to trim the goats’ feet (another learning curve). The farmer had a small herd of miniature Shetland ponies and I asked him if he had one to spare? I needed a companion for Tally who no longer had the sheep to keep him company. This is how Freddie the Shetland pony ended up joining us on the smallholding.

I have discovered that fellow smallholders and farmers are incredibly kind and generous. More about that later.