Dear Freddie, our miniature Shetland pony, experienced a bit of drama in his life recently Up until the events I am about to describe I had high hopes of Freddie pulling a little carriage up Furners Lane.
Freddie is now nearly six years old and he came to join us at Two Hoots Paddocks in September 2018 when he was two. The idea was that he would be a companion for Tally my old horse who is now 26 years old. This worked better than I expected as Tally was completely besotted with Freddie - so much so that whenever Freddie was taken away from the paddocks even for a short space of time Tally would get quite upset.
We tried to solve this problem by getting another Shetland to keep Tally company while Freddie went out to do some carriage training. Buddy (the black Shetland) came to join us in December 2020 but sadly it didn't solve the problem as Tally still got upset when Freddie left the paddocks. Here are Tally, Buddy and Freddie chilling out in August 2021.
Tally got on okay with Buddy as can be seen from them grooming each other. But Freddie was still the main focus of Tally's attention. So Buddy went back home and Tally and Freddie continued as always with Tally fussing and whinnying every time Freddie went out for his training. But usually Tally would calm down and had stopped whinnying by the time Freddie and I returned from our outing.
One day in January 2022 I took Freddie down the lane on long reins for training. His carriage had arrived and we were looking forward to harnessing him to it during the next few months. Freddie was behaving very well and would walk quietly past lorries and cars without hesitation. I had high hopes that before much longer Freddie would be trotting gaily down our country lane with his little carriage.
But on this fateful day in January everything fell apart. Freddie walked willingly along the lane ahead of me on long rein. He was happy to be going out - Tally was less happy being left behind. Freddie walked past some men who were putting in gate posts and I stopped him to have a look at what was going on. It is always good to desensitize a pony to any loud noises. We could hear Tally whinnying once in a while from the paddocks but he didn't sound too upset. Freddie had started to walk past the men banging in the gate posts when we saw a lorry coming towards us from the top of the hill. This is when things started to unravel.
I turned Freddie around to go back down the hill, out of the way of the lorry. But just at that moment the men with the gate posts started to make loud, explosive noises as they banged in the posts. Freddie was too frightened of these sudden noises to walk back down the hill but the lorry was slowly driving towards us from behind. Poor Freddie had held it together as long as he could then he just panicked! There is no holding a strong little Shetland pony when they bolt and this is what Freddie did. He shot up the steep bank at the side of the track, climbed high and then disappeared behind the lorry.
I set off in pursuit and as I ran past the lorry the driver asked 'Everything okay luv?' 'NO!!' I shrieked. It seems because of Freddie's small size lorry drivers tend to see him as some sort of dog. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Freddie is a prey animal not a predator like a dog he will spook and run if something scares him and this is just what he did.
Tally heard the commotion as Freddie was whinnying as he galloped across the field by the lane. Tally then started whinnying hysterically and galloping round and round the field. I could see Freddie racing across the wide open field with his long reins flapping and knew that he was terrified. I couldn't catch up with him so phoned a few people for help to cut him off before he reached the main road. I then went searching. A dog walker was certain that she had seen Freddie in a field with some other horses. I headed towards the field. And there was Freddie. No two Freddies! No three Freddies! And none of these 'Freddie look alikes' had any harness on. I was confused then realised that these three ponies almost identical to Freddie were his brothers and sisters from his old home.
I pressed on still looking for Freddie and came to a field with two horses who were obviously fascinated by something by the fence on the far side of the field. I was sure that this was Freddie and hurried over. But by the time I got there Freddie had disappeared. Then I was phoned with some news - Freddie was trotting down the A281 towards the roundabout and Henfield High Street! The next news was better - a sensible horse person had managed to catch Freddie and someone offered me a lift to where he was being held. Freddie was over on the North side of Henfield Common and safe. His long reins had been tied up so he hadn't got entangled in them.
I started leading Freddie towards home. He seemed quite calm - probably relieved to be with someone familiar. I was just about to cross the A281 with Freddie when a man stopped us to tell me that he had caught Freddie earlier (when the two horses were standing by the fence), he told me that he had tied up Freddie's long reins and then "I just let him go again as there was no-one around"!! This was just as I was walking across the fields towards Freddie. Thank goodness Freddie wasn't hurt or even killed on that fast A281 - the speed limit there was 50 miles per hour! This man having told me about letting Freddie go again then looked at me expectantly. I was speechless - surely he wasn't waiting to be thanked?
The whole incident with Freddie was really unfortunate on many levels. Dear neurotic old Tally was besides himself when we arrived back at the paddocks; he was more sweated up than Freddie. Since that day Tally cannot bear for Freddie to be out of his sight for even a second. The incident with the lorry made me realise that my dream of driving little Freddie with his lovely new carriage down Furners Lane is shattered! If we had been driving that day, Freddie would definitely have overturned the carriage. In the year since I started training Freddie the number of lorries on Furners Lane has increased exponentially - I cannot guarantee that Freddie won't meet a lorry on the narrow lane where we have no space to turn round.
Freddie will be doing something in the coming year - he still has his saddle perhaps he can get used to carrying children on his back. And he can still enjoy going round obstacle courses on long rein. Another thought is that I may take him out by leading him while I ride Tally. This is a possibility if the lorry drivers we meet can behave in a responsible way; they generally do when I am riding Tally as he is a lot bigger than Freddie!
Sometimes with horses (and ponies) you just have to accept that something is not going to happen. I do believe that Freddie would have enjoyed trotting down quiet country lanes pulling his little carriage but his safety will always come first so I am giving up on that particular dream.
