New Arrival!

Welcome Francis to our little family.
I'm so happy to share a little about Toots new field companion.  
In the short time she's been here, Francis has already shown so much of her wonderful little character.

She settled in well and it wasn't long before the two of them were side by side. 

This is a short episode explaining how Francis came my way and what happened when she arrived.  

I'm so happy for Toots,  she finally has a field companion once again, as I know she missed her dear old  field family member (as do I) but she will never be forgotten.
Sweet lady Onyx . . . forever in our hearts.  

Video version (alongside applicable podcasts) can be viewed on facebook and YouTube.
https://www.facebook.com/equinevoices.co.uk
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Contact Ronnie.
mailto:equinevoicesronnie@gmail.com

Transcript

Ronnie: 0:11

Good afternoon. I hope you've been enjoying the beautiful weather. It's been really, really hot, sunny and dry. I'm just sat outside in my paddock, listening to the birds. There was loads of starlings in the trees and they were singing away and then all of a sudden they just stopped, it was like a deadly silence and that always reminds me of winter. In the afternoon round about two, three o'clock time, they'll do the same thing, they're in the trees singing away, lots and lots of chatter and then it just stops. Usually as the suns fading in wintertime, it just remind me of that. I don't know why, but it just did. I hope everybody's well. So today's podcast is about new arrivals and I'm so excited to share that I have a new companion for Toots her name is Francis and she's settled in like a dream she's so adorable. She just wants to be with you. She's 11 years old and she's a Welsh section D and she's 14 hands, a good 14 hands and bless her when she arrived, she arrived on a huge, huge lorry that goes up and down from Scotland to England every week, so her journey was split up, she had two rest places. So she came across the border, stayed in this side of Scotland for the weekend. And then she traveled to new market and she stayed there and then she came here and this was all included in the travel cost, which I thought was pretty reasonable considering the journey. Anyway, this huge lo rry bigger than a double Decker bus could not get down the 90 degree bends, he couldn't get down. So he rang me to say I can't get down the lane, you're gonna have to come and walk your horse. I was like, what? So I hadn't met Francis. I decided on my tuition and everything that came before that she was the right horse and she definitely is, definitely is but I hadn't met her in person. So I was like, oh my goodness, panic stations and then I thought, what the heck am I gonna do? So my friend that I rent my paddock off said, right let's go and get her and we'll walk her, so we guided the lorry driver, to the nearest public and then we drove up there and asked if he could come into their car park, which they kindly said yes, we offloaded her and we walked her back and she was a little bit sweaty but she was next to a thorough bread that was quite stressed so apart from that she got off and we walked her for 20 minutes, yeah, about 20 minutes walking and she did really well. She met cyclists, sheep, a few cars, and she just did really well, bless her. So in those 20 minutes, it showed me so much of her character that I would not have seen if she'd literally come off the lorry straight into the field. I might have hesitated with a few things but because of that I thought bless her you know she's more than I imagined. And since she's been here I get them separate for a few days. Toots looked up and then she came into season to see and came squirting next to her just to say, I'm a female I'm here but everybody else, the ponies next door were fine. And then I think it was about two or three days later, I decided to introduce them and I was gonna get a head collar, just do it slowly but I thought, no, just open the gate and in she came. Toots was eating hay and Francis went up but she didn't go up to Toots, she went to the other horse to say hi. So she did the right thing, she actually looked away from Toots she didn't give her a confrontational look, she went to the other pony to say hello and allowed Toots to invite her back, which she did but she told her, no this is my hay in a nice bit firm way. I was so proud of them, all of them, it was so lovely, there was no drama, it was really, really lovely and since then I've got to know her a little bit more. She's been here for a few weeks now. She loves company, She. she loves company, she's been lightly backed so although she's 11, I think she's lived on the Hills. And I know she's been lightly backed. I haven't really gone back to the previous owners and asked exactly what have you done. I was going to, then I thought actually, no, I'm just gonna judge it on what she presents to me. So I'm just taking everything slowly. I've I've put a head collar on her and a bareback pad and I've lent over her, but her aids, so to ask her to turn on the ground, there's not a lot there. So compared to Toots is very sensitive. trained is a quarter horse and she is Western train. It's very much light touch you ask and then you allow them to move. So she's very light the touch in lots of ways. Whereas Francis there's nothing there. She's not understanding what you're asking, she's bracing against it. So I'm gonna take things really slowly or at her pace, rather, at her pace, but she's so inquisitive, she wants to be there. She investigates which is lovely and her character's so good. Yeah. I'm so pleased beyond pleased how she's just slotted in. It feels like she's been here age. It feels comfortable and I'm so pleased for Toots to have company in her paddock and they groom each other, which is lovely to see. And although she got to groom her field companion that was at the either side of her, it was through a gap, it was through, a shelter where the top part was open. So they groomed each of the necks, but she can actually groom all over, which is lovely. I'm so pleased, so pleased but it is quite funny watching the dynamics, francis is just becoming a little bit comfortable with how she's say things. So she still listens Toots but Toots, when she walks off, sometimes she swaggers if to say I'm doing this, she look quite opinionated yeah, but she's not nasty or anything and I can feed them together, which is lovely, I can feed them together. Toots has always been a good that. Yeah, her own character is coming out a little bit, a little bit more and two it's walked off the day cuz she has a fly mask on and the FL are really bad at the minute, but sometimes she doesn't want it, but it does depend how I approach it. If I just go in and literally it's almost like, hang on a minute, can you just ask me, which you know, fair enough and she'll walk off and I think, okay, that's fine your choice and then I put Francis on and then she'll stand there and I'll go, right and she lets me put the flying mask on then. But what she does is she rounds up Francis to move her on, to come with her. She's like, come on Francis, we're going. So I call Francis back Francis comes and she almost looks, oh, she's meant to follow me. she stands there. It's really funny, the dynamics, how they interact with each other. And obviously I'm putting my interpretation on this, you know, it might not quite be that way, but she just looks at you to say, She's meant to follow my orders cause you know, I'm in charge, yeah it's lovely to see it's lovely to see. From day one, Francis has been really good with flame mask and I don't know whether she's had one on before. I know she is green and when they say lightly, that's what they said lightly, you know, they say it wouldn't take much cuz of personality but you can see that in her Bless I gave her a shower when it was really hot. I gave them both the hose down and toots you can just spray she's fine. Frances was okay and if it hadn't have been so hot, I would've probably backed off just on the front because I could see she was getting a little bit, oh I'm not sure about this, but she stood there and she got a bit fidgety and I should have stopped, but I thought actually, I just need to cool you down. It's so hot when we have the two really hot days. So I won't do that next time. I'll just do what she's okay with and that's fine, that's fine. But I wanted to share that. I thought, okay. I'll share about my new arrival. So it's exciting. I've taken them out for a little walk and I thought, well, Toots has a companions next door. So when I take Francis out they'll be okay, you know, they've got company and I took toots out for five, 10 minutes brought it back and then took Francis out but oh no, everybody were like, where's she going? Oh my goodness. So that's what I'll be doing when they go out. It'll be just a few minutes, so then know they're coming back, till get used to it. Her companion next door she goes out, Toots does the same thing. She has the Shetlands, but she still calls for Maggie, not a mad call. She's calling her where are you? But she still carries on eating. This is all new to me having two ponies I know twos and I know physically and I, I know her moods. I know things about her Francis is a new book and although I know quite a lot already by what she's shown me and what she's shared. it's still a new adventure physically she's so different. She's chunkier, some of that's breeding, but I need to make sure that actually is that part of a breeding or do I have to watch her weight? So it's lots of things to think about lots of things, but I'm not gonna stress about it. The main thing is they all got on and she fitted in. But also she was happy here and Toots was happy with her. That was my main thing. You know, I don't want to sacrifice one animal's mindset for another one and I wanted them both to be okay with each other, that was really important. Really, really important. And that's what I've got. So I'm more than happy and she's shown me so much more that I didn't ask for that wouldn't have thought about yeah. So she's a lovely, lovely little mare and she's just open she's inquisitive. So she's a bit green, but she's very inquisitive and she just want to be with you, which she's lovely. Whereas Toots sometimes can be a bit aloof, but that's fine. That's probably because of of me a lot of the times in the past. So we're talking about your tubes. she's got one year hanging out of her flying mask. Yes. So I thought share that exciting news, but how she came about is just as exciting, just as exciting. So when I was looking for a companion, I was looking for maybe a rescue pony, and I'd looked online at the usual places to see if there's anything suitable but most of them was either thoroughbreds or something that you couldn't ride and I do want to ride, I do want to ride, I miss that yeah, so there was nothing suitable and I'd been looking for a while. Then I sent some messages out to people I'd come across on facebook and one of the places was in, Invernesse where Francis came from and it was a treking center where they'd take people about treking and holidays and things. I asked if they had any horses that they knew about that was maybe semi-retired, I told him what I was looking for companion and also to ride, but nothing heavy, just trecking and I'd also applied for a rehabilitated racehorse because they don't just get racehorses. They do get all the horses as well sometimes. So I was somebody said to me, why don't you try then? And I thought, okay, I don't really want to thorough bread. I love thorough breads, but I don't want to thoroughbred but I'll fill in the form. So I filled in the form cuz to me, what I was saying is to the universe, okay I'm open now to receive, this is what I'm looking for. So I filled in the form and I think they had it for a few months and I said, oh, is it at all order? Cuz of what I asked for? And they said, well, we do get them from time to time so we'll keep you posted. We have nothing at the minute. Then they close their applications ready for the new arrivals in March. New registrations and they sent me an email saying, we close your application. We haven't got anything at this minute. If you want to reregister, please do so. And literally within a few hours later, I got an email from the trecking center in, inverness saying we have a pony that we're just about to advertise don't know what you're looking for but hear the details. So I said can you send me some photographs in the video? So they sent me a video and she had the most sweetest face and I thought she's got such a kind eye. So they gave me the price and I thought, well, I wasn't looking at buying, I was looking at doing rescue, which is a smaller fee. I wasn't looking at buying so I wrote back as said, look, you know, I really like the look at her. She sounds lovely. However, I'm not in a position at this moment to proceed and sort of explain and I said, that's fine if you change your mind, get back in touch with us. So she was on my mind most days, splitted in and out and I think it was probably two or three months later, two months later and something prompted me to say, ask them again and see if they'll come to an agreement. So I thought, okay, so this is what I did. I messaged them and said, my position hasn't changed. However, would you be up to an agreement of some sort, an arrangement? And to my delight, they replied straight away, the agreement they offered, I still could not do. So I said, I still can't do that, but would you agree to this? And they came back and said, yes. And I thought, okay, this is universe saying, this is an opportunity. This is what you've asked for are you going to say yes. So I said, yes, I said, yes. And it's all worked out. It's all worked out. Even with a few curve balls, coming my way, it's worked out beyond my dreams. So why am I telling you that part? Because at that moment I was not set up financially or either way, for entertaining, another animal. But from opening, the doorways opportunities came along, an opportunity came along, it's like, everything's been laid out, everything I've asked for consciously or unconsciously is there it's being presented to me. So what do you do with it? Do you say no, thank you. Not today. I miss that opportunity or do you say yes? And I said, yes. So that's why I'm sharing this story because I didn't wait for the right opportunity, I didn't wait for the finances to be there. I said, yes. And everything else fell into place. So if there's something you want in life, don't wait for the right time. The right time is whenever you want it to be it's now don't allow what you don't have to stop what's available. If we just trust what we see we're missing so much. I trusted my intuition, I trusted what I felt, even though if I said that to somebody else they'd say well, how are you gonna make that happen? You know, that's the doubting thomas and the thing is when you work that way, You don't have visual proof of it's gonna work out okay untill it's actually happened. You just have to trust that it will, and it does more often than not it does. There might be a, a tweak or a variation of what you thought it was gonna be. But actually most of the things are turning out even more than I could imagine. They're turning out better. So if you get the chance and you get an opportunity, say yes, you can always change your mind later, but say, yes, don't close the door before you've had time to open it fully and see what's there okay. But you have to take a leap of faith. You have to believe because it's not always tangible. It's not always what you see in the physical. If you're waiting for that, you'll be chasing it sometimes you're chasing it always. It's like, tomorrow's gonna be a better day, tomorrow will always be tomorrow, it will never be today. You have to say, today is the day and I'm saying, yes, I'm saying yes to this opportunity. So that's why I'm showing that part of the story, it's important because if I hadn't taken that chance, then what I truly wanted in my heart. That part would not have happened and I'd always be thinking, what if it's also show me about other things that I want in my life. So that's why I'm sharing about Francis and how she came about coming here and I'm excited for the next part of our journey as a little family, I'm excited for them. I'm excited for me. So I hope that life is treating you well and I hope you're having fun with your horses and just enjoying being whatever it is you're doing at this time. So excited, excited. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate your time and I wish you all the best. Take care, speak soon and bye for now.