Hello everyone,
I’m sure you can all imagine how busy it has been at Barton Field Farm this week, seeing as it is half term and sunny! We’ve had pony days, loaner/owner day and loads of extra lessons to keep us occupied all week. But it’s about to get even more exciting…
Today, someone from East Kent Pony Club is coming in to teach an ‘Introduction to Mounted Games’ session. For anyone who doesn’t know what mounted games is, it’s basically an opportunity for us ponies to gallop up and down the school as fast as we possibly can. It’s like the Olympic 100m final but with more hooves. Admittedly, you are supposed to pick things up and pass batons rather than just pelting up and down, but it is sometimes hard to remember to stop to collect a flag when you’re having so much fun! I’m otherwise engaged today, teaching one of the Pony Club groups but I’m a little bit jealous that everyone else gets to let their mane down and go mad!
I don’t know if everyone knows, but there is a huge rivalry between LC and Lucky. LC brags to everyone that he is the fastest pony at the yard but Lucky is very quick too and it’s hard to know who is the fastest. It’s a rivalry of epic proportions: imagine Murray versus Djokavic, Manchester United versus Manchester City, McDonalds versus Burger King. Every time anyone mentions that there will be some mounted games or race involved, Lucky and LC are up early every morning training hard for weeks. Imagine a scene from Rocky, but with Pablo operating a stopwatch and me shouting to LC to do another five laps of the field. Poor Lucky doesn’t really have a coach but Duke sometimes goes out for a run with him to give him someone to race against.
Mind you, we talk about LC versus Lucky but we’ve not really taken into account how fast Duke is. For those who didn’t know, Duke used to be a polo pony and trained for years in speed and agility to make him muscly and quick. Despite being old enough to be everyone’s grandfather, Duke has a serious turn of foot and can match LC and Lucky if he’s feeling it. I’m not really sure why the BBC aren’t televising such an epic battle of speed, especially when they show rubbish sports like dressage. It seems mad that we haven’t got a camera crew down at Barton Field Farm right now, preparing for the big race this afternoon with Clare Balding explaining the ins and outs of mounted games. It will be quite the spectacle!
I appreciate all the fan mail that is being sent via my press officer, but I always welcome more adoration and love.
Until next time,
Flitwick