[Hardfeather]

Would anyone here be interested in a working pony course if one were available? It would aim to cover the preparation and training of ponies for work such as timber haulage, farm/croft/smallholding work, pack work, and pleasure driving. The idea was mooted by some Highland pony enthusiasts, but I wondered if the opportunity may be extended to others.

It would be held somewhere fairly central in Scotland, either several dates over a few weeks/months, or over a weekend, and would include tuition and demonstrations on tack/harness/equipment, and hands on experience, with practitioners from various relevent areas.

If anyone has any input, I'd be pleased to hear.

[lachlanandmarcus]

I would definitely be interested. We've 40 acres and tho we have a tractor, I cant get to grips with it and the machinery and would far prefer to use horsepower for some lighter tasks like harrowing and light haulage.

Have a Haflinger tho whether I would keep her for riding and get something specific for the farm Im not sure.

The only thing is its hard to get away from the farm so the nearer to Aberdeenshire the better :-))))) P

Great idea, the nearest place I know that does this is the Dales pony place in N England! 

[Rosemary]

Yes, definitely. I'd even offer Smokey and Wee B as demo ponies!!

[Roxy]

I would be interested if not hundreds of miles away!!  Our Dales driving ponies pull the chain harrows (small ones) but would love to get them doing more work round the farm.

The Dales Pony centre have the snigging ponies, run by Charlie Parker.  That would be handy if ours could do snigging and pull the big heavy logs around for us.

[smallholder in the city]

I would be interested.
I am hundreds of miles away but depending on where and when might be able to attend ,we usually go up to Scotland at least once a year. Anything that persuades my husband we need a horse /pony on our future smallholding and it would earn its keep.   

[egglady]

i too would be interested, very interested.  we live in Fife with a few acres - some that need ploughed.  i also have 3 suitable horses (2 cobs and an icelandic {my pals but think she'd be interested}) and can offer some accomodation so happy to offer our place potentially.

also depends on cost for us

[ellisr]

I have always wanted a working horse as my grandpa had working shires when I was little an it was a much nicer pace of farming. I am in somerset so a bit far but it would be nice to go back up north again

[Rosemary]

Hey, we have airports and railways in Scotland now so you can come from far afield!! We have the lectric any everything now. 

[knightquest]

Hey, we have airports and railways in Scotland now so you can come from far afield!! We have the lectric any everything now. 

Blimey, when did you get the leccy then?

That's a joke by the way 

Ian

[doganjo]

I would be interested too, but not from the point of view of being able to put knowledge into use afterwards so if the places are limited and I'd be keeping someone out just say.

[Roxy]

   Yes, the way we are talking about being hundreds of miles away, you would think we were expected to walk to Scotland, when in reality we can get on a train or plain!!!

[Hardfeather]

Well that's a good response. Watch this space.

[Rosemary]

I've asked Carol to circulate it round CSSA, since some of the members aren't on TAS (believe it or not!). I'll ask the local RBST coordinator if he'll put it round RBST Caledonian members too.

[Hardfeather]

Excellent. I can't tell you much more at the moment as there is much to do to bring this about. As soon as I hear of any developments, I'll post in the horse section here. 

[Rosemary]

If I can help at all, I'm happy to.