This is Pumpkin, my 17-year-old, 11hh Shetland × Welsh mare. Pumpkin has been part of our family for six years now, and from the moment she arrived, we all fell completely in love with her.
Pumpkin was originally purchased as a lead-rein/first-ridden pony for my niece to learn to ride. It didn’t take long for us to realise just how much personality she had. I always say that what Pumpkin lacks in height, she certainly makes up for in attitude! In Pumpkin’s head, she is definitely 16.3hh. She is full of sass, incredibly opinionated and certainly likes to make her feelings known.
Around two years ago, I made the decision to retire Pumpkin from ridden work. It became clear that she simply wasn’t enjoying her job anymore. Whenever a child came near her, her ears would go back, and although she was never nasty, and never bucked or reared, I could tell she wasn’t happy. For me, that was enough. Pumpkin had given us so much, and I wanted her to enjoy life rather than continue doing something she no longer wanted to do.
Of course, retiring from ridden work didn’t mean Pumpkin was going to be allowed to sit in a field doing nothing! Although, if you asked her, she would probably be perfectly happy with that. She absolutely loves bossing my Irish Draught and young cob around and will regularly stand her ground against my Irish Draught, despite being a fraction of his size.
Three years ago, we attended our first show, where we qualified for Blair. That was the beginning of our love for showing. Since then, Pumpkin and I have had some fantastic successes, including qualifying for the Gossip Championship and the Caledonia Championship, as well as gaining two Reserve Championships at Fife Show this year.
Pumpkin has suffered from laminitis in the past and was diagnosed with EMS last year, so keeping her weight under control is extremely important. At just 11hh, and with me being 5ft 7in, ridden work obviously isn’t an option anymore, but that certainly doesn’t mean we have stopped having fun together.
We do in-hand pole work in the school, which also helps keep me fit, and we love going for in-hand hacks around the village and through the woods where she is stabled. We also continue to take part in lessons with Equiteam coach Liz Daniels, which I have found incredibly helpful. Liz encourages me to think outside the box and come up with different things we can do with Pumpkin.
We have now added long-lining to our list of activities, as well as working on different exercises to keep her fit, toned and happy. We also spend time working on things that can help us in the show ring, alongside different pole exercises to keep her mentally stimulated and physically active.
Pumpkin may be retired from ridden work, but she certainly isn’t retired from having a job. If anything, she has a busier social life than most horses!
Now that my wedding is out of the way and my trailer is finally fixed, we are really looking forward to getting back out and about. We can’t wait to get back to the beach and join in with some Equiteam camps.
Six years on, Pumpkin is still every bit as opinionated, sassy and larger-than-life as she was when she first arrived. She may only be 11hh, but in her mind, she will always be 16.3hh, and I wouldn’t have her any other way.
When Pumpkin and I started showing three years ago we just jumped in and went for it. I had no idea what I was doing had never watched any showing classes so made sure I wasn’t first in the ring so I could watch what everyone else was doing.
So my biggest piece of advice if you’re interested in giving showing a try, is to go and watch some in hand classes. Watch what people do, how they turnout their horses, how they present their horse for the judge and ask lots of questions (the Equiteam Connected group is a great place to do that).
I have found the showing community so helpful and friendly everyone talks to each other in the ring. I have made some really good friends through showing, we are all each other’s biggest cheerleaders.
Go for it have fun. Always smile.
Anne x
