© Dartmoor Pony Rescue Centre 2007
Pippin
Colour
Bay
Date Of Birth
June 2005
Sex
Male
Place of Birth
Widecombe-In-The-Moor, Dartmoor
Personality
Pippin is one of the biggest of our foals and along with his brother Merry likes to boss the other ponies around. He has a long fluffy coat that will keep him warm throughout the winter. He is getting quite brave around people now especially when its time for them to get their hay! He lets us give his nose a stroke now when he’s eating his hay!
Pippin will be staying with us permanently and will form part of our base herd. We hope that when we take on next years foals Pippin will be able to help give them some of the stability they’ll need. When Pippin is around four years old we will start getting him used to wearing a saddle and being ridden.
In the next few weeks Pippin will be starting his ‘education’ and this will involve learning to have a headcollar on, to be lead around, to be stroked and to pick all his feet up.
12/04/06
Pippin as you know is Merry’s brother, they are both from the same stallion but are certainly very different ponies! Pippin is a lot more timid than Merry though not around the other ponies when food is about!! He has started becoming quite a pig! He will allow us to stroke him and Janine put his headcollar on in the stable. Again it took a little bit of time and some hay as bribery but he was fine and looks very smart in it! He is still a little sensitive around the ear area as the farmer who originally bred him had a tag pierced through his ear.
20/12/06
Pippin has been quite a challenge for us and still is! He is very highly strung. He is very nervous and is easily scared by sudden movements so it has taken a lot of time to just get near him. Fortunately he loves his food so we have used this to our advantage. Firstly we had him on our enclosure with another older calmer pony so he would not feel scared being alone. We then let him have small handfuls of feed. To get this mouthful of feed he would have to touch a hand and let us stroke his head or neck. He soon learnt we weren’t going to hurt him and all he got was nice things like food and scratches. He will now les us catch him in the field so long as we approach him slowly and we are gradually getting there and building his confidence. Each day he trusts us a little more.
