About
Pixie & Pickles
We had Pixie and Pickles (half sisters) to keep my old retired horse company after her best friend and field companion died. The ponies would go for walks around the village with us at the weekends and during the lovely summer evenings.
My father went into a care home for some respite after being in hospital following a fall at home. The home allowed pets to visit so we took his and our dog to visit him, but he missed seeing Pixie and Pickles and spoke about them all the time to the care home staff. One day the staff asked if we could bring the ponies into the gardens to see my father and the other residents, which entailed them walking through the foyer of the home to get to the garden at the back.
The ponies had never been inside a building before, but we did it anyway and we were amazed at how both ponies coped on the tiled floors and how they loved being the centre of attention with the residents and my father. This visit was such a huge success and we realised how much pleasure these two Shetland ponies had brought to everyone that we tried a visit at another care home the next month and on that day it rained so heavily that we had to be indoors.
Pixie and Pickles walked around the ground floor popping into the residents rooms and seeing them in bed. The visit went so well and the staff asked us if the ponies could visit someone who was very sick and in bed but her room was on the third floor, which meant using the lifts to get the ponies to her. Again, having never been in a lift, we tried and up the ponies went, visited the lady in bed and then travelled down in the lift again as though they did this every day.
Once we realised that they would travel happily in the lifts (Pickles always likes to face the mirror if there is one in the lift and looks at herself all the time she is travelling up and down) we decided to start the business so everyone who wanted the opportunity to see a small trained therapy pony indoors or outside could. We passed the local authority Licencing regulations and our Pixie and Pickles Therapy Pony business grew from strength to strength. We visit SEN schools and Refuges as well as care homes and private individual home visits. Pickles is exceptional with poorly or very ill people. She is unbelievably kind and sensitive when interacting with them, knowing just how much pony love to give and often has to manoeuvre into tiny bedrooms which she does so easily to ensure she can get as close as possible to the person she is visiting.
We now have 7 therapy ponies with people regularly asking if we would like to have their Shetland ponies to train and have in our business which must prove we are doing things right, the ponies are happy and we have a great reputation.
The ponies are always met by happy, smiling people and everyone just wants to cuddle, stroke, kiss or hug them which the ponies adore too.
Information about The Shetland Pony
The Shetland pony is a Scottish breed of pony originating in the Shetland Isles in the north of Scotland and are believed to be the smallest and oldest ponies in existence. The harsh climate and scarce food developed the ponies into extremely hardy animals.
They range in height from 70cm (28 inches) to 107cm (42 inches). They have small heads, widely spaced eyes and small alert ears. The breed has a short muscular neck, a compact stocky body, short strong legs and a short broad back. They have long, thick manes and tails and grow a dense double winter coat to withstand the harsh weathers.
They were used by crofters to pull carts of peat and plough the land in the Shetland Isles. They eat weeds and poor quality grass and even ate seaweed that washed up on the beaches to get nutrients and minerals.
In the mid 1800’s the ponies were used in the underground mines once the use of children and women was outlawed. The ponies rarely saw daylight and had a hard life. They stopped being used in the mines in the late 1960s.
Shetland ponies are generally gentle, good tempered and intelligent by nature. They can be very opinionated or ‘cheeky’. For their size, the Shetland is the strongest of all horse and pony breeds. They can pull twice their own weight (a draught horse can only pull approximately half its own weight).
They can live more than 30 years but they have to watch their weight, as being so small means they are prone to laminitis (a painful and crippling disease of the hoof wall that can be fatal).