CHAPTER 10

We moved one day at the end of September back to St. Florence where Mike and Del had bought the Parsonage Farm, right in the centre of the village. It was an old Georgian farmhouse which they modernised and made into a very successful farm guesthouse.

We took with us the small dairy herd of 20 cows, the sheep, goats, poultry and geese. It was a move made in one day with Mike milking the cows at Pendeilo in the morning and at the Parsonage in the afternoon.

I was quite pleased to be back with Sherry in the village and we soon got accustomed to giving rides to the visitors' children once again.

We were moved to a small paddock to eat off the grass for a neighbour, along with a young pony stallion who was only nine-months-old. He was nice and friendly and only about 11 hands high. We ran with him until the end of January when we returned home to our own fields at the Parsonage.

Unknown to Mike he had put me in foal and, although he had tried with Sherry, he had failed because she was too tall.

I started to put on weight in the Spring and Summer, but everyone thought I was getting 'grass fat' and I had no means of telling them otherwise.

Both me and Sherry had a busy time taking small children for rides, led sometimes by Michael, for many had never ridden before. It was a very hot Summer when the weather was perfect for going to the beach, but our visitors' children preferred to stay at the farm, go for rides, watch the cows being milked, feed the calves and collect eggs from the hens.

We must have gone around the village hundreds of times between May and October, so much so that I had to be shod more often than normal.

I was now 12 years of age and by the time Autumn arrived was pleased to have a rest and graze quietly in the paddock next to the house.

When Christmas arrived I knew that I was going to foal shortly, but no one seemed to have noticed. Mind you, I was very fit and looked a picture of health. My winter coat, though thick, was gleaming and I was bright of eye.

Every New Year's Day, the hunt meet at the Sun Inn, which is just across the road from the Parsonage, so early that morning Michael saddled me up so that we could attend the meet - just to see them off for a day's hunting.

That year there were over 80 riders turned up, including many youngsters on ponies of all sizes, for New Year was a popular social occasion in the village.

We all gathered in the car park awaiting 11 o'clock and the traditional Stirrup Cup from the landlord before the hounds drew off towards open country.

I was feeling decidedly uncomfortable and knew I was going to foal shortly. I could not keep still and my fidgeting was upsetting all the other horses who had I think sensed my condition. The master of hounds, being an experienced person, called Michael to one side "Take your pony home boy, she's unsettling everyone." Used to doing as he was told, he rode off and across the road home.

Removing my bridle, he put me in the stable while going to get the grooming kit. Before he had time to remove my saddle I foaled there and then, producing a beautiful little filly the same colour as myself! She stood up immediately, strong and perfect.

This created a great deal of interest, for to have a foal on New Year's Day produces an instant yearling. Many came to see her and she was called 'Twinkle' - because she was a twinkle in her mother's eye.

Twinkle grew up to be an almost perfect children's pony. She became about 12 hands and was well behaved from the start. Being reared in the stable, she was well handled early in life. She needed little breaking-in, and had spirit and liveliness passed on from her father.

She was with us for four years and believe it or not was put in foal accidentally by Jacky the donkey and so produced a beautiful mule, the colour of a Jersey cow with an almost curly coat. She was strong and powerful, not at all stubborn, and became easy to ride.

Both Twinkle and her daughter went to the local riding school and gave many years of good service. We were sorry to part with them, but both Michael and Mark were now too big to ride anything less than 14.2 hands and we were also running out of grazing land due to an increase in the number of cows and calves.

The Parsonage became a very popular farm guesthouse because Mike and Del ran it as a real small working farm with a wide variety of animals which the visitors could see and touch. Myself and Sherry were an important part of the business and we gave hundreds of children a holiday to remember.

We were their first real experience of close contact with animals and they learned to understand us and realise that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Many of those children went home and bought their own ponies and developed a long-lasting relationship with them. Some even grew up to attend agricultural college and became farmers.

Mike developed a flair for growing flowers and the Parsonage became nationally famous as 'The Floral Guesthouse of Wales'. When the producers of the Thames TV holiday programme 'Wish You Were Here' arrived and made a 10-minute feature about our home, Sherry and myself and all the animals were featured and the programme was seen over Britain, Europe and many other parts of the world.

We all enjoyed many happy years there until the time came for us to retire from active every day riding. By 1984, I was 20 years of age and Sherry was 15. We went out to grass on a beautiful eight-acre meadow not far from the village and there we are still at the beginning of 1992. I am now 28 and Sherry is 23. We are inseparable and enjoy a wonderful life surrounded by birds and trees and all the wildlife of the countryside.

Just about a year after we went to our field, the gate was left open and of course we wandered back to the Parsonage where we could hear the shouts of happy children playing. There in the yard was a little stallion which was being ridden by one of the local children. It was high Summer and I was in season. The little stallion put me in foal and, though now well into my 20s, I knew I would produce a lovely foal.

Everyone thought I was past foal bearing age, but they were wrong, for on August 31, 1986, at the height of a great storm in driving wind and rain causing chaos everywhere, I gave birth to a filly exactly like myself. She was called Daisy and now she has joined the horses and ponies at the local riding school.

With all my characteristics she is a perfect children's ride and when people see her they say "Look, another Twilight!"