Day 1 of Project Peppercorn: Having not left the farm in over 6mths (except for absolute essentials) because of the 2020 Global Pandemic and having had everything delivered that we could so we didn’t need to leave for day to day things, on the 26th August 2020 I went out shopping to treat myself. What did I buy? Shoes? Handbag? No, silly, a Project Pony!!
Introducing Afon Peppercorn.
AKA Pepper
Vital Statistics
D.o.B April 2011
Breed: Appaloosa x New Forest Pony
Height: 14:2hh*
Sire: White Lightning
White Lightning was a registered ‘few spot’ with the Appaloosa Horse Club UK (ApHC)UK
Dam: Afon Baytime Girl
Baytime Girl was a home bred New Forest Mare and a real favourite of her owners, with a lovely nature.
Afon Peppercorn was registered to the British Spotted Pony Society in early 2021.
History: Born and bred in SE England, he stayed with his loving owner until the day he came to us. His education was never started at the ‘usual’ age of 3 or 4 due to complications in his owner’s life. So, he lived very happily in his herd, having all of his cares and needs tended to. Then in mid-June 2020, his owner brought him in, away from the herd with the intention of training him. But there were a lot of distractions and a little was done with him but nothing of real momentum to get him up to a riding horse.
When he came to us it was with the complete understanding that his formal training would need to start from scratch, building up to backing and beyond. Which is exactly what we’ve done by trying him moving forward at a pace he’s comfortable with.
What an amazing boy!! We started with a little in hand work to see where his previous education had got to and, after a while, when I pushed him away from me a little he popped out onto a circle and started a beautiful trot. After that, a quick measure up in the stable and found a saddle that fits, yeah!! Then finally, time out in the field, saying ‘hi’ to his new friends. Bless him!!!
I do have a little video of his amazing lunging below, which I wouldn’t always do so soon into a horse’s training but, since he offered it yesterday, I asked for it today and he happily gave a lovely lunge. I also did a little ‘leaning’ over the saddle and ‘banging’ on him and his saddle, which didn’t phase him at all. After which he was turned out with his new field buddy and we’ve got some lovely mutual grooming. Needless to say, he was a superstar today and I think we are both enjoying our time together.
Such an exciting day for Pepper as this was his first time going into the woods. He’s been so chilled and relaxed about everything to date I felt a little walk in the woods with the ‘Big Boys’ might be a great adventure for him. He was a superstar, he was a little ‘looky’ for about the first 150yds and then just relaxed and enjoyed the walk. See for yourself
To ensure this superb boy knows what to do when a rider is asking him to turn or stop we’re doing some long reining. He started out a little nervous by having someone behind him but now he’s really taking it in his stride.
Before he does much ridden work, we’re going to need shoes. Since he’s never had shoes on before, we’re starting with a cold shoe and our amazing farrier was super quick getting it put on. See here
We’re going to start his riding slowly to ensure we minimise any risk to me or my groom. Such a big heart in this little boy.
Watch a full training session which includes Pepper going over a couple of trotting poles.
Finally Pepper and I get to go out into the woods; such a joy!!
Argh!! Can’t believe our bad luck. Poor Pepper has managed to cut his leg in a mystery field injury and this is the first 4 weeks of his recovery. Luckily, even though the wound looked bad when he initially did it, his recovery has surpassed the vet’s expectations. See the progress below from the initial cut, to the stitches the vet put in, 2 weeks after, then 3 weeks after and then finally week 4. Today you can’t even tell he’d had the injury as he is completely recovered.
Since cutting his leg, Pepper has gone from strength to strength, becoming an amazing riding and (more importantly) jumping horse. Check him out hacking: such a solid boy who is lovely and forward.
And his jumping is superb!!! Just watch him go.
He’s great in everyway and has the approval of our Farrier who called him “A very calm boy”. High praise indeed from a farrier 😉 Anyway, this was him during his last shoeing. He now hot shod all round.
More of Pepper’s firsts:
In giving Pepper a great rounded education, we need to ensure he can travel safely away and behave whilst away from his home farm. We started in Nov 2020 with trailer training. That way we would know that when we ask him to go into a trailer he will. And now it’s time to go out for a clinic – so we went to his very first clinic in May 2021. It was a mini XC clinic, aimed at green horses or green riders alike; with super tiny fences at only 30-50cm’s. These would be great confidence giver for our fabulous boy Pepper. Please watch the vid clip below and understand how calm and sensible he was from having been feral a few months ago.
Carrying on from the great success of the above clinic, we went out to our local cross country schooling park and had a play. He continues to surprise and amaze us all with his exceptional scope. I will state that for his first time he did have a look at a couple of the jumps and the ditch but after his first look he’s great at taking a huge leap. Check out the compilation below…
For more of his Likes and Dislikes please see his Essential Information page HERE
We can ideally see him being suited to a new home where he will continue his training to become the amazing competition horse we can so easily see today. He would suit a competition teen or small adult for any PC or RC type activities. Due to him still being green (despite his age) we wouldn’t class him as a novice horse. In addition, he is fairly forward going, thus suiting the more experienced rider.
Please Contact Us if you want any further information, thank you for reading 
*Peppers height is not certified; rider shown and leading in all videos is 5’8″ and 10.5st.