Faerie the Pony

She is on a RAMPAGE currently, as she recently figured out how to open fences. One morning (at 6 AM, mind), I drive my car up the driveway, look to my right, and see her just standing there.

Need I remind myself yet again that I bought the same breed and colour as Merrylegs here? Because I did do that while having full awareness that I was doing it.

Also, apparently Welsh ponies are smarter than Shetland ponies. From what I can tell from experience with Florette vs Faerie, Shetland ponies escape for themselves – Welsh ponies are just chaos dragons who free the whole entire herd, like how Fae also walks through wires until they snap to open up closed sections of her pasture for everyone.

We've been training with treats for a while, and today she decided I could spray her completely without making a fuss.

Also, I was told by our stable owner that while she was cooling Fae's bff, she sprayed Fae with water several times, and it turns out she likes this too.

Fae is about the same height as a ballet barre (she's lower than the top bar) and this has become a huge issue for her since her human discovered she can do this without effort.

If she does not stop, Fae will steal her socks like she stole her shoe. (This is actually why this happened – Fae was in the process of stealing a shoe and investigating if her human was broken while she was doing splits. Results: inconclusive.)

Fae has a lipoma on her nose (of whatever this fat lump might be referred to in English). It's completely harmless and doesn't hurt her, and apparently they're relatively common in Welsh ponies.

She had this when I bought her last year. Her previous owner mentioned that the vet can remove it easily (by draining it), but that it was recommended to wait until she's a bit older due to the potentially traumatic experience when she has to go through that at a young age.

I'd like for her to see the vet at least once without any issue, so it looks like I'll have to train her a bit with sensations similar to when she'll get her shot (prodding with a key and giving treats for dealing with it worked really well with Florette), so that she'll associate the vet with things that are at least of no concern to her.

Struggling with these tiny holes like always 🐰

When you have a human pet, it is very important that you do not respect their shoes. Especially when they are lifted slightly off the ground, which means they are just asking to be messed with. It is a time-honoured practice passed down onto us from our ancestors, who were the coal-cart pulling Welsh Mountain ponies of Wales and the desert roaming Arabians of the Arabian Peninsula.

Human viciously attacked by Welsh Pony

Explaining Fae's incredibly specific issues with Egyptian geese:

Fae knows things. They aren't many, but she does know some things.

Here's what she knows about birds:

🐦‍⬛ Crows eat her gelding "friend"'s manure and sit on fences and rooftops

🦆 Ducks swim a lot and sometimes fly away randomly (they may quack)

🦢 Swans are big and best be careful because they look weird

🐓 Roosters make a weird noise and live in people's gardens

🪿 Geese do as ducks do – they are NOT crows

This presents certain problems. One, she is somewhat unfamiliar with the various noises birds may make and what type of bird these belong to, and two, most of her bird-related experiences centre entirely on crows and ducks.

She can see geese from a distance. They do not act like Egyptian geese.

It's these HORRIFIC creatures, by the way. They even wear a bandit mask so they may as well be criminals!

So what is the big deal? Well, ordinarily speaking, ducks DO NOT do as crows do. We have a couple that come to the garden for food, but other than that, they waddle and sit still (and may quack).

Egyptian geese have the TERRIFYING habit of sitting in high places. CROWS DO THAT! NOT GEESE AND DUCKS!

Fae knows this. So when a couple sat on a fence SHE DID NOT WANT TO PASS THEM DO NOT MAKE HER. (A rude man on a bicycle made fun of her!) (Her human did not think it was rude and thought she was being silly, but refrained from correcting bicycle man that she was in fact not a he but a she.)

One time, a whole group of them SAT ON THE NEIGHBOURS' ROOF! They could have died from this goose infestation. Fae is not sure what happened because she is one of the only ponies alive who decided that they do in fact have natural predators that come from the 'up' direction, so she noticed them 'up' on the roof.

She also once got yelled at by an Egyptian goose ON TOP OF A HUGE POLE while out for a stroll with her best friend.

Another time when out for a stroll with the same friend, she saw two Egyptian geese in the distance and kept side-eyeing them. They may have just been eating grass, but Fae knows that they WILL do weird non-duck and non-goose things that make them look like crows and jackdaws, and they are NOT crows and jackdaws.

In a word, Fae thinks Egyptian geese are freaky because they are clearly and obviously weird.

Trying to find clever solutions to the 'Fae's fly rug is still a tad too large for her and they sold it to me without ways to fasten around her back legs'-problem basically just amounts to trying on Florette's old rugs, because she was a little smaller.

Today's vague attempt was this eczema rug which has tiny holes in it that are much smaller than the ones regular fly rugs have. Fae did not approve. It made her feel very itchy.

Her human now has a small injury under her lip from her own tooth.

Fae tried yelling at some horses in the distance for help but they did not respond. Her friends also didn't care that she temporarily left the pasture.

I used to feed Fae Florette's leftover turmeric, which like any horse she absolutely hated before she got used to it and loved it (same thing happened to Florette). It made her face look extremely yellow, and my clothes were always stained somewhat after prepping her food.