The story of Megan the escape artist Shetland Pony aged roughly 28 years.
“Approximately 1993” - 2021
Megan was my Shetland pony. She came into my life in 1997 when I lived in Cornwall on a farm.
I had two very small boys, Hayden and Henry who were about 2 and 6 months old.
I had been involved with horses since I was 7 years old and had recently completed my NCMH and AI at Duchy College in Cornwall which are both horse qualifications.
Megan had been found living in someones garden apparently abandoned there. They kept her for about a year while they tried to find out who she belonged to and she ate all their marigolds…..
Finally a Shetland pony in the garden was not as much fun as it may have first seemed and these well meaning people reasoned she would make a lovely pony for a child. How right they were. Somehow, and I cannot remember how now it was suggested she came and lived at the farm. I had a good knowledge of horses and I had a small boy, Hayden, who I reasoned would love to learn to ride. Of course he would, he was my son.
So Megan was collected in a cattle trailer and lived in the field behind the house with my very small flock of sheep.
From the word go she was a character. She would round up the sheep and bossily herd them about the field. They would follow her into the next field and beyond through any gaps in hedges or poorly kept fences. I was always finding them fields and fields away from where I had left them and she would always neigh a happy greeting as if to say “ Fancy seeing you here” and calmly have her head collar put on and then follow me meekly back to their original pasture with the sheep trotting in a line behind.
Megan in her field behind the house.
My son Hayden adored her and used to spend ages feeding her carrots and apples through the fence.
Eventually I plucked up the courage to put him on her back reasoning she hadn’t had a small boy on her back before and he hadn’t been on a pony before so they could learn together.
Using a very old method which would probably be highly frowned upon today I got her to take a bit by rolling it in jam and sugar and gradually got her used to a bridle. For ages we didn’t have a saddle and I would just pop Hayden on her back and walk up and down the lane. She was a dream pony and didn’t mind a bit.
Me and Megan and Hayden age 3
We finally got a saddle and our journeys got further. We would ride to play school in the village and to the village shop. She was such a lovely pony.
Unfortunately my marriage was not so lovely and was rather dramatically breaking down. A combination of us being far far too young when we had got married with and a realisation that our personalities were extremely different. Plus I missed my family and friends. Being down a long long track on a farm in Cornwall can be a very lonely and isolated place.
So I made the decision to return to Essex with my two boys and dog and left Megan in the care of my friend who kept Shire Horses. She had a daughter who would in turn ride Megan and have the best years of her life taking her to shows and Pony Club and finding Megans inner show jumper ( which is what she truly believed she was.)
I built my life in Essex and married Matt and had Elliott and Anna along with Hayden and Henry who were all growing up. All the boys had riding lessons when they were small and one of them, Henry was quite keen.
Eventually my daughter started horse riding and when she was about 7 started making noises about “ Could she have a pony?” I was more than happy with the once a week riding lessons and remembered the ponies we had had as children and how it was always the bane of my parents lives trying to find someone to look after them if we went on holiday and as we got older and perhaps weren’t always enamoured with 6am starts to muck out. So I explained all of this and said “No.”
Then, a couple of days after the conversation with my daughter about getting a pony I received a phone call from the lady with the Shire Horses who I had left Megan with all those years ago. She had noticed on Facebook that my daughter was having riding lessons and wondered if we might like Megan back. Her daughter had grown out of her and the family who had her on loan since needed to re home her.
Living in the middle of town with a tiny garden, a pony here wasn’t going to be an option so I asked the lady who runs the riding school where Anna was having lessons if she might fancy a Shetland pony on the yard…..
She wasn’t overly enthusiastic at first as obviously there is a limit to the passenger size on a Shetland pony and they are known for their craftiness and naughtiness and Houdini like escaping.
But eventually she kindly said Megan could come for a try. So when my daughter came out of school that day I was able to greet her with the now-famous-in-my-family line “You know you asked me if you could have a pony? Well I forgot I had one, she is arriving next week!”
4th May 2016 Megan arrives in Castle Camps.
So on May 4th 2016 , my birthday in fact, I was reunited with my friend Megan and Anna had a new pony friend. They immediately hit it off and had lots of lovely adventures hacking around the fields and having lessons in the school.
Megan made herself known to all the other liveries at the yard by breaking through all the electric fences and getting into everybody else’s field. She made firm friends with a huge 16.2hh flea-bitten grey gelding called Remi and could often be found in his field shelter curled up looking very smug.
Over the years she spent at Castle Camps she taught so many children to ride enthusiastically taking part in the riding school and particularly enjoying Pony Days which she treated like a spa day and basked in being groomed and washed until she shone and then being adorned with hats and glasses and glitter hoof oil.
She was always so gentle with the children and, aside from trying to eat grass whilst on a hack which would occasionally cause a child to somersault over the top of her or a sly step on the foot from a neatly oiled hoof, she had few foilbles.
We only took her to one show which was Hempstead in 2017 and she and Anna won a clutch of rosettes still proudly displayed in her bedroom today.
Megan was very keen on showjumping which she got very excited about and imagined she could jump way higher than her little legs would allow.
Megan did have several memorable adventures which are still the talk of Castle Camps village to this day. One day Holly who owns the yard had a phone call from the landlord of the pub in the village to enquire whether she had “ Mislaid a small orange pony?” as there was one in his pub garden entertaining the customers……..
She also once munched her way through an unsuspecting villagers vegetable plot and held up the Haverhill bypass for 2 hours prancing along it refusing to be caught.
Unfortunately three years ago Megan was diagnosed with a problem with her liver and we had to have a biopsy taken. When the vet came to do the biopsy under full sedation Megan still managed to kick the poor vet and defy all the odds and recover which is apparently very rare. When the vet came back to check up on her a week or so later she was galloping about the field so he shook his head in disbelief and left.
She carried on with her life in the riding school and taught so many children how to ride and so many children to canter or jump. Nobody forgets the first pony they rode so she will definitely be featured in a lot of life stories. The first ponies I rode were Sweep, Hamish and Smuggler at Bambers Green riding centre in the 1970’s.
Anna grew out of Megan fairly fast which is not surprising given Megans size but still enjoyed taking her for walks and brushing her.
In February of this year Megan took another turn for the worse with her liver and we thought that was that but once again and completely against the odds she rallied round. Sustained by a liver supplement and sugar beet, an apple a day and a daily walk around the field to procure thistles ( which are an aid for livers) we all helped get her back to tip top Megan condition. So much so that one day we turned up to see her and were informed she had “gone to the village” we all cheered, although did feel sorry for the vegetable patches she may be destroying, but she was definitely on the mend. Fortunately she hadn’t gone that far and a bucket of pony nuts lured her back from the far way field she was munching in but she had her spark back.
We managed to have two wonderful months with her walking in all weathers and Anna helped lead her on hacks around the fields at weekends or in the case of this weekend a pony party.
Our condolences card from Amber age 6. The glitter on Megans hooves was Megans favourite colour.
This weekend we were at the yard bright and early at 7.30am on Saturday to muck out Megan and our other pony Polly. We had lots happening that day as Polly was being clipped and had a saddle fitter coming. I had also had my covid jab on the Friday afternoon and was wondering how long I would last. I wasn’t feeling as dreadful as my husband who spent most of the day in bed reliving the horror of actual covid, which we had last year. I had a slight headache and felt quite nauseous but had a paracetamol and soldiered on.
The day was really busy at the stables with pony rides and then at lunch time the pony party. Megan was groomed until her coat shone and had glittery hoof oil applied and a watermelon tail conditioner. She looked and smelled amazing. She wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort or unease.
Following the pony party Anna and I went home only to be called by Holly at the stables about two hours later to say Megan had gone downhill suddenly and was looking very unsteady on her feet. I won’t go into the full details here of what was happening to her but she had gone into full liver failure which was what the vet had been warning us for three years could happen “at any time.”
The vet arrived and together with Holly and I we went out into the field and Megan passed away peacefully. It was all very surreal with Megan laying next us complete with glittery hooves and smelling of watermelon. There were tears and a lot of stories were shared about Megan and the colourful adventurous life she had had. “The Queen of the barn” is how my friend Jodie describes her and I think that suits her just right.
I feel so privileged to have had this funny little determined pony come into my life twice and to bring so much joy to my children and hundreds of others she has met along the way. Thank you to Senara and Tegan for having her for all those years in Cornwall and to Holly Garrett and everyone at Bartlow Equestrian centre for having her in Castle Camps for the past five years and sorry to Peter about the fences……..
Special thanks to Grace at Catley Cross Veterinary Centre who was so understanding, gentle and patient yesterday. And to Amber Ogle age 6 who was the last child to ride her at yesterdays pony party and who I know had a lovely friendship with Megan. We are so grateful to Amber for the beautiful card she made us today and will be putting it in a frame.
Being lured back with pony nuts from one of her adventures……