Harry is a beautiful Yellow Dun Highland Pony. He is 14 hands high and was born in on 12th June 2005.  He is a typical Highland and he does love his food, especially if it is green!  Harry has competed to a high level in the past before he joined the herd in 2014. He has a very gentle nature and is well suited to his job equally at home with novice or experienced riders. Most of all he loves going on hacks and exploring. 

Joey is an Irish Cob. DOB 4.5.15. He is 13:3 hands and Blue Roan in colour.

Murphy is our black Cob cross. Although he is mostly black, he has a large white blaze on his face and big white socks on his legs! He stands 15.1 hands high and was born in 1999, making him the oldest member of our herd! He is big and very strong (some of our volunteers refer to him as a tank!) which makes him very good at his role of weight carrier. Murphy is a fantastic RDA horse who has taken several of our riders to RDA Dressage competitions, always doing his best and making everyone at Shiresmill very proud. 

Parker is a 15.2h Piebald cob who was brought to our centre through the Wooden Spoon charity. He was born in 2006. Unfortunately he didn’t have the day he was born on his passport so we decided his birthday would be 23rd November as that was the date he joined us at Shiresmill. Parker has a very kind nature and he is a great confidence giving horse. He will do exactly what his rider asks of him. Parker generally likes nothing better than a roll in the mud. He usually only rolls on one side though so when you groom him he has a clean side and a muddy side. 

Being a Shetland Pony, Peat stands at just 8.2 hands high, but he has a big personality! He’s very hairy and has little legs but can gallop very fast. Peat was born on 10th May 1999. Peat is used for teaching volunteers who are new to ponies how to lead and groom as he is very responsive and loves to be brushed. Peat is also used to get our new riders used to being around ponies and how to care for them. He's a very clever little guy and likes to boss some of the bigger ponies around in the field, he has also learned to play football and can sometimes be seen having a game with Harry!

Rio is our handsome Haflinger Pony - known by many of our volunteers as our Blonde Bombshell!  He stands 14 hands high and was born on 1st February 2002.  He has a great relationship with many of our riders, he always seems to know how they are feeling and loves lots of attention and cuddles from his human friends. He is definitely an extremely friendly pony who loves company and is great friends with Harley; they even share their meals!  

We rely on our volunteer friends for so much; in the mornings we eagerly await them coming up to our field to give us our specially prepared feeds and hay, with a good morning smile and pat!  They make sure our field is safe and tidy, and that we're all looking happy and healthy.

On different days each of us are taken down to the Centre and we have a lovely grooming session with our volunteers.  They clean our feet and groom our bodies and manes and check us over to make sure we're in tip-top condition.

When we're being used for rides they warm us up getting us tacked up with saddles, bridles and sometimes special equipment to suit each rider.  They maintain our equipment, ensuring it's clean and in great condition for the lessons. 

When our riders arrive our volunteers help them to safely mount us and then lead us, or walk alongside us to provide support and encouragement to both ourselves and our riders. We form special relationships with our riders and our volunteers; we're specially trained so that children and people with physical disabilities, medical conditions, learning difficulties and youngsters on the autistic spectrum can ride us.  Our volunteers assist with our on-going training and through this we develop real connections with them.

We love working at Shiresmill and if you think you'd like to come and work with us, we'd love to meet you! Simply go to our 'Volunteer' section.

Love and nuzzles,

The Ponies 

Mojo was born in 2008 and is 12 hands high. Even though he appears grey, he is actually skewbald (this is much easier to spot during the summer!).  He is very friendly and often whinnies to say hi! We are delighted that Mojo has left Shiresmill to be with his new family in September 2021.