Snuggur from Salisbury
Click here for the Winter 2007 update
Snuggur was the June 2005 addition to the mini-herd and , like Drift, Snuggur is a horse that I didn't know I was looking for - however,
this time Mandy and Smári Slater aka Edda
Hestar were to blame rather than Fiona! A few days before the 2005 British
Championships Mandy emailed me to say that they had just the horse I was looking
for.
"I'm looking for a horse?" I thought.
Curious, I rang them up and Smári explained that the possible pace
horse I had ordered was in stock and ready to post out to me.
"It is?" I thought.
Smári described him as a tall, dark, handsome fellow - five years old and coming
along nicely - perhaps a bit green at times but nothing too bad - I could pick
him up at the British Championships.
"I can?" I thought.
Two days later I was test driving young Snuggur around the oval track at Mike and Elizabeth Adam's in Dorset prior to the British Championships and we seemed to hit it off. I had a few gear selection problems with him at first and I delighted the crowd and judges with two entire laps of piggy pace in lieu of trot in the Intermediate Four Gait Final - whoooo! Snuggur was quite magnanimous about this but said if I was to do it again could I please do so at the dead of night a long way away from any witnesses as it did not suit his cool image - the judges said the same thing too.
So, moving right along - he came back to Deepest Devon in Malcolm
and was introduced to the rest of the horses.
Girls! Girls! Girls!
I should have mentioned that Snuggur, aged five, had only been gelded
in March and, prior to that, had a few wild parties and sown his oats
- so he took one look at Hetja, Drift, Elding and Gæla "Wahaaay!
Party time!". Stopping only to raise an eyebrow at the yearling
filly, Tinna,
"Same time, same place next year, young thing - I have to go now
and discuss Ugandan affairs with the grown up girls" he cantered
off up the hill and started his 'look at me, pretty boy, sex on a
stick' curvey necked stallion thing. The girls all swooned, Húni
bridled and Snuggur became Billy No Mates for a few months.
Confined to solitary for his own protection until such time as his hormones stop raging (or the girls stop cycling into season) Snuggur proved to be a quiet, biddable horse and very good to handle and work with. He was shocked to realise that (a) it is not flat around here and there are some BIG hills (b) I weigh around twice what Smári does and that a+b are added most days to produce (c) hard work. He's come to terms with this now and, so long as I remember to give him a little feed when we get back, he says he'll put up with it.
Unfortunately by the end of 2006 I had still not cracked the gaits problem and He & Me are still founder members of the ‘Royaume-uni, nul points’ Club - heck, if we cannot get zero for trot then we'll do our best to get it for pace - maybe 2007 will be better (either that or I'll go back to crotchet).
Well here we, are, another year gone with Billy No Mates and I think we may be getting somewhere - usually not where I want to go at the time and usually in piggy pace I'm afraid.
Snuggur was imported from iceland in 1999 in utero as it were - unfortunately his mother died a few days after foaling and several people told me that he was then raised by an apple tree "Aha!" I thought "That would help explain the wood between his ears". Further enquiries revealed that this was, in fact, true and I have reproduced below the article Claire wrote about him for Edda Hestar at the time - apple trees included.
Snuggur's Tale - By Claire Grocott We imported Dyngja from Iceland in the autumn of 1999. She was in foal to a very nice stallion, Lord. In June, Dyngja gave birth to her foal Snuggur. Mother and son seemed fine, but two days later Dyngja was obviously in trouble. She and Snuggur were taken straight to the equine hospital facility just 10 minutes away. In spite of all efforts, Dyngja died shortly after. Smári and Yvonne returned home with a small, confused Snuggur, calling
constantly for his missing mother.
First we tried Komma to see if she would adopt Snuggur. Komma was not unwilling
but Bassi, her six week old foal, wasn't prepared to share his mum .
Anyone who has raised a young orphan animal will know all about alarm clocks set for 3am.. but that was a small price to pay for the wellbeing of Snuggur. He graduated very quickly from the hand held bottle to a row of four lamb feeding bottles on the apple tree and then to a plastic petrol can in a freezer basket tied to the fence. By 5 weeks he was getting through 20-30 pints a day !! That's when we got a BIG surprise. Lyfting started feeding Snuggur. Ímar didn't mind and Lyfting had no problem providing for both of them. It was wonderful. Snuggur had a mum, a brother and would be able to join the other mares, foals and youngsters - forget about being bottle fed - and be a proper little horse. |
Well, he's a proper, big horse now Claire - thank you for those 3am wake ups!