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Jasper

Jasper is a cheeky Shetland pony who is stabled next to his girlfriend April. He is  very greedy and loves carrots and swedes as a treat. He has a bad habit of nudging people very hard when his head collar is put on every morning.

February 08
Jasper is doing really good, he is very healthy and happy, he still gets very cheeky at times especially when the weather is spring like. Recently he was very naughty when it was time to come in and he started bucking, rearing and bronking at the end of the lead rope just because it was a little bit sunny after all the bad weather we'd had!
He has had lots of grooming sessions with the volunteers and he always looks lovely and fluffy, he is still difficult with his hooves being cleaned out unless the person is very confident and experienced, we put this down to the bad scars on his legs and a fear of pain when they are touched.
He was really well behaved for the dentins and for his injections recently too.

May 2007
Jasper is very well although he has become a little bit portly over the past few months due to all the spring grass coming through so fast.
He has been moved to smaller paddocks along with Muffin, Thelwell and Mr .Jingles so that they are getting less grass than they would have in their old field.
We have also ordered him an anti-fly sheet and some extra strong fly repellent to try to keep his sweet-itch at bay as much as possible this summer as we all hate to see him scratching away and agitated by the flies. We are also changing his bedding to a more absorbent one than straw and disinfecting his stable regularly to try to keep the flies out of there.
We also used Jasper as a grooming pony in our first and second Pony Day which he seemed to really enjoy, falling asleep as several small children fussed around him brushing carefully and by the end of the session he looked very clean and fluffy and content.
However we also tried to use him for the children to practice some leading games with but Jasper proved too strong as he got rather giddy and the children could not keep hold of him.
The next pony day we decided to try him with an adult leading him from one side and the child from the other and then the adult could hold him back if need be, which seemed to work well so that after a while he could be trusted with the older children to be led around alone, so we were very pleased with him and he seemed to enjoy being allowed to graze on the grass verges as a treat.

July 06
Jasper is looking very well and has not had too much trouble yet with his
sweet-itch. He has been eating most of his herbal remedy up every day to help
prevent him becoming too itchy and we have been trying a new brand of fly
repellent and sweet-itch lotion to help keep him as comfortable as possible,
and these seem to be working well.
Jasper has had his teeth rasped and he was really well behaved for this, and
he was also really good to be wormed and have his hooves trimmed as usual.
Recently Jasper was used as a practice pony for a group of brownies to learn
grooming on. He was a little angel and stood patiently while three groups of
eight children pampered him, and he looked exceptionally clean, fluffy &
handsome afterwards. He was then taken back into his lovely deep clean bedded stable, which the brownies had also made for him, and given a few treats of apples and carrots for being so good.

March 2006
Jasper is still really well and happy and never seems to have any health problems. He really is a tough little chap who is no trouble to care for.
We will soon be starting to feed him his herbal supplements before the
flies appear in the warmer weather as he is prone to Sweet-itch. This is his
allergy to fly bites and if we don't start his treatment early he will be more affected.
He is given a thorough groom once a week by one of our helpers, Jessica who
is a very capable young lady and is able to put up with Jaspers bossiness
when being led and fidgeting while being groomed.

January 06
Jasper is looking very muddy at the moment as he loves to roll about in the muddiest parts of the paddock. He especially loves rolling just after he has  just been groomed!
Other than being muddy he is doing well and has had the dentist out  recently. He was very well behaved and we found no problems with his teeth  but they were given a rasp to prevent them becoming sharp round the edges. Jasper had a lovely Christmas and got some extra goodies in his feed .
 

October 05
Jasper is doing well but we are dreading the next few weeks, as Autumn is the worst time of year for his sweet-itch. He is already beginning to rub himself sore and we are doing everything we can to keep this under control.
He is not so frightened of Mr. Pickwick as he is always on the other side of the fence so Jasper can ignore the chasing and carry on with eating grass.
We managed to find a herbal mixture, which he will eat and that smells lovely unlike some others we have tried, so hopefully this will benefit him.
Other than this, he is fine and healthy and did very well with the farrier trimming his hooves recently.

August 05
Jasper is very popular at the moment with lots of people sponsoring him. However he has been given a hard time lately by Mr. Pickwick who has been
bullying Jasper quite badly. We think this is because April has some suspected hormone problems and so has attached herself to Pickwick who is now very protective of any other geldings going near her.
We have now separated Jasper and Mr Pickwick to avoid any injury and are
waiting for the results of a blood test for April to try to resolve the situation.
Apart from that he is doing very well and has been enjoying some clicker training from one of our young volunteers which he seems to pick up well and enjoy.

July 05
 Jasper is getting a lot of extra attention lately as he his sweet-itch has flared up. To keep this at bay as much as we can he has  his special sweet-itch lotions applied 2-3 times per day. To see the things which Jasper uses see: www.alvahorse.com, www.flyaway.ltd.uk and www.usealoevera.co.uk
 We use Fly repellent to try to keep the midges away, sweet-itch lotion to calm any itching and help heal the skin and Aloe Vera gel to heal and soothe any sores which Jasper has rubbed until they are open.
 There is little else we can do for him at this time of year apart from giving him baths whenever the weather is warm. He does not enjoy this but it seems to help his skin and calm the itching for a few days.
 

June 05
Jasper is doing very well although it's the worst time of year for him as he has Sweet itch.
We are applying his special lotions and potions every day and feeding him his special herbal mixture (this is to help calm his allergic reaction to midge bites), although he seems to be going off it a little so we may have to change brands.
Jasper is very good and stands still each morning to be pampered, but when he does get a little itchy he will race around the paddock and take his frustrations on the other Shetland's, and when he comes in he will rub his head on us really hard. This is fine until its a rainy day and his head is covered in mud!
He has recently had visits from the farrier and the horse dentist and behaved really well for both.

Jasper in his new anti-fly sheet

Having a good old roll

Jasper in the Spring 06