The Story of Brewster
So, sticking with the “B” ponies, it’s Brewster’s time to do his story this month.
Brewster is a 20 year old 13.2h.h. chestnut gelding, who is VERY popular with our younger riders. He’s a very experienced pony, who has done a bit in each discipline in his previous private homes and has a lot of experience doing Pony Club e.t.c. so is brilliant at teaching our younger riders who are looking to get a bit better in canter/jumping.
We first met Brewster around 6 years ago – he was bought by a livery family (who are still liveries with us) as a pony for their daughter who was looking to do a bit more competing and Pony Club training e.t.c. Brewster was in another private home in Scotland, where he had had quite a bit of success doing showing (Working Hunter) and a bit of everything else too. He had been beautifully schooled earlier in his career and had a lovely temperament – he arrived at Oldfold and settled in really well into the livery yard and was a firm favourite with our staff then.
He had quite a big injury after a few months in his new home, where he damaged some soft tissue in a hind leg so needed quite a bit of box rest and then rehab/rest time. A good example of how interconnected a lot of our ponies are, is that because Brewster was going to be off for the best part of the Spring/Summer the family tasked Sally with finding another pony so that the young rider could keep having lessons and competing over the Summer. That pony was Ozzy (1) who was so experienced jumping he arrived and did the job incredibly well but how funny that both ponies have now ended up staying at ARC – never let a good pony go past you we say!
Brewster’s rider then needed to sell him as she had grown too tall for him, so he was sold to another livery family who were looking for a schoolmaster. With this family he did Pony Club Grass Roots competitions (winning the dressage and eventing at the Regionals) and did well at the Championships. By this time, he had become an older chap who liked his home comforts and living in a stable at night and he had Ciushings, meaning he needed a small amount of medication each day to keep his metabolism correct.
As his rider then started to concentrate more on dressage, he became available again for sale so Sally swooped in to buy him – partly because he was such a lovely, experienced pony, but also because we wanted him to stay at ARC – it was the perfect solution for his old owners too as everyone who has ever owned Brewster has adored him so it was lovely that he could stay at ARC.
He does a mix of junior rider lessons, still does a lesson with his old owners (they have a weekly jump lesson with him) and is a brilliant school pony. He thinks he is “King of the Yard” – he knows he’s a bit special, he has the best stable right next to the feed room, he has “his” staff wrapped round his hoof and he doesn’t like other ponies getting too close to him as he is a bit snobby and thinks he’s too posh to be near them – particularly the hairy field dwelling ones. The only exception he has to that rule is Princess Holly – he is a bit in love with Holly and likes to whinny to her when she walks past or leaves her stable.
He is one of the most popular ponies for Stable Management/Pony Stars as he is so sweet in his stable and is a great example of just how much a well-educated schoolmaster pony has to give and teach kids.