Heathpool Pendragon (93/21)
Born 1995
Photo by West End Photography
I was obsessed about Pendragon before he was even born. I was really impressed by his father, Heathpool Marischal (93/15) and he was the first foal sired by this pony. He has inherited his dad’s great temperament, despite being born out on the hill and not expected to have too much human contact early on in his life, at day three he was scrounging for sweeties from anyone passing. I met him when he was six days old, he came squeaking down the hill, ahead of mum and dad, and stuck his nose in my hand looking for sweeties. That was it, if he was ever for sale I was going to have him!
I bought him as a yearling and broke him in myself. He’s pretty bomb proof although dislikes cattle having been chased by them as a yearling. Not great when we live on a cattle farm but it has reduced his fear!
He has a laid back attitude to life, a HUGE sense of humour and definitely knows his own mind. Anyone who has seen us in a show ring will be surprised to hear he can be a speed freak when out hacking or doing endurance since he has a tendency to pretend that he can’t move in the ring! We enjoy roaming the countryside with pony pals, Icelandics Krakur, Freyr and Glettni as well as Dales ponies Jewel, Chanter and Angus. Jewel and Pendragon love to pull evil faces at each other all the way round rides but we know they get on really, I was very amused to find out that there is a heavy metal band called Pendragon who have an album called Jewel—fate obviously!!! A new chum to add to the collection is coloured cob Rocky who fortunately lives at the same yard as us so lots of opportunities for adventure!
We have competed successfully in TREC as well as dressage, jumping and pony club games in our local riding club. In 2007 we dabbled in showing, qualifying for the NPS Scotland Inhand M&M Finals at Blair, 3rd in the inhand at the Royal Highland Show and 5th in our ridden debut at the same show. What we both enjoy most, however, is endurance riding. We have over 300km under our belt and have represented the SERC Lothians team in the 2005 Capercaillie Challenge which Lothians won. After a quiet year in 2006 we have got back into the swing of things and recently achieved a BTQ at SC3 Gold on our first attempt at upping the mileage above pleasure distance. On the strength of that we were selected for the Scotland endurance team as reserve for the Home International and Celtic Challenge 2007. Originally scheduled to be at the Ridgeway Ride, England in August this was sadly cancelled due to the foot and mouth outbreak. After a tense time it was confirmed mid-September that the competition was rescheduled at the Red Dragon in Wales. The last week of September we travelled to Wales as reserve, planning to ride the 40km ride over what we knew was a hilly route, our furthest distance tried so far being 35km on flat as a pancake route. With a team member vetted out we ended up riding on the team on the 50km route and vetting with the same heart rate we left on!! Not bad for a first attempt at that distance! Scotland won the Home International and came third in the Celtic Challenge, being the first team in history to get all their riders home and through the vetting, a huge achievement which I was very proud to be part of. At the end of the season we also came home with the SERC Lothians Novice Horse and Rider Trophy and the SEPRC Pony Performance Award.
We started the year well with a few pleasure rides, SEPRC rideouts and a dressage/endurance competition but then our 2008 season became a non event when he was diagnosed with an injury at the SERC team training event we attended. Fortunately since it was picked up early no major damage was done. After a good deal of time off (in which time I went slowly mad with the lack of riding!) and slow bringing back into work we were finally back and completing an 18km pleasure ride at the beginning of September. Roll on 2009, we've had our year off!