Quarme Horses

18/05/2024

Lovely ride this morning with Lyndon on Poppy, Jennie on Lucky and me on Chester.
Chester is such a super 5yr old and took pleasure in showing off his awesome gate skills 🥰

22/01/2024

Do you dream of having your very own horse, but aren’t sure you can commit time wise or financially?

My love of horses began with my mum who grew up reading the Jinny at Finmory books and vowed that one day she would have a chestnut Arab just like Shantih! I started riding lessons as a 7-year-old, and was lucky that the stables allowed children to help out on the weekend in return for a free lesson once in a while – this was great as we were able to learn a bit about the looking after of the ponies too. When I was 14, we moved to Exmoor, giving us the chance to have horses of our own – not one, but two chestnut Arab geldings found our way into our lives along with two totally wild Exmoor Pony filly foals straight off the moorland! Looking back now, this combination was certainly sent to try us and definitely NOT what the experts would suggest first-time horse owners go and purchase! However, we persevered and fell in love with the horses as well as Exmoor itself 😊

I understand that a lot of people begin their horse journeys at a riding school, but it’s a huge jump from riding & looking after them once a week to actually owning your own horse all the time! I hope to be able to act as stepping stone for those that feel they are outgrowing a riding school but aren’t sure they can commit to their own horse just yet.

I have 4 horses to ride currently, but also a broodmare and youngsters to work with if interested. The riding is fantastic around our 500-acre farm or exploring the many bridleways Exmoor has to offer. There is also an arena to hire a short trailer ride away too.

I won’t force you to do the boring stuff such as mucking out, etc but if you’d like to help & learn about the day-to-day care of the horses, you’re more than welcome! I’d like for you to establish a bond with the horses, I’m sure they’d appreciate any pampering ☺️
It’s £100 a month after the first trial session.
This will be used as a contribution towards feed, shoes, health checks etc. You will need your own insurance which you can get by becoming a BHS Gold Member – proof will be required.

You can ride as often as you like, as long as the horses are fit & well. You will not be riding alone to begin with. I will ride out with you until you’ve got to know the horses & the area.

None of my horses are novice rides – they are not riding school horses. You must be able to walk, trot and canter unassisted and be over 18 years old. The weight limit is 12 stone maximum at the moment. A loan agreement will be in place for all the horses you are able to ride.

I’m situated just outside of Wheddon Cross on Exmoor ☺️
Any questions, please get in touch 😊

25/03/2022

Let them be horses.

Turn them out, let them run.
Let them buck, let them leap, rather in the field than the arena, right?

Give them a herd, even a herd of two.
Let them be with other horses, what’s a life without friends?

Give them downtime, not just days off riding, but days to enjoy life.
Happy horses are trainable horses.

Take the rug off, let them feel the sun.
Let them roll in the mud, a little dirt never hurt anyone.

Escape the arena and explore, don’t stick to the well worn path.
The most beautiful places are usually found by accident.

Showing them how much you love them doesn’t have to come from buying expensive things.

You can buy every rug, all the boots, the best tack, wash them, groom them, feed them, put them in the best yard, with the best facilities and wrap them up in cotton wool, but one day you’ll realise the best thing you could possibly do...
.. is just let them be horses.

23/02/2022

Bring it on!!

Summer, we're ready for you to arrive... 😅🐴

29/12/2021

FOR YOUR HORSES SAKE

When you walk into the stable
Don’t try to show who’s boss
Your horse won’t understand you
And he’ll be at a loss
Instead, just go and rub his head
Be kind, and furthermore
When you walk into the stable
Leave your ego at the door.

When you walk into the paddock
You must go to your horse
Don’t think that he should come to you
Don’t chase or yell or force
Just take some feed to catch him
In this there’s no debate
When you walk into the paddock
Leave your ego at the gate

Every time you ride your horse
Think before you ask
Make it easy, always question
If he’s ready for the task
And when you have a problem
Don’t throw your weight around
Every time you ride your horse
Leave your ego on the ground

Every time you’re with your horse
Show him kindness first
Be nice and friendly always
And never think the worst
It’s sometimes not that easy
To know what’s in his mind
But every time you’re with your horse
Leave your ego far behind

Author unknown

12/11/2021

"Stretch your arm out to the side, holding something like a pencil vertically in your hand. Look straight ahead. You won’t see the pencil in this position. You can’t even see your arm. Now move your arm slowly in a wide outstretched semi-circle toward the front, keeping your eyes focused on a distant point in front of you. The pencil remains invisible until it reaches almost a 45-degree angle. Human vision is limited to roughly 45 degrees on either side of our noses, for a total of about 90 degrees. By contrast, if we held a pencil straight out from the side of a horse’s head, it would be almost in the center of his vision. With eyes on the sides of his head, he catches a 340-degree view, almost four times greater than the range we see. Imagine what would happen if we humans had four times more vision to process every second of the day. We’d be edgy, too!" Janet Jones in Horse Brain, Human Brain, published by TSB. ❤️ 🐴 📕

Janet Jones, PhD, will be speaking at in West Springfield, MA! Don't miss her talks on Saturday and Sunday on the Seminar Stage in the Better Living Center--we promise it will change the way you think about horses and their behavior! See you in West Springfield. 😄

02/11/2021

Lovely ride this evening on the new girl, Poppy. I’m really enjoying this little mare 🦄
Burt was a perfect gentleman for Lyndon tonight too and we all enjoyed the view 🥰

05/09/2021

What a busy summer!
Star continues to grow well and is still eating me out of house & home! Currently recovering from an abscess before being booked in for castration & a hernia operation this month - more expense 😩
Deano still loves him and is being a very understanding foster daddy 🥰 especially considering the foal has eaten his tail 😣
Chester has shot up in height again, he just needs to stretch a bit now!
Bluebell has finally been scanned in foal, so 🤞all goes to plan and we’ll have a summer baby next year ☺️
Soli is his usual cheeky self, Alfie has been out on him a few times and he’s tried an Inky Dinky saddle out which mummy needs to buy now to try to give him some confidence 😊
Burt is back out on the hunting field with Craig, they’ve only parted company once so far 😂
Poppy has been brought into work, she’s being good so far although is very unfit and unconditioned so we’re taking it very slowly to build her up 🐴
Urchin is pleased to have me back on board I think, mainly so I stop entering him in to silly in-hand competitions (see him dressed as a lollipop horse 😂)
Libby has had a great summer in her loan home with her special human. They went to their first show on the bank holiday, gaining lots of rosettes and even having a go at the fancy dress & gymkhana 🥰
The big news this summer is that Baby Trystan made his appearance at the beginning of the holidays ☺️ We’re settling into a routine as a family of 4 now, Alfie loves his baby brother and mummy loves being back on her horses 😂🥰

18/07/2021

I’m aware I’ve been very quiet on here these last few months and thought it was time you all had an update 🙂
Many of you will know that I lost my gorgeous Lucky after she gave birth in May. The birth itself was textbook which we watched in bed via the camera and all seemed well for 45 minutes whilst she cleaned off her newborn son and got to know him - she loved him instantly 🐴
Unfortunately she deteriorated quickly due to her large intestine slipping into the cavity that the foal had filled (apparently quite common in horses I’ve later found out 😔) and with help from the vet we tried all night to save her but by 5am it was clear the best thing to do would be to have her pts.
She gave her all to the foal right up until the end, she somehow managed to stand up 1/2hr before her time so that we could milk as much colostrum off her as possible, as if she knew she had to give her foal the best start possible 😢

My old Arab, Deano, was Lucky’s field companion in her last few months as well as her birthing partner and watched the drama unfold all night. I’m sure Lucky told him to take care of her baby as he has been inseparable and taken the foal under his wing as if he was its mare. We named the foal Star as my 4yr old son likes to believe that Lucky is looking down on him from the stars.

To begin with Star was kept stabled but Deano could come and go as he pleased, although he’d only leave Star for 10 minutes before having to check on him again 🥰
We thought about finding a foster mare but all were a long way away and he’d never actually latched onto Lucky but took all his colostrum through a bottle, so we worried he’d already become too humanised. After a couple of days of bottle rearing and a lot of research we decided to set up the lambing shepherdess bucket that we have for the tame lambs - amazingly he got the hang of this really quickly and it meant that we could leave a few hours worth of feeds for him so that it wasn’t such a time constraint for us but mainly that it was more natural for him to be ad lib as it mimicked how he’d suckle a mare better.

Once the weather improved, after a few weeks, we let him and Deano out in a paddock. He has his milk bucket attached to a stake that we fill regularly and he started eating creep after about 1 month which has been increased as he’s grown.
I continue to be amazed at how Deano has taken to looking after him, he’s always been such a grumpy bu**er but Star can do no wrong and you definitely see the love in Deano’s eyes 😍

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, at about 10 days old Star went down with a nasty bout of pneumonia and had to have a hefty amount of antibiotics every day. His tendons on his hind legs were quite slack when he was born, meaning he was almost walking on his fetlocks - so at 2 weeks old he had his first farrier trim and thankfully that seems to have done the trick and they’ve strengthened.
And just this last week he got a chill which sent him off his milk for a couple of days 😔
It’s a constant worry, but we love him and he definitely seems to be a fighter ☺️