Please go to http://ponyaccess.com/
, my new website covering the saddlechariot/iBex and it's uses. This
is where you will also find links to all my articles on training,
safety, vehicle design and even the weird stuff on cooking and
politics.
and my phone number is +44 7510 736 518
Driving the iBex over Dartmoor, or the Saddlechariot on the Cumbrian Fells or both of them on Brecon Beacons is exhilarating, but lacks variety. The first time I took an early version of the iBex into Burnthouse Lane in Exeter delivering books for
Bookcycle, a guy came out to see if Obama wanted to meet his Anaconda. Now I have taken ponies into some of the more remote bits of the UK and you just don't get people wanting to introduce their Anaconda to your pony. In Burnthouse Lane your pony gets introduced to two Anacondas.
Pony loving isn't restricted to kids whose parents can afford ponies, it affects a huge swathe of the population. The first time I took Henry to Balsall Heath to meet Beau and the rest of the crowd at the
St Paul's Trust City Farm I drove Henry round the block to calm him down. Apparently not everyone drives ponies round urban areas to calm them down, but not only does it work after a fashion, but you meet the nicest people.
Henry was trotting briskly down the street when I heard screams. The children at the school we were approaching had heard Henry's bare feet on the pavement and were overjoyed to actually meet a pony.
After an hour or so, the teachers had to ask me to leave as they did have classes to run, but they were just as keen to let the children meet a pony.
But it isn't just kids, cyclists stop you to gossip,
The Police want to check out your engine in a really nice way.
Ponies cut through all boundraries.
The assumptions you make looking at ponies as they are normally shown in the UK, change when you go into cities with a pony. And everyone is friendly.
Ponies adapt rapidly. Here Obama is working collecting recycling in Topsham in a very odd, highly experimental, logging rig converted to trailer on bigfoot tyres. But Obama knows the routine after a couple of days, and ambles round till someone says carrot, when he goes over and looks pathetic till they give him a carrot.
Even scooter owners enjoy mucking about with ponies.
