Tess the Ardennes Mare

Hello, my name is Tess. I am an Ardennes mare from Belgium and the full name on my passport is Tessa van het Oostrum's Veld.  The Ardennes or Ardennais is one of the oldest breeds of draft horse and their history dates back to Ancient Rome. Throughout the years, blood from several other breeds has been added to the Ardennes, but only the Belgian breed had any significant impact. The breed could be a direct descendent of the prehistoric Solutre horse and is thought to be the type of horse Julius Caesar described as "rustic, hard and tireless".  They were used for heavy cavalry units... the original war horse!
I am very pleased to be an RDA horse.

I have not been at The Pegasus Centre very long, and before I could be ridden, I needed tack. This caused a bit of a problem due to the large size of my head, so parts of my bridle had to be specially made and finding a rug to fit me was a challenge too.  However, I now have a new blue rug to keep me warm this winter.

This week I was checked over by Ed Chinn, a vet from Alnorthumbria, and an Equine Nutritionist was there to weigh all the horses and ponies. As I thought I had overindulged on too much grass, I hid behind a rug hoping they may forget about me...

but being nosy I could not resist looking at what was going on...

so I was put on the scales and after a bit of  a discussion, they all agreed...

that I was the perfect weight for my size... phew!
On Tuesday evenings a group of visually impaired children come to ride.

Peter rides me...

his brother, Daniel, rides Magic...

and Jessica rides Monty. They all enjoy coming to the centre for sessions, and we love them riding us too. We get stroked and patted a lot and sometimes get a scratch too...

 

and there is nothing a horse likes more than a good scratch!

Thank you to Emily and Martin for providing some of the pictures on this post.