Hi everyone on here, great to have found this forum.

I am a fairly recent convert, having rehomed a gun-shy cocker called Spud. He was bred in Ireland - KC name Inler Lad if anyone on here has any connections there. I had always had the show type of cocker, and was a bit apprehensive about getting Spud - I thought they were a hyper, nutty, mad kind of dog....:roll:

How wrong! I am so thrilled with the intelligence, sharp mind, and the keen kind eyes, not to mention the splendid good looks!! Spud is a busy pet, I don't do any work with him, but he has obviously had quite a lot of training, he hunts and retrieves all the time. Usually everyone else's tennis balls.

My own outdoor background has been with working Highland Ponies - I have used them for carrying red deer and timber extraction, sadly not for carrying grouse - but if anyone on here is looking for a game pony - let me know!

I have a passion for Highland Ponies, that I can sense is being replicated with Working Cockers.....eeek!! I don't have time for both, as I also work as a midwife. Why does work always get in the way of doing what one really wants to do?  

Having recently lost my old spaniel in a nasty road accident, I am now looking into getting a working cocker pup. The ponies are going to have to get used to a busy wee pup loitering around, and I am planning to attend training sessions to learn the cocker's trade. It will also help me to speak Spud's language.

Finn, my young homebred Highland pony, will be trained as a working boy, so I hope that I can eventually enjoy days on the hill with both equine and canines.

Busy days ahead.

I look forward to chat on here, and reading articles and taking advice on all things cocker.

Hi and welcome along from another Scottish resident. Spud looks lovely... Id love a highland pony to use for carrying deer and for riding so if you have one in need of a home id have it LOL!!! I have a shetland who I am meant to be training to pull our game cart on our shoots but he has been through some fear issues which has set us back so he is just getting used to the big world and gaining his confidence for now.

Welcome to the forum.  As an occasional woodland stalker I'd be really interested to hear more about your pony (Garron?)

Hi, from a fellow Scot  Watch out - these cockers are very addictive and before you know it you'll have a few and be working them  enjoy!

Thanks for the welcome. I can see from this forum how addictive these dogs are.

For those interested in working Highland ponies - it is probably as addictive as working dogs - maybe a tad more costly though..!.

 Highland ponies (also known as garrons) were the original crofter's draught horse, used for carrying seaweed, peat, anything that needed transported. They were also used for carrying illicit whisky from stills throughout the highlands and islands.

It has really only been since Victorian times that they have been used for transporting game from the sporting estates - carrying grouse in panniers or deer on specially made saddles.

I was brought up in the West Highlands, before the fashion for Argo's, and any red deer shot needed to be collected by pony - so I was involved in this from a very young age.

After my wild years as a student and general social butterfly, I returned to the West Highlands and started training ponies for the hill again. They are really only used by enthusiasts now, although I can foresee a greater demand as fuel prices soar, and environmental issues proliferate.

I hope to be in a position to supply this market, and am actively breeding the garron type of pony, I will train the ponies to accept the deer / panniers, and then sell them to the right people.

I would be very keen to do some pannier work - that really is a dying art as so few people use ponies for collecting birds now. Maybe through meeting and getting to know more folk in the shooting fraternity, I will be able to learn about dog stuff and also contribute with my own trade - the Working Highland Pony.

The British Festival of the Working Horse is to be held in Windsor Great Park in September 2011, and I am putting together a team of working Highland Ponies - it would be really cool to have a wee group of people who would use a pony in the small game sport, complete with the working dogs, and guns.

Ideas..........:)

Since I live here in flat old Denmark we do not really know this. I have been riding and been around horses since I was 6 and I really love working with horses especially when they are bred for a specific purpose like yours.

I have not been riding for the last 15 years but my wife and 3 daughters all ride horses so I get my daily dose. I would love to see yours in action.

A few years ago there where some stories in the Danish press about a Danish girl living in the Highlands somewhere and working with Highland ponies?

Hi & welcome

Hi Welcome.  I am going to get a cocker this year, and from what everyone is saying on here it will not be my last!  Your pony work sounds really interesting, I'd never heard of this type of horse/pony work before.  We have an Oak Fair near here every year, where horses show their skills at hauling and manoevering felled trees, it would be great to see your ponies at work.  Good luck with your new pup.