Indianna Apollo
Indianna Apollo is his "Sunday Name", Apollo is his everyday name! He belongs to my wife who uses him for Parelli fun and games, and for hacking. He is a real "family pony" and turns his hoof to most things, he is also gentle and sensitive and very careful with his rider.
Apollo is a stunning tri-color Tobianno cob. He is a larger than life character with a massive play drive. He is mischievous, boisterous, opinionated, and immensely cheeky. He is a gregarious horse and loves meeting people, so we have taken Apollo to many events where a bombproof nature is essential. In 2006 and 2007 Apollo took part in the Aberdeen Tartan Day parades, and he has been a regular fixture at our local Archaeological visitor centre!
Apollo came to us from a treking centre on the edge of the Cairngorms. When he arrived he had shoes on all four feet and a pretty bad infected quarter crack on his front right. The farrier had been "burning the crack" to try to control the infection but all this had done was to seal the infection in.
We were fortunate to have an excellent farrier at that time in Jason Simm who opened and cleaned the crack out, stabilised the hoof and stapled it. In time the crack healed and there is now nothing to show it was ever there except for a fine line on the hoof wall.
Apollo has been trained in the Parelli sytem and the "learn by playing games" approach really works for him and he has an endless appetite for play.
Anni Stonebridge took Apollo's shoes off in the spring of 2007 and he never missed a step. One day he was in shoes, the next he wasn't and he hardly noticed the difference. He has tough, resilient feet with good concavity and wide frogs.
However, when his setup trim was done by Anni Stonebridge, there was a clearly defined bright red event ring, and a depression all the way round each hoof, about an inch and a half from the coronary band. There was also quite a lot of bruising on his soles. Evidence of a significant event having happened in his feet - a sound horse, but with clear signs of disease in his feet..
Apollo is now kept in a grass free paddock. He is a typical metablic horse and finds it very hard to lose weight and he is constantly hungry and obsessed with food. Anni recomended that his diet was modified to provide a more supportive diet for a barefoot metabolic horse. These measures have been successful and he has not had another ocurrence of laminitis.
He has controlled hay, and his feed consists of unmollassed sugar beet, linseed meal, seaweed, magnesium oxide, and various herbs for interest and maintenance. Originally he was on Alfalfa, but this was removed at Anni's recommendation as Alfalfa is way too rich for cobs like Apollo.
"Polly" is a fantastic, cheeky, funny, and at times infuriating character who keeps us all on our toes!
Left: Apollo at the Archaeolink Beltane festival 2008 with Robbie the pictish warrior!
Centre: King James IV (me!) mounted on Apollo at the 2007 Aberdeen Tartan Day Parade. The lady with the pipes had sweets in her pouch, so Apollo was pretty focused on her!
Right: Apollo at the Terrtowie Yard jumping competition in the spring time - note the nice relaxed rein and no balancing on the mouth!
Could you really ask for a more versatile pony?