30/05/2023
March 2013 Noddy came into my life.
A friend saw this 6 year old advertised on Gumtree located in Golden Valley, so after work the family came for a drive with me to see him. I was only going to check him out to see if he might suit me and didn't bother taking any riding gear.
Well, I gets up to Golden Valley and goes to his padok, and this gorgeous creature snuffled at me, sniffed my face, kissed my cheek, left black snot and slobber all over my face, and I knew instantly that he was going to be mine. I hadn't even riden him... and I knew he was right for me.
His then owner saddled him up and said, "Go for it". The only way I could get on him was to scramble up onto their four wheeler and get him to sidle up to me. He did everything I asked of him, very calmly and quietly so I could mount. I had to ride past a padok of mini mares and thought he'd play up a bit, but after letting him say hello to them, he happily continued on up the track. Just moseying along as if nothing else in the world mattered. Just him and me. I got Noddy.... then named "Paddy"... back to his padok and 'ummed n ahhhhed' cos his pricetag wasn't exactly cheap. The husband finally said "Just get the damn horse"! I didn't hesitate, and organised for his delivery as my float was broken down at that time.
The day of his delivery was exciting. I heard the gate opening and thought "He's here.... He's here" 😁 and ran out to the padok completely forgetting my phone due to nerves, back into the house n snatched my phone, and managed to get this single pic of his arrival.... ooooooh sweeeet.
Once in his padok, things went a bit t!ts up 😳 All of a sudden this bolshy, lump of horseflesh careered around sounding like thunder and cos the electric fence wasn't operating, he was leaning all over the new fenceline, bending the galv post over trying to say hello to my two other boys, and I thought.... "hmmm - what have I got myself into?" I was feeling slightly sick in the stomach at the thought of this mountain of hair having it all over me.
Electric fence time!
Once the electric was turned on, and someone got a zap, things quietened down a little. Not much... but a little. By the evening of that day, he'd had quite a few zaps on his nose. It was that day that I learned draught horses can be a tad thick at times 😆🤣
Paddy next had a name change to Noddy.... reason being that a friend already had a Paddy and I really didn't want to keep getting mixed up with her Paddy, so Noddy it was from then on.
Hoof trim time, and my bare foot trimmer said he knew this maniac that swung his back legs around like a merry-go-round and that he was a padok ornament and just fed apples. But he was pretty sure he was used to pull tree stumps out.
Ohhhhh.... !😳 I goes.....
One too many leg swings and the trimmer grabs the lead rope, backs Noddy up, side passes him, circles him around n tells him off for being a nob.
Well... the look on Noddys face was EPIC! 😆
Oh... have I just been told off?????!!!!
He was a little angel from then on 🤣
I truly appreciated that lesson. It wasn't a pleasant picture seeing the trimmer being swung around by a back leg like that, so etiquette lessons were then put in place.
It didn't take long for this bolshy bu**er to settle and become a sweetheart, but I kept him separated from the other boys for a while, just in case. I decided to introduce Boofie to Noddy one afternoon. They both cantered around sweetly being great buddies until Noddy double barrelled Boofie in the hind leg and Boof went down like a lead balloon. Luckily there was no damage other than a cut to his leg and a return to my old boy's padok until things settled even more.
So, Noddys arrival was a tad more eventful than I had expected, but all in all, things didn't go too badly. 10 years makes a huge difference lol.
💕
