Prodney’s Blog: Induction programmes…and an awful lot of boxes to fill
When I was standing on Park Lane in Teddington being interviewed by the BBC back in 2021, I couldn’t have imagined what would happen next. At times our future seemed grim. Now, three years later, it couldn’t be rosier.
The whole team is out in force to pack up and clean up, and in a few short weeks we’ll close the gate behind us for the last time. And we have a thousand decisions to make about how to organise our busy operation in our gorgeous new building. Once there’s poo on the pristine new rubber matting in our stables it will start to feel like home. And the humans will need to adapt to having a posh toilet!
While Natalie oversees all activity that requires opposable thumbs, I’m responsible for an induction programme for the Park Lane ponies.
Those of us who were in Teddington before will lead the return, though the building is now so different that we’ll let them explore it calmly and slowly to give them confidence.
Then we’ll introduce more horses, starting with the more confident in the herd, and ponies who are friends will be there together for moral support. They’ll be able to settle quietly into their new environment before we ask anything more of them.
Next will be short walks around the streets of Teddington. Horses are flight animals for a reason, running away from predators saves lives. And as anyone who spends time around horses knows, it’s easy to misinterpret the potential dangers posed by a flapping plastic bag, a box of cauliflowers, or a litter bin … and we live by the mantra ‘better safe than sorry’.
To be a Park Lane pony you need special qualities – being calm and ‘bomb-proof’ are essential. But alongside these we have our natural instincts, and giving us time to assess and adjust will help us adapt more quickly. Ponies who have joined the team in the last three years may never have walked down a residential street, or been overtaken by a car. These are skills that need learning and testing so that they can focus on taking care of our RDA participants.
Obviously we don’t have fields in Teddington, so ponies will rotate between the stables and our regular fields in Surrey. Both have their perks. The space may be limited in Teddington, but it isn’t in Bushy Park and we’ll soon be back to exploring that all over again, and introducing the new ponies to our favourite routes. And during the weeks we’re in the fields we can get up to mischief, including glorious rolls in the mud, and sneaky gallops without saddles.
I’ll write you all an update of how we all get on when my induction programme is underway.
Prodney is Chief Equine Officer (CEO) at Park Lane Stables, and achieved celebrity status following the TV coverage in 2021. And yes, he really is a bit of a star on YouTube and TikTok. Just search for Park Lane Stables and do follow us!