Poppy is a Section A Welsh Strawberry Roan  mare that we bought in October 2006 for Dylan to back and school, she was three years old and wild in the field. We bought her on the Thursday and on the Saturday Dylan was out hacking on her. He then rode her intermittently until April when he decided she needed to learn to jump!  which she did to a good height. Two weeks later we received a text to say there was a lovely foal in our field! We went to look and there was this little colt foal. Poppy was coping very well considering two weeks before after she had finished jumping we put her in the top field to put on some weight.

POPPY
Dylan was over the moon with HIS surprise arrival and spent the whole weekend just looking at him. A few days later after seeing that this foal has a perfect letter c on his head had to have a name that started with a c. We decided that he was a Cariad which means darling in Welsh. He was then given the name Gorwelion Cariad Joe. We thought that we may call him Joe, but Cariad has stuck because he is a little darling. so we have dedicated a whole page to him, with photos of his progress.
23rd April 2007.

26th May 200726th May 2007Cariad all legsand mum 26th May 2007Share with me, mum
SEPTEMBER 2007

I will have my own bucket then.
OCTOBER 2007
Cariad has come on in leaps and bounds and is developing his very own cheeky personality. He likes to think that Quest is his dad, but is still very attached to mum.
Saturday 6th October finally got a head collar on to Cariad. It certainly took some doing and he was not amused by it neither was his mum at his misbehavior, he flew all around the paddock before he finally gave in and let us put it on. Now the hard work of training him begins.
He has now grown his winter coat which is really fluffy and he is in desperate need of a good grooming.
Cariad not amused in his new head collar, and with one really big grass belly.
You can't catch me.
A VERY SAD DAY 18th OCTOBER 2007.
I have said from the day he was born that Cariad is a very special baby. He came to us as a very special gift. His mother taught Dylan lots of things she is the first pony that Dylan has backed in all on his own and will be the easiest that he ever does.
However on Thursday 18th October at 8.30 Poppy and Cariad along with Quest and La La were standing at the top of the field and Poppy had shouted good morning to Dylan as she does every morning as he leaves for school.
At 8.45 Tony heard what he thought was Poppy calling to him, he shouted back at her, but she carried on shouting, when he turned to look it was not Poppy but in fact Cariad shouting in a voice exactly like his mothers. Cariad had until this time the most pathetic whinny. When Tony went into the field he could see Poppy at the bottom of the field and Cariad running back and forth from his mum to him.  Tony shouted Poppy and she did not respond he knew something was wrong. At 8.50 Tony found our darling Poppy in the field not even fully lying down, her heart had just given up. We spoke to the vet and he seems to think that  she either had an aneurysm or a heart attack. 
Our Poppy was only four years old, this seems to be so unfair. We were all devastated especially Dylan. Even worse was watching Cariad trying to wake his mum! Needless to say it has been a very painful and sad time for us. However we have had to pull ourselves together for the sake of our other horses who are grieving too and for Cariad. Now we know that Cariad is a special gift for us.
Cariad has always believed that Quest is his Dad (even though he is not) and has now attached himself to Quest, which has made it difficult for Dylan to continue with his lessons as Cariad stresses when Quest leaves the field, which then stresses Dylan.  We have put La La in to the field with them both in the hope that Cariad will attach to La La also. However today Saturday Dylan decided to ride in the paddock bareback with just a head collar and as you can see from the following pictures Cariad will be ok as long as he can follow his Quest.Following the leader.
Will he go over too?
No chance he will go around.
I am so handsome, scruffy but handsome.
As you can see Poppy has left us a very special present.
7th November 2007
Tony and I started training Cariad to walk on the lead last Friday, he struggled against it at first, but quickly settled, we managed to brush him and make him look slightly less scruffy, he also walked around the paddock a few times with out too many stops and with out the need to push him too hard!
On Sunday after the high of his show jumping success Dylan came with me to the field he did not know that we had worked with Cariad on the Friday, Cariad came up for his feed as usual and I caught him and put on the lead rope, again without too much of a struggle, after having some of his feed I walked him around the paddock once then Dylan walked him about stopping and starting and stopping and starting and swinging things around and about for a good hour, , oh and Dylan manged to give him a brush too and pick up his front legs. Thanks for taking an interest in our very special foal. Many people have asked how he is getting on without his mum. I must say that some days he looks very sad, but now most of the time he is ok. He spends his time with La la who herself is pregnant and she is proving to be a doting aunt to Cariad.
Dylan is enjoying working with Cariad and Cariad has started shouting  to Dylan every morning, but Dylan is still missing his Poppy very much, and is still very sensitive. He like Cariad needs lots of cuddles. Here are the latest photographs.

Friday 2nd November. Ok I will stand with this rope hanging from my chin!

Sunday 4th November 2007.
Shall I pull him around this field, because I can if I want to. No I will be an angel and just wait.

Twenty one minutes past four and getting dark, and Dylan still has La la to ride!
Here they come learning together mums two handsome boys.