Polly’s diary: my first photoshoot!

Hi everyone! It’s Sarah from PONY mag here! So, by now you’ll have found out our big secret. Well, our 14hh secret. Yep, that’s right, Polly has joined the PONY team and she is literally the best colleague ever. She gives epic cuddles, has a super fluffy coat and a gorgeous colour. Her typing isn’t great, but hooves and keyboards don’t mix that well, so we’ll let her off for now…

Anyway, I’m just here to introduce you to Polly’s diary. She’s going to be sharing stories from her life, behind the scenes insights into shoots for PONY mag, and general pony goss. So, keep an eye on the website, PONY YouTube and in the magazine for more from Polly!

My new home is pretty cool – busier than where I lived before, but the other ponies are suuuuuper nice, and my field buddies are a lot of fun, too. I’d been living with the same family for quite a long time, so it’s taken a few weeks for me to get used to the new routine and people. And can I say, those PONY girls are just a bit clingy? Like, they keep appearing and telling me how cute I am and brushing me and stuff. Errrr, okay then… I have a couple of riding buddies, and I was chuffed to find they love to take me jumping, for zoomies and even out in the lorry for lessons. I like to be busy, so it suits me!

Anyway, I’m getting distracted. I wanted to tell you about a Very Weird Day. It started on what seemed like a normal Wednesday. Except rather than giving me breakfast and then turning me straight out into the field for me to have a roll (my literal fave thing to do as soon as I get my toes on the mud), today Sarah and Kirsty arrived and told me I was going to be having my photo taken.

Errrr, excuse me, but as if I’ve not heard them take a million photos on their phones, and I’ve definitely been in a tonne of selfies, too. But whatever, they gave me a whopper huge new haynet (bonus) and then spent aaaaaages grooming me (which I secretly love). But whatever, I got breakfast, and a nice, fresh haynet, so I wasn’t complaining. And in hindsight I should have known something was up when Zoe arrived in the dark yesterday afternoon to wash my tail.

Anyway, long story short, while they were brushing me (a lot) I realised that there was someone watching us. Weird much? Turns out his name is Jon and he’s a photographer and he was taking pics of me. And I have to say I look EPIC in them. You can see them in PONY mag, of course, but also in the vlog Kirsty did of our day over on the PONY YouTube channel.

Ok – back to last Wednesday. Once I was super sparkly, it was time for a ride. We went for a hack (I love a hack, nothing like being super nosy and seeing what’s going on out in the world, right?), and then once we’d all warmed up, it was time to go into the arena for some jumping. At this point, Jon got out something Kirsty called a drone. She told me that they use it loads on PONY shoots and the ponies are fine about it. Well, I don’t know who those ponies are but I was not too sure to begin with. It was like some kind of buzzing insect and what pony likes flies? Kirsty and Jon gave me lots of scratches on my neck, and Jon told me he’d put it up nice and high in the air. And then do you know what? I forgot all about it, because jumping is my fave (after food) and I was just keen to get going and show everyone my epic skills.

At the end of the shoot, everyone spent ages telling me how amazing I’d been (err, yes of course?), and then – the best bit – Sarah appeared with my dinner and a big haynet. Honestly, I needed a day off after all that excitement.