This page (text of original article or translation of English original prepared for tom-bdsm.cz) is copyrighted, and must not be copied without my prior permission, with the only exception of copying for private use. This does not include "private" or personal sites, i.e. you MAY NOT copy the article and republish it.
Main page of this web: tom-bdsm.cz. Please come back again! Bookmark this page (Ctrl+D in IE)
Author: (c) 2001 Tom
This will be a rather long post describing my 12 days at DeFerre pony farm, Devon, England. There was some interest on PetWeek mailing list in my adventures, so please bear with me. Also, it is important to note that Czech version is about 3 times longer than the translation. The reason is: Czech version includes detailed day by day account, including my thoughts concerning my future (my lifelong partner just quit me, and it took some time for us to reunite). These thoughts etc. and the whole development of our relationship into 24/7 D/s are too long - they're scattered around our site and I simply don't have the time to translate them all to English.
Introduction, background
My account of what I experienced
The "action" part of my account
To begin, as this web page will be visited by people who may not be subscribed to Pet Week list, some background.
>Tom wrote
>>> Last week I have returned from DeFerre pony farm in Devon,
>>> England, where I spent 12 days working in the woods, some of
>>> the time in "pony mode".
>Kai M. Becker wrote
>>Interesting. Could you tell us some more about that event?
>Tom wrote
>>> I will probably write a short account of what I did there, will
>>> ask the Ladies for their permission to post it, and then get
>>> back to you, the list readers.
Sir Guy wrote:
I just happened to visit De Ferre with Trixie whilst Thomas was there;
he seemed very good company, somebody who would fit in and enjoy Pet
Week a lot, and be a very good person to share a car with.
This is the text of a flyer I circulated for the good ladies of De Ferre
De Ferre
c/o Box DF
PO Box 135,
Hereford HR2 6YE
[Until they get their own arrangements - we are not formally linked]
http://www.deferre.co.uk - e-mail: [email protected]
De Ferre is a non-profit making organisation devoted to conservation of woodland and native British wildlife. We occupy 15 acres of prime woodland in the West Country. Surrounded by mature pine trees, the wood is a mixture of conifer and broadleaf inhabited by deer, owls, rabbits and buzzards to name but a few of our permanent residents.
One fund raising activity of De Ferre is the use of a portion of the wood as a dedicated pony and other animal role-play facility. The proceeds contribute towards the cost of maintaining the woodland. Pony facilities currently include a range of secluded woodland tracks. A dressage ring and stables are under construction.
Our events are not open to the general public, only to members of our club, Friends of De Ferre. Life time membership is L10 per postal address which is deductible from your first booking.
Fortunately their place is as different from Denmark as possibly could be; just woods and tracks, no buildings yet. I say fortunately because it means I can go on going to both places!
They are investing a huge amount of time and money to get it properly useful, by drainage, laying paths, etc. Whilst there Trixie and I, (well, actually mostly Trixie), did a lot of work taking out old tree- stumps in the paths. We even used Thomas as a Forestry pony to pull one out. (Sorry about half-killing you in the process, Thomas!)
I thoroughly recommend De Ferre to everybody!
-- Sir Guy Masterleigh Bt.
Academy Incorporated - turning fantasy into reality
Miss Prims Muir Academy, The Academy Club & The Other Pony Club
http://www.tawse.com - http://www.academy-network.com
tel +44 (0)1432 343100 fax +44 (0)870 0529 9841
Pet Week Homepage: http://www.pets-de.org/petweek
Moderator and Pet Week organizer: [email protected]
To unsubscribe: [email protected]
I do not want to write mindless SM porn, I want to convey my impression from the place, so that you could make your own decision, to decide to go there or not. If you want to review the description of "action", you have to scroll down to about 2/3 of this post :-) (To the words "On day 4, ...")
Basic statistics: I am male, 28, Czech, I was living with my wife (still not ex-) for 11 years, until we split some 2 months ago (after 7 years of more and more frequent quarrels, for the first 5 years without any trace of bdsm, so bdsm was definitely not the cause of our problems).
During the recent 2-3 years, we started to indulge in bdsm, I was primarily into D/s, while my wife was heavily into SM. I started translating lots of bdsm articles and stories into Czech, I put up my web site, which is visited by about 300 people a day (half of them come from abroad - strange, as 95% of the contents is in Czech, except for the pictures, which need no translation :-)
I have furnished a nice dungeon in our house, made lots of SM toys, had lots of ideas for scenes, we lived out (not acted out) the scenes... but we were somehow both still missing a 24/7 D/s relationship. Was I a bad Dom? Was L only trying to please me, and not expanding her potential and enjoying being a sub? Anyway, we played daily, both were quite happy, the feelings were intense, but the problem was that many times before our relationship was not stable enough, and as I have learnt, SM is strong stuff, but not strong enough to hold a relationship together.
I believe 24/7 D/s takes lots of patience from both partners, and both must have their relationship very high on their priority ladder, otherwise it is too easy to use D/s as an excuse for arguments, quarrels ("you did that, I did not want it, I obeyed, but now I regret that" - this repeated every other day would destroy any relationship, don't you think?).
Back to the point - I had been considering a visit to Devon for about 12 months before I actually went there. I waited for a time when my stay would help the place the most, and when the Ladies (Mistress Jessica and Lady Charlotte) would be ready för my long term presence. The time schedule was finalized about a month before my arrival date, and on March 6th, 2001 I arrived at the location. My original plan was to have a holiday, help the Ladies with building the premises, to take a rest from endless hours of sitting at my computer (I work as a freelance translator, working from home), and given the fact that we knew each other over the email for about two years, the Ladies being quite skilled in D/s and me having almost no limits (physical) whatsoever, no one was ruling out bdsm play.
The pony farm-to-be is a plot of forest situated in a middle of a huge field, which itself is not accessible to general public. When you arrive at the location, you feel truly embraced by the nature; the place is silent except for a few birds singing, and very faded distant noises of the motorway. The plot is not completely flat, but the slope is very mild - just good enough to help natural drainage and to make pony races bit more interesting. The premises will be available for rent for private events, some weekends will be dedicated to ponyplay "lessons", i.e. complete novices will be able to come to the land and given a "training course" in ponyplay, so that they will learn if ponyplay is their cup of tea or not (given the fact that ponyplay is probably the most costly of all bdsm disciplines - all the carts, harnesses etc. etc., the idea of "land and equipment hire" sounds really good, doesn't it?).
The problem is that the work on the premises has started this Spring, and it will take a tremendous amount of work to make the land a place with all the paths, stands, dresssage ring, pens, stables, barns, parking, camp place, BBQ, toilets etc. which are necessary for large-scale events (which are planned).
For that reason, Friends of DeFerre foundation was created, which should raise some money for the work to begin (or rather to return a small proportion of the funds which the Ladies have already spent on developing the premises; this sum will be instantly invested in further improvements of the land).
The week starting on March 9th was a "volunteer week". Those willing to help with the work (having been promised a bit of ponyplay as a reward) were invited to come.
I spent the first 3 days working in the woods. I loved the place and the work (I need no Domme watching over me closely with a whip and correcting me, but some other volunteers were expecting it... although the rules were set out clearly in advance, it was evident that some people are only listening to what goes on inside their head - they probably expected some kind of "slavery", being "forced to work" or whatever - there was no time for this - given the nature of the work (planting trees, moving materials, digging trenches, laying drainage pipe, backfilling the trenches) this would require one Domme for each "slave" and this was simply not feasible.
On day 4, two volunteers showed up. R. was about twice as old as me, D. was about my age. Both of them were curious and willing to learn what ponyplay is about. They had no previous experience. We spent about 6 hours working in the woods, the Ladies, tired from the previous 3 days of work, were dressed up in riding outfits and did only lighter work, concentrating on us, being still within easy reach of their riding crops from our backs or buttocks. The atmosphere was great - we, the volunteers, performed sometimes arduous job, while the Ladies were circling us, not exactly commanding us around (well, not all the time), but anyway keeping our spirits high. Sometimes, one of the volunteers started to either discuss or even act out his fantasy, and as far as I recall, such attempt was never turned down. So we could talk about different opinions on SM, about our turn-ons and turn-offs, fantasies etc. but gradually the whole thing started to look like a scene from an OWK movie. I think that whenever you are with a bunch of friendly pervs, there is potential for play in everything you do - so we had lots of fun during the work. After lunch, the volunteers were shown the gear (carts and harnesses), taken for a trot along the paths on the reins, without the carts first, then harnessed to the carts, and driven around. It was nice to see how easily the Ladies got the volunteers into the role and how much fun everyone was having.
My time in the role was yet to come. On Friday evening, Sir Guy of The Other Pony Club came to a visit. I was threatened to be dressed in the drag and welcome him this way (I would not object, although this is not my cup of tea), but in the end I spent the evening at the Lady Charlotte's feet, in the cuffs I brought to England with me. Such position, the caresses of the riding crop and the tinkling of the chain which attached my wrists and ankles to the floor completely changed my mindset. I was reduced to the single link of chain held in Lady Charlotte's hands.
Next morning we did only lighter work, as most of the hard work was already completed. Sir Guy was planning to take Trixie for a trot around, but she had left her harness back in Hereford and did not want to improvise. They spent the morning helping us with the work. Before lunch I was taken to one of the paths and harnessed, haltered, bridled, my arms bound behind my back. We were discussing my ponyplay experience beforehand; I used to carry L on my shoulders, and we enjoyed riding through meadows, forests etc. On the other hand, I welded up a cart so that I could drive L as well. Now I was harnessed to a cart for the first time, but having been training L for quite a long time, I was quite sure that I know how to react to the other end of the reins. I told the Ladies I wanted to break the track record achieved by R. the day before, and I wanted to try being driven through the forest when blindfolded. Why? Running on a bumpy terrain requires great deal of trust between the rider and the pony, and walking blindfolded requires even more.
I was driven by Sir Guy, who wanted to test Ladies' carts. He did a few rounds with me and warmed me up. Mistress Jessica took me to the Queens Drive, a wide strip of meadow in the center of the wood, where the riders will be able to overtake each other (it will be impossible on the narrow tracks in the wood).
Mistress Jessica knew I love hard tasks, so she really urged me to do my best. I was not used to pulling the cart, so my movement must have looked terribly, but we safely crossed the whole length of Queens Drive in a good time.
We returned to the small dressage ring and then Lady Charlotte took me to Queens Drive again. I managed 8.5 mph and was quite happy with that. Then we did a few rounds on the forest tracks, I ran 9.3 mph on a flat section of the path, then a big rake was attached to the cart and we cleared the surface of the track with it. We tested out a trailer - modified wheelbarrow which was filled with gravel and I had to pull my rider on the cart and the full wheelbarrow to the bridge, where the gravel was used.
Being ridden bllindfolded was exquisite - I truly loved the feeling of mutual trust, from both ends of the rein. Then I was tethered to a feeding trough and I had some cereals and water (with my bit removed). Needless to say that I was in the role all the time, so I did not speak, I tried my best to convey the messages which I needed to (like "the harness cuts into my ear" - it is surprisingly difficult to be specific about such things when you can't speak AND can't use your hands at the same time). I had to deal with most of the problems (flies biting me, branches hurting me) in the same way as real horses to - by trying to scratch the affected parts of my body on tree branches, trunks etc. I believe it helped me a lot that I do real horse riding few times a month, so I know the habits of real horses .When no one looked, I stole a chocolate biscuit from the other end of the feeding trough using only my mouth to open a bag of biscuits, not dropping it, and not disturbing the bottles which were scattered around the bag of biscuits. I was truly having a good time. After an hour or so, I was not acting, but feeling like a horse. Being unable to act as a human, I very soon started thinking like a horse. This is even more supported by the fact that everyone walking by regarded me as such. Simple life, no worries, just willingness to serve. I loved it.
In the afternoon we even tried the tugs made of steel chains, connected to a wooden crossbar, attached to a tree stump using another chain. I was actually used to pull out the stumps! The mud prevented me from succeeding, but Sir Guy helped me by pushing me forward by all his weight, while Trixie and the Ladies were prying the stump out using crowbars.
I was thanked and praised for all the work I did, as well as for my service as a pony that day, unharnessed, and served as a target for a cart whip for a while.
We left the premises at around 4 p.m., much sooner than the days before. But all the work planned for the week was done, and we had lots of bdsm the last day. The Ladies were absolutely wonderful to me. I was close to crying with joy quite a few times during the day. I hope everyone was having as much fun as I had, the experience was lovely, being in role for most part of the day is hard to describe. It really gets to your head (and yes, I have tossed the chain with my hooves, making it tinkle every time Lady Charlotte was walking by - I will never forget the night before, which I have already mentioned).
I am looking forward to returning to De Ferre in July and to visiting PetWeek in August.
If anyone is interested in coming to Czech Republic, just e-mail me (the address is at the top of main page of this web) and if you are interested, you can spend your holiday at my place.
To return back to the page you came from (e.g. a section of this web, list of articles, active picture map...) - alt+left arrow in IE, or mouse click on "Back" arrow in your browser's address bar.