STAIRGATE TO STOP SPARKIE SNOOZING UPSTAIRS

LARA MASKELL, 38, is a photographer and animal handler for TV and film. She lives in Surrey with her partner and their children Archie, 10, and Arabella, four. She says:

STRICTLY speaking, our Shetland pony Sparkie is supposed to live in our private 33-acre woodland. Not that you’d know it given the amount of time he spends inside our house.

In fact, but for the stair gate we’ve installed to block his path, he’d be upstairs in a flash to make himself at home in one of the bedrooms.

We got him two years ago as a

companion for my ex-polo pony and for my children to ride. I was tidying the house one morning when Sparkie suddenly appeared in the kitchen. Arabella giggled and squealed, ‘Get out, Sparkie!’ but we thought it was adorable that he’d joined us indoors.

Since then he’s been in the house constantly, stealing food, snoozing in the living room and generally looking to be made a fuss of, much to the disgust of our four dogs — he’s 24in high, only an inch taller than our wolfdog, whose bed he likes to trample all over.

At 11 years old, he’s middle aged in Shetland pony years — they typically live up to 25 years — but he’s not short on party tricks, including climbing up onto stools and sofas, saying ‘please’ for a treat by offering his front leg, and lying down to indicate that he wants a cuddle.

Our back door is open a lot, as the dogs and children are in and out all the time, and Sparkie never misses an opportunity to sneak in. If there’s the slightest sniff of food he appears in the kitchen in a flash, quite often while we’re eating lunch.

He can’t get enough of carrots, raids the fruit bowl, and would devour digestive biscuits every day if we let him.

But he’s short and tubby and we have to watch his waistline, so they’re his once-ayear treat at Christmas.

Even if there’s no food on offer in the house he’s never in any hurry to go back outdoors and will settle down in the kitchen or living room instead.