Pony Updates

14/08/06

There has been a tremendous amount of interest shown in our work, from both local and national media most recently and excitingly the ITV programme This Morning have been out filming our work! We will keep you advised as to when this will be shown. It is absolutely wonderful but it does highlight the major problem we are facing. We can't afford to recruit any volunteers! Sounds strange, as voluntary work is free, but we have to stump up just over £1000 for insurance before we can let anyone help us with our ponies. We also need to build a field shelter and are fundraising for that. Ironically this could probably be done cheaper with voluntary help - but we can't afford get the volunteers.

The work we're doing with our ponies is very time intensive as they all need to be regularly handled so they get used to being around people and are confident. So - if anyone wants to raise funds for us, or send donations, we can expand our work by getting more helpers. Or if any other organisation has experienced this problem and has some advice we would welcome their input.

The vet's visit for the castrations went very smoothly. Apart from the castrations, the ponies had their feet trimmed and vaccinations all at the same time and both the vet and farrier were fantastic with them. They were obviously sore for a few days, we had wondered if they would come any where near us after but next day I sat in the field and they all surrounded me and said hello so don’t think they held any grudges!

Our two girls Pixie and Trixie have also had their feet trimmed, we had to separate them from the boys until after the castrations so they have been living with a couple of older mares and a 16hh Irish TB, it is quite a sight seeing tiny Trixie stood next to him! They have both come on really well though and we moved the ponies in to our new grazing at the beginning of August and they are all back together again. We have 14 acres for them which we hope will now be our permanent base, the two older mares and TB are also in with them which is really good as it means they have older horses to look out for them and teach them.

Previously the boys had been moved to some grazing that had generously been given to us for a few months and they loved it, they were either eating, galloping around playing or snoozing. I have never seen ponies play so much! They got so comfortable with us too and one day all of them were flat out snoozing in the field next to where we were sat down which really was a big sign of how much they now trust us.

We need to do a bit of work on the new land such as getting fencing up and a field shelter in for the winter and we are in the process of doing this. We also need to fence an area off for their training so we can keep the other ponies out as they are all so nosey!

All the ponies have finally lost their winter baby fur and they look amazing. When I look back to the photos of them when they first arrived as scruffy 3-6 month old foals they are unrecognisable both in the way they are looking and how they behave, they are now secure ponies in their herd and say hello rather than run a mile at the sight of a human!

We are continuing to work with them to get them handled and are now looking for loan homes for Star, Socks, Reggie and Basil. As they are yearlings they obviously need to be homed as companion ponies for the time being but once they reach 4 they can be broken as riding or driving ponies. Handling work would need to be kept up and they can be introduced to items such as saddles in the meantime.