"Thank You"s



The girls

We have some more thank yous to announce this week - Brendan at Sainsbury's in Exeter donated to us all the "out of date" carrots and apples from the store this week, which meant the ponies have had extra delicious treats to keep them busy.  Ted and Jenny also purchased some replacement wheels and fixed our special red trolley, which we find invaluable for moving hay, water and heavy objects around - it really helps us to look after our backs...thank you!



Apples and carrots donated for the ponies

Sara has been busy promoting our new people4ponies mugs and has raised £30 for the ponies with the help of Sonia, Viv, Annie, and Angela - the ladies from the local skittles team.

Ready for a walk

 On Tuesday, the weather was perfect - blue sky, not a cloud in sight.  After taking a couple of the ponies for a walk, we had more time for doing self-selection. In the photo below, Graham is learning how to use one of the special techniques we use to get the ponies used to unfamiliar objects - Dan was frightened of the feed scoop to start with and wouldn't go near it, and Graham helped Dan to see that it wasn't scary at all.  Hazel-Ann and Graham have donated a second scoop to use for self-selection, so that should speed up the process a bit - it does take a while to get around to all 6 ponies with all their supplements.

Dan self-selecting using the scoop

Choosing supplements

Frodo reverted to taking advantage of electric fencing that isn't attached to the electrics and limbo-ing through in it search of lusher grass.  Today, Catherine and I spent many hours sorting out the fence and making sure that it is now all attached to the mains supply of electricity!

On the whole, all the ponies are enjoying being out much more - the continuing dry cold weather is really improving the ground conditions.  If the trough freezes over, Frodo has a clever trick of using one of his front legs to smash the ice.

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Munchie's Move

Sunday was Munch's big day because he moved to his new home.  We brushed him and removed the final bits of mud in the morning, and then in the afternoon walked him down the road to his new home.  He was very relaxed about the whole thing and I think his visit with "Uncle" Frodo last week helped a lot.  Pete and Stella had made a cosy stable for him, with a haynet already waiting.  Perfect!  Jenny kindly donated Munch a bag of rosehips (one of his favourite supplements) and Sara carried them on the journey.




Getting brushed

Looking smart in the sunshine

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Ready to go

"I remember you!"

Ooh Stella...do you have rosehips??



What ARE those ponies up to?




Yumm!

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Spring's Arrived!

It's been such a busy week this week...we had a big shipment of bedding arrive last Tuesday, which should keep us going for the next 3-4 months or so.  We order a tonne at a time, so to help with the heaving about of bags, Ted kindly lets us load the tractor to move it across the yard.  Tufty is so funny as she's really not bothered about the tractor at all.  She was snoozing in the sunshine at the time, and just about opened an eye when the tractor went by to see what all the fuss was about with the boys running in the yard.  Graham caught this photo of the loading of the tractor beginning.

This week was volunteer Catherine's birthday and Gill made one of her wonderful cakes - Catherine has had a couple of lambs born this week and is hand rearing them, so the sheep theme was very appropriate.

I've also done 2 talks this week, one on Thursday evening for the ladies of the Stoke Cannon WI, and the other this afternoon for The Monday Club in Witheridge - thank you very much everyone for inviting me to talk about p4p's work, and for your wonderful donations.

And possibly the best thing..we've had about 4 days of dry weather in a row - probably for the first time since last spring - having some sunshine is AMAZING!  We've managed to go for a couple of walks and enjoyed seeing the snowdrops and daffodils.

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We Do Like Happy Pony Stories...

Some of you might remember that back in autumn/early winter 2011, we were helping to rehome a large group of ponies from Dartmoor.  We made a video of the story of 4 of the foals that came from the moor...

We have kept in touch with Pat from The Horse's Voice in Leceistershire (where the foals found their lovely new home)...and my, they have grown into super little ponies.  Here are some photos from the charity's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Horses-Voice/153132668048666) of George, Ozzie, Lily and Faye:

George and Ozzie

Faye - what a fantastic hair-do!

Lily



George having fun helping with the bedding!!

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Munch And Frodo's Adventure

 

Munch has been offered a new home, and as it is not far away, today we took him and Frodo for a walk so that Munch could meet his prospective new companions.  Tanya and Catherine spent quite a lot of time this morning making Munch look nice and smart, and removed rather a lot of mud from his coat!

 

Munch's meeting with the younger horse in particular went very well.  Whilst he and Munch were greeting eachother, Frodo made good use of his time choosing to sample the full haynet that was hanging outside the stable.  Within a few minutes, all 3 ponies were grazing from the same hay-net.  If all goes to plan, Munch should be moving to his new home by the end of the week.

 

First greetings

Sharing x3

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Neil Parish Press Release On Hot Branding Of Ponies

Neil Parish, our local MP, has been supporting us on the issue of hot branding and the BBC issued this story today: "Hot branding ponies 'indefensible' and must end, says MP" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21320115

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Basil's Homecheck

Yesterday we went to visit one of our loan ponies, Basil, to see how he's getting on in his foster home.  He's doing really well and has these two lovely companions Chester (on the left) and Herbert (on the right).  Herbert's just as cheeky as Frodo, and also seems to have the same escapology skills... he recently took Basil with him on an adventure next door, to the graveyard of the church to do some trimming of the grass!! 

Hazel-Ann had brought some carrots with her, and as you can see in the photo, there were 3 rather willing volunteers ready to try them.

Basil's really become part of the family here and he also lives with some sheep and pigs, who are very friendly and were keen to meet us too.

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Snow Videos

Here are a few short videos of the ponies in the snow from a couple of weeks ago:

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