Topsy Photos

Can you see me now???

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Bisto Available For Rehoming

This super pony is available for rehoming again - it seems he was anxious being stabled at his foster home so has been returned.  He didn't have a problem with this previously and this is something that can be worked on, or of course, he's perfectly happy living out.  He's such a clever pony and he's a child's first ridden pony and/or companion.

Here's his details again...

Name: Bisto (Busy for short!)
Age: 11
Height: Between 11.1hh and 11.2hh
Gender: Male - Gelding
Breed: Exmoor X
Suitability: Lead Rein Pony, Horse Agility, driving/logging...Basically an all round star pony!
Health: Very good.  Never had laminitis.  Unshod and works barefoot.

Bisto has lived with Rachael since he was 2 years old and is a real part of the family.  Rachael owns Bisto and we are helping her with find him a wonderful loan home.   As you'll see from his description below, Rachael has done a fabulous job with Bisto and since she developed Multiple Sclerosis she has even trained Bisto to lead and be groomed alongside her mobility scooter.  Bisto was one of the youngsters from the p4p herd.  We will be assisting Rachael with the loan process - if there are periods where Rachael has difficulty with her health we will assist with the yearly home-checks and Bisto can come back to us if there is ever a problem. 

This is what Rachael says about Bisto:

 "We have had Busy since he was 2, we spent 2 years just playing and walking around the village getting used to traffic and every day life. He then went on to Dan Wilson to start and was with him for 6 weeks giving him a really good start, he has been to local shows and done the fancy dress classes, done fun rides (on lead) and beach rides, he leads from another horse, and is generally a well behaved young man (now 11) he loves groundwork and would be an excellent agility pony. He has been brought up in an Intelligent Horsemanship home and keeping to those methods would help cement any relationship with him. He is a sensitive boy and likes a leader, he doesn't like to get things wrong and if he doesn't like something he will hide behind you and purse his lips, bless him. He has never had any cause to mistrust and has a good foundation, he doesn't kick, buck or rear, he will try and nibble fingers (well he is a pony!!) Never had laminitis, always good for the farrier and vet, fine with dogs and farm machinery. I have been doing a lot of long reining with him and planned to start him driving, he also loves logging. I am having to find Busy a new home as I have M.S and things have changed dramatically for me over the last year, He hasn't been ridden for a while but I will find a little local jockey to make sure he is all with that, but I am completely confident he will be fine, he is the kind of pony you can leave for a while , tack up and go out with. He's ridden mostly in his Dually headcollar as he's such a star but has also done riding with a bridle and bit.  He leads from my scooter and whilst out long reining we have dragged cans behind him and the wheelie bin, used a motorbike and bicycles and even taken him out to watch a bike race, not a problem. I am quite limited at the amount I can do with him now and would love Busy to have more adventures".

 Busy currently lives in West Devon.  If you think you can offer Bisto a home, please get in touch with us at people4ponies@yahoo.co.uk or 07968 071179

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Autumnal Colours

 Handsome Arthur with the beautiful autumnal foliage behind...

...We'd like to say thank you everyone for your calendar orders - we've sold half our stock already and it's lovely to hear how much you're enjoying the photos.  All profits go straight to the ponies - they really appreciate your purchases!

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Pony Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of these 4 little ponies who we were involved with helping back in 2011...so I thought I'd post the video again.  It was quite a big project at the time as we were helping to rehome a herd from Dartmoor,  Three years ago today they left Dartmoor...and they have spent 3 happy years with Pat at The Horse's Voice charity.  They're all grown up now, looking great, and have started their ridden careers.  You can see them on The Horse's Voice facebook page here:   https://www.facebook.com/thehorsesvoice 

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Hallworthy Horse Sale

There were 245 horses, ponies and donkeys entered at the sale at Hallworthy today, although, as at Chagford, many were not brought to the sale.  The welfare standards have improved dramatically at the sale over the last few years and this was the first time that all animals had been appropriately penned...we didn't need to ask for anything to be moved and the condition of animals was good.  Some sellers put up haynets for their animals.

It was such a good start and with so many wild horses that needed to be separated to go into the ring, it was sad to see the handling suffer as those doing the splitting got tired.  Towards the end there were 2 or 3 that entered the ring with blood pouring down their noses and another that was withdrawn from sale after it cut a chunk out of its leg and bled.  There was also a female member of staff prodding and poking foals with a stick which is against the law. This was such a shame to see as the sale had overall been run in a much improved manner.

The two little donkey foals that we saw at Chagford did sell at Hallworthy for a combined total of £575 and they both went to the same home.

This was the last wild pony sale of the season so thank you very much to our volunteers Margaret and Angela who travelled long distances to help monitor the sales this year. 

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Love to Ted And Jenny

We're all sending lots of love to Ted and Jenny who lost their faithful dog Tessa today.  Despite a heart and a back condition Tess lived to an amazing 16 years old.  Anyone who's visited the yard will have met Tess - who was very protective of Ted and Jenny and met everyone with lots of barking.  Anyone who knew her knows how loving she was, she will be missed very much!

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Brendon Horse Sale

 There were just 3 ponies and 1 cob entered into Brendon Horse Sale today.  None of the entries even had a minimum bid and so all went unsold. 








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Today's Achievements

We were featured in The Daily Telegraph today in an article about the Dartmoor ponies...probably the best article to cover the story so far:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/11158902/Have-ponies-had-their-day-on-Dartmoor.html

And we need to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Tiverton Free Spirits who donated an amazing £61.77 for us at their meeting tonight - thank you so much everyone for your wonderful support for the ponies!

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You Know It's Autumn When...

...Your pony comes in from the field looking like this!!

Maybe Topsy's been taking advice from Frodo?!  The rain, damp and mud has begun but Topsy's still feeling very sprightly.  The boys were all super-charged today too, charging around at high speed and doing long sliding stops in the mud.

We want to say a big thank you to Margaret who's managed to raise £50 for the ponies already this week!

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Chagford Pony Sale 2014

Today was the annual pony sale at Chagford on Dartmoor - 214 animals were listed in the catalogue, the majority being foals off the moor.  There were also a couple of donkey foals and a mule.  Many of the animals entered were not brought to the sale.  About 134 actually went through the sale ring.  About 79 animals sold and there were more private buyers than previous years.  The recent publicity surrounding the ponies and the meat trade did result in people coming to"rescue" a pony or two.  Most sold for between £10-20.

We did manage to speak to a couple of journalists at the sale - one from The Telegraph and another from The Express on Sunday who were reporting on the plight of the ponies.

Although there were no large lorries at the sale we were very concerned by the presence of one particular dealer who we have seen in previous years.  Whilst they didn't buy much at the sale we believe they might plan to buy unsold ponies directly off the farms...let's hope they're not being exported abroad...

This spotted foal was one that was lucky enough to find a home

 - the blood mark is from the microchipping, not from being injured at the market

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People4ponies Calendar 2015 Now Available!

After the success of our calendars last year, we're delighted to announce that our 2015 People4ponies calendar is now available!  The calendar features our p4p ponies, including our sponsor ponies, and for 2015 it also includes photos of wild ponies on the moors of Dartmoor and Bodmin who we help with our campaigning work. All profits from the sale of the calendars go directly on looking after the ponies and our campaigning work.

Glossy photos with a central binding, each side measures 279 x 216mm (just a little bit narrower than A4) so is nice and big when fully open and displayed on the wall (279 x 440mm).  Calendars are available from us now for just £6.99 (+ postage if necessary) - either get in touch with us directly, or you can order through our shop using Paypal!

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Lulu And Ellie Update

Ellie's been in touch to let us know how she's getting on with Lulu...and there's a rather impressive photo too!  "Hi Faye, getting on really well with Lulu. she is such a good girl and we are doing so much together... we have been to lots of shows and done loads of jumping.  we recently had a cross country lesson which was really fun. we jumped this jump as a warm up for our cross country lesson and it felt like we were flying!! she jumped it alot bigger than I thought but it was so much fun!! Ellie"

Very well done to Ellie and Lulu! Keep up the good work!  What a fantastic photo!

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Horse Agility September

We've just received our results from this month's Horse Agility Upper Level courses which Rocky and Arthur are competing in.  Arthur entered the above video in the Bronze Liberty competition and scored 95/100.  It was a very difficult course this month and we didn't have long to work on it - just 15 days.  Although we mastered the First Level pretty well at walk we didn't quite master trotting seamlessly through the required obstacles...but we still did well...Rocky scored 94 giving him joint second place and Arthur scored 93, giving him 5th place.  Clever ponies :0)

Margaret and Faye have been to Sandford today where they had a stall to raise money for the ponies - it made £45.80 from the sale of plants and tombola tickets.  Thank you to Jenny and Ted for donating the cost of the table for us - and for donating a new pair of wellies which were snapped up very quickly.

We need to say a big thank you to Margaret for all her work making jams and marmalades for us - we have quite a selection now...damson, gooseberry, blackcurrant, blackberry and apple jam and jelly.  Gill also made some Crab Apple Jelly for us.

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October Calendar...Conservation Grazing Without Stallions

October's calendar photo of Maisie, Star and Misty is quite well timed as it gives me the chance to talk about our conservation ponies and the fact that we don't produce unwanted foals each year...in fact we don't produce any foals at all!  We don't run stallions with our conservation ponies - we've either had groups of mares; or geldings and mares together.

The ponies are brilliant conservation grazers because they produce just the right environment for the wild flower species to flourish.  We're very lucky to have special sites for the ponies to graze on and each site either has an owner or warden that checks on the ponies each day.  We do a "round-up" once a year so the ponies can have a check up and have their feet trimmed if necessary.  All of our ponies are handled before they go out grazing.  They are not completely wild but they are also not tame enough to mug people for their lunches!!

When Paul and Cilla took on the original herd of 53 there were 7 stallions/colts in the group and the priority was to stop the breeding.  They separated the stallions/colts from the girls and foals and both groups then lived in separate fields.  This worked well, with the boys having plenty of room to graze in.  Cilla noted "This separation was accomplished in October 2003 and the bachelor boys settled down in their group, usually quietly grazing but occasionally behaving like a lot of jack the lads". Of course, our advantage, compared to those on Dartmoor is that we are the only people involved in our areas and we're not battling with other people sharing the same area who might have other ideas!

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