A Huge Thank You...

Arthur modelling the new reins and lead rope!

...From all of us to Jill and Clive Ponsford of Blue Moon Equine who generously donated a brand new lead rope...and a brand new pair of rope reins to People4ponies today!  We really appreciate their donations!  We already had one of their leadropes and it has been our favourite for some time now...it is so exciting to have another as it's going to make such a difference to our pony work...and particularly for our volunteers who no longer need to fight over who's going to use which rope out on a walk!  Clive and Jill were so kind to deliver our ropes too, so we didn't even have to pay postage.  We've also discovered that they stock Easyboots too which is always a handy thing to know.  If you'd like to find out more about the Blue Moon Equine products and hoof services please see their website http://bluemoonequine.co.uk/

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Spring Rolling

Today was what might be our last opportunity to roll the fields for a while...so we were allowed to break local Devon tradition (where no farm machinery moves on a Sunday) and get the little tractor in action before the rain comes tomorrow.  The weather has been fine for 5 days now so things have dried up a lot.  There's still quite a few impassable stretches so we walked the field before hand to mark out the "dangerous" boggy sections with electric fence posts to try to lower the chances of getting stuck in the mud.  We moved the boundary fence so we could gain access with the little tractor, which the ponies were very happy about because they could reach some stretches of grass that they haven't had access to in quite a while!

The tractor got stuck on just the last section, signalling that we had reached the limit of what was possible to do!  With Charlie's help we were able to free ourselves without having to be rescued by a bigger tractor!!

Thank you to Margaret and Charlie for helping us to get all our chores done today!

Bobby and Margaret's turn for a photoshoot!

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Saturday Helpers

 Arthur's been busy with our Saturday helpers Faie and Peter today.  It's such lovely weather that we went out for a walk and Arthur was such a good boy in the traffic and along the new route that he hadn't been along before.  The daffodils are beautiful in the sunshine!

Arthur and Faie back out in the field

Beautiful sunset to finish the day!

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Rosettes!

The boys have been doing photo shoots with their rosettes...they also won some flag bunting for their courses - one with colourful triangles and one with union jack flags...so very handy for training for St John's Fayre too!

Arthur says..."Shouldn't these be carrot flavoured??"...

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We're So Proud...!

Of all the ponies...but today especially proud of Dan and Bobby!  The results for their Horse Agility Starter competition course were published today...it was a class of 19 ponies...Dan won 2nd place with his entry, scoring 97 points!  Bobby was just behind with 3rd place and 96 points.  Well done boys!

Faie with Dan

And, of course, it's not just the Horse Agility that they've been up to.  Here's Dan with our newest volunteer Faie, who offered him some of the apples which she brought for the ponies to enjoy (they've had a very lucky week for apples and carrots this week!).  Faie was also able to stroke Dan.  As we wrote earlier in the week, he met Julie - another visitor who stroked him in the yard...and then yesterday Charlie was able to interact with him too...so a hat-trick of interaction successes for Dan.  Such a big achievement for this little chap.

Thea also sent this photo that she took, capturing the moment Topsy decided to interact with Julie.  Just so lovely to see their progress :0)

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"Thank You"

Topsy says Thank You!

It's been such a busy week again - lots of good things going on, and so lots of "thank you"s from the ponies!

We have big "thank you"s this week.  Sandra, Leslie and Josh came to visit us last weekend and enjoyed meeting the ponies...and today we have some big "thank you"s to Diane, Julie and Thea.  We are so grateful to Thea and the Dunster Meditation Circle who have decided to donate the proceeds from their meetings to People4ponies - we really can't thank them enough!  They also brought with them a huge amount of delicious apples and carrots which the ponies are delighted with!  It was nice to see our ponies coming to meet them too - Topsy came to take some apple from our visitors, and Julie was able to carefully approach Dan in the yard and stroke him a few times.  It's so lovely to see the ponies growing so much in confidence and the progress they are making!

Faye met with our patron Neil Parish MP last week - Neil is such a support to p4p and our work, and amongst other things was able to discuss the current problems and frustrations charities have with the lack of Animal Welfare Act enforcement - such as in the recent case in Cornwall last week.  We really value all the efforts that Neil has made, and is making, on our behalf!

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Dan And Bobby "Do" Horse Agility

We wanted to take advantage of the simpler course for Dan and Bobby to start doing some Horse Agility.

Thank you again to Jenny for doing the videoing! We are very proud of both ponies and how they've done.  We had to teach them to go through the curtain and do the hula hoop...so it was quite challenging for them.  We learnt something quite interesting with the curtain training - Dan and Bobby see the white strands on the curtain as electric tape strands and are very fearful of those...but they have really mastered the red and blue brilliantly!

Bobby was very distracted with something going on down the driveway.  He did film most of a second attempt but we had to abandon it as Oscar the dog opened the door and ran off in pursuit of the cat...Bobby didn't mind but rescuing the cat was very necessary!!

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Well Done Ponies!

We're so proud of Arthur and Rocky!  The results for their Horse Agility competitions were published today and they did brilliantly!

For their liberty competitions which we posted earlier in the week...Arthur scored 98 out of 100, and won 3rd place...and Rocky scored 97 gaining him 5th place...brilliant!

On their lead rein course - they both scored 94 out of 100, which means they share joint 1st place...and they've both been promoted to the more difficult Medium level!  Well done boys!  Thank you very much to Jenny for doing the videoing for us!

Thank you again to the Tiverton Free Spirits group for their collection tonight which raised £22.74 for the ponies...thank you!

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Animal Welfare Act Still Failing

We were absolutely horrified by the photos posted on the Flicka Foundation Facebook page today - a welfare case posted because of the authorities' lack of action in an appalling case of animal cruelty in Cornwall - I won't post the photos on this blog because they aren't suitable for our younger readers...but here is a link to the page https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=598199226980886&id=321163488017796.  The Animal Welfare Act is supposed to be there to enable us to stop and prevent cruelty to animals and there is a HUGE and ABSOLUTE failure of enforcement of this.  Instead the authorities seem to do everything possible to avoid taking any action to help the animals involved, and almost seem intent on working against the very animal welfare charities that are there to help.  Something we've seen many times before!

There is an update this evening to say that after putting huge pressure on the authorities one animal has apparently been euthanised, two are too weak to walk, and the others moved to a secure location.  It is about time we saw prosecution cases being brought and proper enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.

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Frodo's March "Muddiest Pony" Photos!

Frodo's always been known for his love of rolling in mud and last year's terrible weather led to him becoming the muddiest he'd ever been!  

Last winter it rained continuously from December until February and he never dried out enough to be brushed properly...when it eventually stopped raining we finally extracted the pony from the mud!  Frodo would pick the worst, muddiest parts to roll in...the parts that all the other ponies avoid.  I think maybe part of him knows that it's too dangerous for ponies to be mostly white...white wild mustangs foals are always the first to be eaten!  Best to adopt some sort of colour change!  None of the other ponies choose to be that muddy and they don't even have to go out in it if they don't want to...they can always stay in the yard, barn or field shelter but I think Frodo thought that mud was more fun!

The calendar also features a lovely photo of Peter with Frodo in the spring once he was clean again!

This year Frodo's actually stayed fairly clean, to his credit!  He HATES having a bath but has to put up with it once a year for his outing to St John's Fair in June.

Frodo this week...so far fairly clean, despite the mud!

Clean Frodo at St John's Fair!

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