Sometimes A Photo Says A Thousand Words...

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Brendon Sale and P4P Horse Dentist Visit

A busy day again today with another market and then back to the yard for a visit from the horse dentist for Bobby and Wolfie.

It was Brendon Sale today and as usual there was no planned catalogue.  There were horses penned in a barn - 8 foals of different colours/sizes and another young horse.  There were 2 cobs for sale in the field,,,and puppies, chickens and ducks.  Usually the horses are auctioned after the sheep sale but it turned out that there was no planned auction of horses today and they were just open for private offers.  Haynets were provided for the horses but no water.  One local lady asked for water to be provided but her request was met with hostility but she did pursue the matter and the horses were provided with a bucket of water which they drank until it was empty.

Another member of the public made some enquiries about whether any authorities were present - there were no authorities at the sale.  They were concerned because one person selling animals is well known locally to be banned from keeping animals - very difficult situation when there are no authorities present to keep an eye on things.

Many thanks to Gill for her donation of £10 to the p4p ponies and to Angela for her donation yesterday from the beginnings of her quadbike expeditioning (to be continued next year)

Back at the yard this afternoon we were pleased to see Bill who came to work with Bobby and Wolfie for their dental check up!

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Chagford Dartmoor Pony Sale

Today was the annual Dartmoor Pony Sale at Chagford.  Thank you so much to Vanessa, Angela, and Thea who all came to sale, and to Roy and Margaret who looked after the p4p ponies whilst we were at the sale.

There were 143 ponies entered in the catalogue for the sale but not all were actually brought to the sale, including the donkeys that had been scheduled to be sold.  There were approximately 115 entries, of which approximately 30 were unsold.  There was a very different atmosphere at the sale this year - there were fewer ponies generally in the pens and the ponies were in good condition.  There were lots of private buyers with trailers.

There is still no provision of water.   Whilst there were still dealers buying - they were mostly local.  There were none of the large scale long distance traders seen in the days before the exposure of the horse meat scandal.  There was no attendance by Trading Standards or Defra, so no enforcement agencies were present.

Spotted ponies were still making the most money - one going for £300, another for £250. 

 Approximately 20 ponies were sold for £10; 5 for between £10 and £19; 13 for £20; 30 for between £22-£99; 9 for £100 or more; 6 for £200 or more; 2 for £300 or more.  The 2 ridden ponies went unsold as their reserves were not met. 

The foal in the photo above was the youngest at the sale - they were appropriately penned at the beginning of the sale, separated in their own pen.  After being sold they were not appropriately penned and were added to a pen already full of other sold animals - disappointingly, this was done by the welfare officer of another charity who should know that The Welfare of Horses at Market 1990 requires a mare with a foal at foot to be separately penned - section 11, part 2(c).

The loading varied - one pony attempted to jump out a pen before loading was even attempted.  One set of private buyers used their purple lunge whip to hit ponies to try to get them loaded into their horsebox.  With no authorities to oversee loading there were trailers that were crammed full with foals.

Our thoughts are always with the animals sold after the sale...on their journeys to wherever they are going and that they can find kind, knowledgeable homes.  It is good that far fewer ponies are being brought to the sale but of course, that doesn't mean there are fewer ponies being bred and brought off the moors - it just means the others will be going straight for other purposes, either shot on the farms or for human consumption.

                                                           Year  -  Number of ponies entered in catalogue

2016 -   140

2015  -  175

2014  -  214

2013  -  212

2012  -  250

2011  -  433

2010  -  434

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Thank you to Verm-X

Thank you very much to everyone at Verm-X for giving the P4P ponies a discount on their wormer,   It's very popular and all the ponies absolutely love it!  Topsy has been first to give it a try and it was a "thumbs up" from our grand old lady (36 years and looking fabulous!).  The chickens were after the seeds in her bowl - they get their own Verm-X - Topsy wasn't going to let them eat her special snacks!

Beautiful lady!

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Dartmoor Ponies

We've had our first phone call of the season today - asking if we can give any homes to 20 ponies rounded up on Dartmoor that are unmarked - have no owners, and are due to be shot.  The Flicka Foundation have posted about this on their Facebook page this evening (do check this out if you think you can help).  We are full and can't take any ponies at the moment and it's always horrible to have to say "No"...

As the season is upon us again, awareness needs to be raised about what happens on Dartmoor.  It will not just be the unmarked ponies that are shot.  The majority of foals coming off the moors will be too.  The overbreeding needs to end!  This page on our website explains the current situation on Dartmoor and the reasons for why the mass culling happens every year...do spread the word as it seems many people are still not aware of what happens...

http://www.people4ponies.co.uk/dartmoorponies.html

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October

As it's the beginning of October everyone will have turned over their P4P calendars to find beautiful Topsy hiding behind a very autumnal tree!  This photo was taken in one of Topsy's special "grandmotherly" privilege fields where the other ponies are not allowed.  I went to get her in for her dinner and was met by this scene - obviously she was quite content in the field!

Autumn is well and truly upon us now - the ponies' winter coats are already quite a way along...they are getting quite fluffy!  The mud is on it's way too so we're trying to get the mats down before it gets too bad.  Archie came to lend a hand yesterday and we need to wish him a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY for tomorrow.

October comes with mixed feelings - it's great because the grass is changing and the ponies will come off their summer restrictions and have much more space and grazing as we move into the winter...

...But the pony markets will be starting next week - a hugely stressful time for the wild ponies...and we'll be back into that cycle of  hundreds of unwanted foals being shot and the whole media spin of trying to build a meat trade...the minority trying to influence the majority by refusing to remove their stallions from the moor and forcing ethical owners to have unwanted foals.  It's a year since Mousey was killed too - so many ethical issues come to the fore at this time of year...I often think that Topsy being so ancient is probably the only survivor of her generation from the Bodmin Common she came from.

...One thing's for sure...it always makes me think of how lucky our ponies are...thank you so much everyone for your support that enables us to be here!

Just a last note...The P4P calendar for 2017 has now been added to the "Shop" section of the main P4P website so copies can now be ordered from the following link:  http://www.people4ponies.co.uk/shop.html  Thank you to everyone who has already ordered their copy!

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Commiserations and Thanks!

Our commiserations are with Angela who reluctantly has had to abandon her quadbike adventure.  On Friday we had an email to say that things hadn't gone to plan but she is safe!  Sadly her quadbike had a serious problem north of Thirsk and couldn't be easily repaired...so it was a case of being stuck with no local dealers who could fix it, or using the option of her roadside rescue company and being taken to anywhere in the UK of her choice, sensibly home was the best option!  Poor Angela!  She has been very determined to undertake this trip so she is going to try again in the spring...at least this was a bit of a test run....hopefully her trusty "quadzilla" can be fixed.

On a brighter note, a big thank you to Thea and her students who raised an amazing £285 for the ponies on their healing course at the weekend.  Such an amazing effort...we can't thank everyone enough...we really, really, appreciate it!

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Babe Update + Other News

I thought Babe was overdue an update on the blog...and many thanks again to Paul who came over today to help us out.

Babe on arrival in February

Babe, for those who don't already know, arrived in February and came to us because she had pedal bone rotation in all four feet and was within days of being put to sleep.  She had laminitis induced by veterinary treatment for an abscess - the drugs caused a catastrophic chain of events.  She was at serious risk of not recovering.  Laminitis was occurring in a vicious cycle and every time her feet were trimmed she was sore - I distinctly remember the description I was given over the phone of how Babe was sitting on a fence after a trim trying to take the weight off of her feet because they were so painful.

Babe in June

Babe arrived a very poorly girl, and, although we couldn't promise a successful rehab, we would do our best with the knowledge and experience we have gained.  What we were really determined about was that we would be providing different surfaces but not trimming as a set course of action.  No trimming is not the traditional veterinary and farrier approach.  We have seen horses in long periods of pain from having been trimmed and just as they are recovering they are trimmed again and can't move...we have never seen this action result in a successful rehab.

We wanted Babe to be comfortable as quickly as possible, to be moving about and trimming her feet herself on the different surfaces.  We were quickly able to keep her comfortable with our different supportive surfaces, herbal and essential oil pain relief, and her hoof boots which helped her on hard and non-supportive surfaces.  To start with she was in a yard on her own with different surfaces so she could move wherever and whenever she wanted - the others were just over the gate to keep her company but could not hassle her into moving more than she wanted.  There was a lot of focus on Babe with detoxing and getting her body better...which took A LOT of herbs...for which we are so thankful to the ladies at Naturally Animals who helped us by donating herbs for Babe..

Babe hoof late February

 We witnessed her self trimming her feet, her hoof structures getting better and better.  A couple of abscesses were treated very quickly and successfully using soaking, essential oils and homeopathy, showing us that abscesses are part of the rehab process - the necrotic, damaged tissue in the foot has to come out and this is how the body deals with it.   We have seen her hooves becoming sounder and sounder - she can walk confidently over cobbles and stones...and be part of the herd routine, back to grazing with the ponies on a normal routine, even in the height of summer...we couldn't wish for more....

The same Babe hoof today after her toe tidy up (7 months on from the hoof above)

This photo of a back hoof before the"tidy up" today shows how the heels have
self trimmed but the toe has remained because of the harder hoof structure

Babe is now very close to having a full new hoof capsule.  What we have discovered is that as Babe came into the laminar wedge section of her self-trimming she has needed some assistance...The Easy Care website describes the laminar wedge as "Horn that fills in the space created when the coffin bone rotates or displaces in the hoof capsule during laminitis...some experts say to remove the laminar wedge, others recommend leaving it".  Up until now she has had no intervention...but this part of hoof now at the bottom of the toe has been so hard that Babe hasn't been able to self trim it.  Her heels and back half of the foot have continued to be self trimming, but the very hard outer part at the toes hasn't been shifting.  We didn't want a hoof trim, just a toe tidy up, which Paul has been helping us with...  Babe has fantastic white lines and no seedy toe.  We think when she gets past the last part of the laminitic wedge she will be back to self maintaining/trimming again...we just have to wait it out.  There is a big horizontal line nearly at the bottom of the hoof - this is the beginning of her new capsule hoof and the end of the damaged tissue from those laminitic periods...so close, but probably about another 3-4 weeks before we see what happens...


In other P4P news...

Angela has been making good progress and had been past Stonehenge, Silverstone, Duxford and the last we heard was on her way to Thirsk on her big quadbike adventure....

Thea's course is now full with 18 participants - thank you so much everyone!

Thank you to Margaret who has bought us some new yard equipment today - poo scraper tools are a very essential part of our operation!

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Angela's Adventure Has Begun!

A huge well done to Angela who has set off on her mission to travel from Lands End to John O' Groats and back on her "unsupported" quadbike adventure across the UK.  She's so brave!  Angela's hoping to raise some money for p4p along the way which we are very grateful for!  The journey's been a bit delayed since her house flooded with all the torrential rain in Cornwall this week so it's already been a challenging few days...our best wishes are behind you Angela for a safe journey and we hope you enjoy your big adventure with no more adverse weather along the way!

Our thanks also go to Thea who already has 12 people enrolled on her workshop on the 25th - the room rent has been reduced for the day as it's an event which will raise funds for us...thank you so much everyone for your support, we really appreciate it!

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September

Being the 1st September we have a new calendar picture!  This month isn't a pony...it's Oscar the dog helping with the hay making!  A very happy dog with hay all over his nose!

September is not usually the month to do haymaking...but last year it rained so much it was September when we made our hay...and it wasn't until the 9th September that it was finally ready to bale.  It was such incredibly hard work - the ground was very wet and the tractors had to be switched on the hay turner because 4 wheel drive was needed to get traction on the ground.  The grass itself was so wet and thick it had to be hand turned as well as tractor turned each day.  And it was cold some days too...anyway...it was successful and Oscar helped by rolling in the piles of hay (perhaps his way of helping to dry it out!)...and the ponies are now eating their way through the bales we made so they approve of our efforts!!

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