Open Day at people4ponies

Our Open Day went very well last Sunday. Vanessa's Horse Agility demonstrations went down a storm with many people staying after watching one session to wait for the next. As always our ladies had prepared delicious refreshments with lovely home-made cakes and, with the weather brightening as the day went on, people were able to sit outside with their cream teas.

The ponies attracted a lot of attention - our visitors were really interested in their individual stories and also to learn about the ongoing work to deal with the problems of ear cutting and hot branding.

The picture shows Frodo, at liberty, considering the 'bridge'! Vanessa's emphasis was on the relationship between horses (especially traumatised ones) and their handlers and how it can be helped by this discipline.

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Marsland Valley pony check...and Breeze went too

We certainly chose the right day to visit our two little mares Star and Misty on the Devon Wildlife Trust site at Marsland, on the Devon/Cornwall border. On Thursday it was warm, dry and sunny and this beautiful site was in its full early summer glory.

This time we took Breeze with us - he is a bay Exmoor X gelding, 10 years old, who is joining the girls to help with the conservation grazing. We left him in the lorry while we set up the pen and walked down to do a 'recce'. It was seen that the girls were already in a suitable place to be moved, so we quickly stationed our volunteers at various tracks and weak spots and began the drift. The girls seem to know what to do now - they made all the right moves to get to the track leading off the site, and trotted along nicely.

Once in the pen the headcollaring went as smoothly as ever; these two ponies, although previously traumatised, always remember their lessons with us and are so sweet to handle with the right method. You can see a previous visit to Marsland on Youtube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xugwKGiMk94

Star and Misty looked absolutely wonderful and in perfect condition. Paul did a little work on their feet but they keep really well on this site. Once he had finished the girls were led back down and released, and then Breeze was taken down to join them. They had moved away on a high path but Breeze, led by Paul, spotted them easily and once released trotted off to join them. There were some introductory sniffs and a couple of half hearted kicks, and then they all went off together. They know each other from their days together as 'the wild bunch' back in 2003/2004, and they never seem to forget former companions. Who knows - Breeze may even have been reunited with his mother.

While we were there we made the aquaintance of a family from Windsor who were holidaying in a nearby cottage. They were extremely interested in the ponies and what we were doing and even gave us a donation. We don't know their names but thank you so much! if you are reading this.

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Open Day Sunday 29th. May 2011

The people4ponies Open Day 2011 is on Sunday 29th. May at Horseford Farm, East Worlington, Nr. Witheridge, Devon EX17 4SU. Open from 11am. - 4pm.

Come and meet the ponies at our welfare centre!

This year we are featuring Horse Agility Demonstrations by Vanessa Bee of Positive Horsemanship. Vanessa is the founder of the Horse Agility Club of Great Britain and is now running events worldwide for all abilities in this exciting new sport.

Delicious refreshments including Cream Teas will be on sale all day, also Books, Plants and Bric a Brac and a grand Tombola.

Admission is absolutely FREE !! but of course we hope that you will spend some money on the day to boost our funds. For more details please telephone Cilla King 01884 860252.

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