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
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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