Merry Christmas!

We do hope that everyone has been enjoying their Christmas!  I've been knocked out the last few days with one of the Christmas "bugs" that have been going around (hence the lack of blogging, so apologies for that).  The volunteers have been helping out a lot, and even made sure that there were plenty of carrots for the ponies' Christmas Day treat.  There was also some fresh grass in a new field for the ponies to have a feast and a run about in.

I think if you asked the ponies...what they'd have really, really liked for Christmas, they'd have probably voted for it to stop raining, and for the mud to dry up...but carrots were a very good alternative!

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Pony Self Selection Day

Munch Self-Selecting

We all had the most wonderful day, yesterday.  We had a special lady, Fiona Habershon, come to visit the yard, who specialises in Zoopharmacognosy...also known as self-selection for animals.  Fiona has a wonderful array of plants and essential oils, which the ponies can choose to help them address not only physical problems, but also emotional difficulties too.  (For those of you you haven't come across Zoopharmacognosy before, it is not a replacement for veterinary diagnosis or treatment, but is complementary to it).

Munch was a very keen first volunteer.  When Fiona arrived,  Munch was already trying to get himself into one of Fiona's boxes before she'd even made it across the yard!  Fiona started with different plants to see what Munch wanted to select.  Some of the other ponies headed over, near to where we were, all wanting their turn!

After learning about the plants and watching Munch's selections and reactions, Fiona moved onto looking at the essential oils and explaining how they can be used to help with emotional difficulties, and can be incorporated into behavioural training.  Fiona was able to work with Topsy and Tufty with the oils, and both ponies made huge steps forward yesterday, and you could see Topsy particularly wanting oils that relate to fear, and fear of pain etc.

We finished with a group exercise in the yard with all the ponies and volunteers, using the oils to see what the ponies selected, and finding out which ponies needed which oils.  Fiona kindly left us with a selection of the most needed oils.  It was wonderful to see Tufty loving all the human attention by the end of the day, wanting lots of stroking, particularly from Graham, who I think is her new best friend!!

A big thank you to Fiona, who travelled a very long way to visit us, who donated her time, skills and essential oils to the ponies for the day.  We all learnt so much and are looking forward to putting our newly found skills into practice.  We hope that Fiona will visit us again next year!

If you'd like to find out more about self selection and Fiona's work, please visit Fiona's website: http://www.fionahabershon.com/

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Tufty

It looks as though Tufty is going to be a star again!  Verm-X are so pleased with her results that they are hoping to feature Tufty's story in some national horsey magazines...

September 2012

 December 2012

...I know I've blogged about Tufty's results recently, but she's changed so much and is so sprightly, I just couldn't resist another post!
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Bobby's Feast!

Ted and Jenny want to open up an area on their land that has been overtaken by reeds.  The sheep won't eat them, but the ponies, who are great conservation grazers, love to eat the reeds, so here's Bobby enjoying himself, munching away on the reeds!  Delicious!

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People4ponies Trip to Parliament

On Monday, Faye and volunteer Gill travelled to London, to Parliament.  After our successful trip to the APGAW meeting in October, Neil Parish, our local MP, arranged a special meeting for us at Portcullis House to present the work that people4ponies does.  We had a very positive meeting, and our presentation, and our work, was very well received and commended by the Minister.  

It's just wonderful to be able to present our work and have it recognised at this level, and we'd like to thank Neil for arranging the meeting with the Minister, and for all his wonderful support!

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Did You Know It's Nearly Christmas???

Don't forget to go through the Easyfundraising website ( www.easyfundraising.org.uk ) when doing your online Christmas present shopping!  For each purchase, people4ponies gets a donation from the retailer, and it costs you nothing!  So far we've raised a fantastic £63.61...so thank you to everyone who's signed up to the scheme.

If you are stuck for a present...how about our "Sponsor A Pony" scheme?  I've just updated our website with details of the ponies, and Topsy and Tufty are now part of the scheme too!

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Lulu...What A Super Pony!

We had a lovely email this week from Lulu's owner with an update on how she's getting on...you can read the email below...what a super pony, and what a super fan club Lulu has.  Happy riding girls...and give Lulu a stroke from us!

"Lulu is very happy with her new Saturday job! Attached is a photo taken last weekend in the pouring rain!  With Grace age 4 riding - she rides very well indeed! and Ellie who is 11 but tiny and very scared of horses but trusts Lulu to look after her.

As the weather was so bad and the kids insisted on going out, Lulu and Grace's pony were chucked in the horse box and taken just up the road to the forestry, where they had never been before, Grace's pony was too lively for her to ride, so one of the bigger children rode her, and needless to say dear Lulu just mooched along quite happily. They had some nice trots, now they want her to canter and jump a few logs!"

And then today..."Lulu spent Saturday and Sunday down the road, the kids come and fetch her and return her later, they take it in turns to ride her in head collar and bareback the 15 min walk down the lane! Yesterday they were laughing, trotting her bareback and holding onto a big chunk of mane. Even Daisy loves her to bits and likes her turn to ride and she is just two years old. Lulu seems to know they are little and has been on her best behaviour".

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Tufty's Wonderful Results

I've added some before and after photos below of Tufty, so you can see how she's been progressing since she arrived.

Tufty's worm results are back...and very impressive too.  If you've been following the blog, you might remember that when she first arrived, we tested her for worms.  She had a worm count of 4,400 eggs per gram (that's a gram of manure), which is an extremely high reading...1,200 epg would normally be considered as a high count, so 4,400 was more than off the scale!  Both Tufty and Topsy had a 2 week course of Verm-X, which is a wormer made from herbs (rather than chemicals), and after waiting about a month after worming, we have retested...

...and Tufty's results came back as 100epg, which is a healthy low reading.  Verm-X have been very supportive of people4ponies, and kindly give us a discount on all our wormer...thank you very much to everyone, particularly Ellie at Verm-X, for all their help.   http://www.verm-x.com/

Before: Tufty when she first arrived with us at the beginning of September

Now: Tufty, free from her worm burden, and enjoying new winter grass in the big field.

Now: Tufty enjoying her feed with lovely herbs and carrots...delicious!

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