Sunshine At Last!

Tufty enjoying breakfast in the sunshine - you can see that she likes to push the bowl around the yard

After another week of freezing temperatures and dustings of snow early in the mornings, today we were lucky enough to have some lovely sunshine and a drop in the easterly wind...for today at least it felt like spring!

The boys out grazing...

...and Frodo's not far away

The girls found some lusher grass to munch on, finally feeling brave to enough to venture through the mud (now it's drying up) and out to the field.  Both of them had a good roll in the mud on the way out!

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Jeremy's Homecheck

Today Hazel-Ann and Faye visited Jeremy and his new family to finalise all the paperwork so that he can stay with them on loan.  He is such a lucky pony...and a clever pony too having found himself a lovely new home! It's really cold at the moment but he's nice and warm with his rug on!

Jeremy with his new friend Tilly

Saying "Hello"

Helping with the homechecking!

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Wonderful News...Jeremy Is Found And Is Safe And Well!





 



We have some wonderful news!  We have found Jeremy and he is safe and well, and returned to p4p...just one week after we reported him as stolen to the police.  It's been such a worrying week.  Each day we've been working to piece together the story of what has happened to him and where he has been.  We had traced part of his story to a location in Cornwall, and the police were about to follow this lead when on Tuesday we received an email from a family in North Devon.  They had bought an Exmoor X pony called Jeremy on Sunday and were just looking him up on the internet to find out if there was anything about him online, when they discovered our webpage and blog asking for help because our Exmoor X called Jeremy had been stolen!  They got in contact, and we were able to establish that the pony the family had bought just had to be the same Jeremy.  Today, Faye and the police detective handling the case visited the family and Jeremy.  As soon as Faye got out of the car, Jeremy saw her, whinnied, and ran over.  It was just such a relief for Faye to see Jeremy again and know that he is OK.

P4P really appreciate the courage and honesty of the family who got in contact with us, even though they must have known that they might lose their new pony.  From the trail of events, we know that they are completely innocent in all this, and thank goodness Jeremy ended up with them.  We know so many ponies just aren't so lucky when they are stolen.  As Jeremy is happy living with the family, and the family are clearly very fond of him already, Faye has decided that we are happy for Jeremy to stay on loan, initially for a trial period, dependent on references and a completed home check.

The police are pursuing the original offenders involved in the case and will be conducting interviews etc.

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped us to find Jeremy...particularly Hazel-Ann who has been piecing together information on the known locations of Jeremy; Jane and all the Facebookers who have spread the word across the equestrian world of Devon and beyond to help to find him; DC Sam Napier who has been brilliant in handling Jeremy's case; and again to the family who came forward and reunited us with him.

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Please Help Us To Find Jeremy - Stolen Pony

We really need to ask for everyone's help...one of our charity ponies has been stolen.  We will be issuing full press releases to the media next week.  The Police are conducting a full investigation and will shortly be issuing their own press releases. We will be adding a new page to the people4ponies website called "Find Jeremy".

Please help us to find Jeremy - he is an Exmoor X, bay gelding, approx. 12hh, who will be 10 years old in June this year.  His last suspected location was the Thurdon area of Cornwall.

Jeremy

Jeremy on the left - in the winter months his coat is darker in colour

We are devastated that this has happened.  If you think you have seen Jeremy, or have any information about him, or his whereabouts (calls can be taken anonymously), please either contact:

• Devon and Cornwall Police by calling 101, and quoting crime reference number CD/13/520

• People4ponies on 07968 071179, or by email at people4ponies@yahoo.co.uk

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Visit from Silverstream.tv

Today we had a special visit from Silverstream.tv - Drew and Plum came to film Faye and the ponies for the CEVA animal welfare awards.  To start with, the ponies were more than slightly suspicious of all the camera equipment, but they soon settled, and of course they were the stars of the video.

We'll all be very excited to see the final film!

Thank you Margaret for helping to get the yard and ponies ready for their visit!

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Topsy's Progress

Topsy's progressing really nicely and is getting used to being caught up and having a nice scratch/massage, which results in some wiggley nose faces where she enjoys the scratching.  She's getting used to different techniques and equipment and it's nice to see her generally being much more relaxed around people.

Topsy has such a deep fear of ropes - using the "hook on a stick" instead of a lead rope is helping us to progress without overwhelming Topsy with having to face all of her fears all at once.

Hazel-Ann managed to take these photos to show Topsy's progress...

Topsy enjoying a nice scratch

Getting used to straps over the neck

Strap passing under the neck

Topsy's a bit stressed but coping with the strap over both sides of her neck

Allowing Faye to stroke Topsy's face and move the headcollar around

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Our People4ponies Charity Pot

Margaret ventured into Taunton this week and was able to visit the LUSH shop...and was successful in her efforts to find our people4ponies charity pot.  The LUSH team were very excited to meet a member from one of the charity pot causes.  It's a lovely design and the hand cream is lovely too - we're very impressed!

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APGAW Meeting

Yesterday we attended the Associate Parliamentary Group For Animal Welfare Committee meeting in the Houses of Parliament.  The agenda predominantly covered the subject of live animal transport, and then a small section of the meeting was devoted to some of the issues surrounding the horse meat scandal.  We were very pleased to be able to contribute to the committee meeting and raise some of the issues and failures we see relating to wild ponies in our region.

Good progress also seems to have been made by MPs who have been very proactive in pursuing the farm animal transportation problems at Ramsgate port.  This week Defra have published a report outlining improvements that are going to be made. 
 
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Saturday Visitors and "The Girls"

Emily and Topsy

Today we had some special visitors - Emily, Archie, Caitlin and Sarah came with our other volunteer Sara to see the ponies.  Our visitors were so calm that they were able to do some self selection with both Tufty and Topsy, which is such a big thing - it wasn't that long ago that these two older girls were completely unhandleable and wouldn't come near people!

Getting instruction on self-selection...

Archie with Topsy

All the visitors with Tufty and Topsy

We've had another installment of apples and carrots from Sainsbury's, which the girls are really enjoying.  Tufty lost a bit of weight in the colder weather but is gaining again this week.  Now that the weather is dry, the girls are both going out for long periods and are grazing on the lush grass - they are doing a really good job of eating the grass we'd rather the other ponies didn't eat.

Munchie's very happy is his new home - he spends lots of time playing with his new best friend, Nutkin, and I'm sure it won't be long before we see Munchie out on his excursions with Pete and Stella along the country lanes.

We're also in the process of becoming members of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare so p4p will be attending more committee meetings in the Houses of Parliament.

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CEVA Animal Welfare Award Finalist

On Thursday we had an exciting phone call to say that Faye is one of the 4 finalists chosen by CEVA for their Animal Welfare Awards 2013, in their UK Volunteer category.

There is an award ceremony in Birmingham next month, and a small group on p4p volunteers are invited to attend an evening - a "black tie" event, with dinner and dancing...quite a far fetched idea compared to our usual affair of being covered in mud and trudging around in wellies!!! 

We're also told that a film crew might need to come and visit to do some filming with us!  We'll see what happens!!

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