Review of The Year

I thought it would be nice to do a little review of p4p's 2013...the time does fly by!

We started the year with 7 ponies at our main base and in January we had snow which meant we were snowed in for a while!

In February, Munchkin found a new home with Pete and Stella

In March, Jeremy who we had to report as stolen whilst out on loan was found very quickly...and he had cleverly managed to find himself a wonderful new home in the process!

We also attended Parliament and contributed to the APGAW meeting on live animal transport and the horse meat scandal.

We also featured on the LUSH charity pots throughout the year.

At the beginning of April, p4p volunteers travelled to Birmingham to attend the Ceva Animal Welfare Awards and were inspired by all the different people and causes and their work for animals.  Faye won the "Volunteer of the Year" Award and  particularly impressed the judges with the campaigning work she has done on behalf of p4p and the wild ponies.

At the beginning of May the Marsland ponies had their annual check-up.

Sadly, just a few days later Tufty became poorly with colic and we lost her on the 13th May.  This is our favourite photo of her.  She had transformed in health since she first arrived with us.  She was probably mid-30's in age but we are so pleased that in her last 8 months she had been able to overcome her fear of people and enjoyed living at our main base.  Tufty had helped her best friend Topsy to integrate into our herd and Topsy adjusted to life without her best friend.

All throughout the spring and summer we visited our loan ponies to make sure they and their carers are doing well. 

In June, Frodo was a VIP (Very Important Pony) featuring in the parade at St John's Fair in Witheridge.

Haymaking happened during the fabulous hot, dry weather in July and we were very lucky to have so many hard working volunteers who came to help.

Next came the heatwave with temperatures reaching 33 degrees Celsius!

Val came to volunteer with us in August - she was visiting from Germany and enjoyed working with Topsy and doing some Horse Agility with Frodo.

Later in August we had our most successful p4p stall ever at The Brooke Show!  

We'd continued our campaigning throughout the year and Neil Parish, our MP, was a great support.  At the beginning of October we received confirmation from Defra that the practice of hot branding would now be illegal for domesticated ponies.  Wild ponies would have brands restricted to one only...not the full ban we need...but a big step in the right direction a vast improvement for the Exmoors who were having up to 7 individual brands applied.  At the APGAW meeting we attended later in the month we were able to ask Lord de Mauley directly about the subject.  He agreed that hot branding should be banned that the alternatives means of identification should be investigated.  We also asked Lord de Mauley about what is being done to ensure welfare of ponies on Bodmin Moor this winter.

Throughout September and October, Faye and Hazel-Ann attended the wild pony markets.  Standards have improved and there were vastly fewer numbers of ponies at the sales.  Most ponies didn't sell and the huge scale of overbreeding still means that most ponies born are being slaughtered.  Thankfully we didn't see any of the large scale dealers who were involved in illegal transporting abroad...we do suspect that native wild ponies were involved in the horse meat scandal.

Our first ever p4p calendar launched for sale at the end of October and was sold out after all the Christmas sales!

Late November saw big excavations at the yard with Roger fixing the drains and making a huge difference by stopping the water from running across the yard.

We had Christmas stalls at the Christmas Without Cruelty Festival in Exeter, Eggesford Garden Centre and Witheridge to fund-raise for the ponies.

 Phew!  That was quite a round-up and it's only when you start reviewing that you realise how much we have done!  And that doesn't include all the normal chores, mucking out, re-designing our website and painting the round-pen for instance!!  Happy New Year to everyone and lets see what happens in 2014!

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