February's Here!

We have Jane Schofield to thank for taking this wonderful photo of very handsome Gus (shortened from his full name Augustus Caesar!) who is February's calendar star.

Gus was another of the stallions from the original p4p herd and started his handling at the beginning of August 2003.  He was another of the ponies who was extremely fearful, particularly around men, and had obviously not had any positive experiences of people!  Looking at Cilla's notes about catching Gus in the field reminds me of how "ritualistic" traumatised ponies are in these early stages of gaining confidence with people - everything has to be right and done in exactly the same way "The body language, the calm weather, the sun behind him so he could see me clearly, not too near the hedge (predators!), no cars passing, no funny clothes (usually wetproofs!), no funny walks (if the going is slippery we do unexpected slides! very off putting if you're Gus), the usual headcollar, put on the usual way (no hands over the head please), and preferably a piece of apple afterwards".

Gus (far left) arrives at his loan home and meets his new companions!

Gus progressed well but remained very fearful of strangers.  He found a home as a companion for two horses, and happily lived with them for some time.  Then he returned back to p4p (I can't remember why, maybe loss of grazing?) and Jane very kindly agreed that Gus could live with Apache and Ebony conservation grazing on her land - perfect for Gus!  Ebony in particularly was rather taken with Gus and favoured him over Apache.  They were a very happy little group enjoying their time in the valley together.  During the hard, cold winter of 2010, Jane supplemented the ponies with hay to make sure they had plenty to eat.  The weather made for some lovely photos of frosty ponies!

Frosty ponies - Ebony, Apache and Gus

In the early autumn of 2011 we received a phone call from Jane, understandably very upset...Gus was dead.  We couldn't believe it, we were all so shocked!  As you can see from his calendar photo, this pony was a picture of health.  Jane checks the ponies twice a day, every day to make sure they are OK.  She had checked them in the morning, all looked fine and normal, and then going back in the afternoon, there was Gus lying dead in the field.  He had almost certainly suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly - having dealt with many dead moorland ponies, the site usually tells a story, and in Gus' case there was absolutely no sign of any sort of struggle...he'd literally been stood upright one moment and was dead the next.  His body even looked perfect - no marks or anything to show anything wrong on the outside.  Even if Jane had seen anything was wrong, I'm sure he'd have been gone in an instant, there was absolutely nothing she could have done.  Ebony and Apache must have been there when it had all happened ...they seemed very accepting of the whole situation, grazing as if all was normal, just a little distance away.

...So February's photo is a tribute to Gus, not a sad photo, but one to celebrate this handsome pony!

 I think Gus really had the best life he could have once he was at p4p and got to live his life to the full - and particularly living out in the pony paradise where he was.  We are committed to our ponies for their whole life - to try and give them the best life possible and I think Gus knew that he had just that.

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