Goodbye Tinker

Puffin (left), Tinker (skewbald centre), and Woody (right)

I'm afraid we've had some really sad news - Tinker, one of the original P4P ponies has sadly been put to sleep this week.  Tinker was one of the 2004 foals (born 11th May) and was born to Bella - it's very likely Apache was his dad.

Tinker was born on a conservation site in West Devon and grew up there with his other foalie friend Puffin and the other P4P mares residing there.  That December, Tinker and Puffin came back to Horseford and here they grew up with other P4P foals born that year - Jaffa, Toast, Smarty Pants and Winnie. Cilla's diaries note that "These six foals spent the winter and spring 2004 - 2005 together, being handled daily and using the stables and pens, yard, garden and back yard and the little grassy bit through the bottom gate.  They were quite hilarious to watch and loved their 'out playtime', tearing about and, when the gate was open, leaping over the log that we kept below it. The pens at the top of the yard caught full sun, no wind; and they would all go back in and go to sleep together in the sun, often with their heads resting on each other's backs. They interacted with whichever adult ponies were in at the time. We gave them all sorts of things to play with and look at - washing on the line, rugs to walk on etc".

Foals investigating - Tinker nearest the camera

After being gelded in the spring of 2005, Tinker went to a foster home as companion for a bigger horse. Unfortunately in autumn 2006 he developed laminitis while he was there; he had to come back to Horseford for rehabilitation - which was successful but of course he would remain prone to this.

In the spring of 2007, Tinker was one of 4 ponies that went to Bristol Horseworld - he went there with Bella, Frosty and Holly.  Horseworld were hoping to benefit from the experience of rehabbing a wild, traumatised pony such as Frosty, Bella had already had her initial handling at P4P and could be caught in the field by people she knew, Holly had also had basic handling with Vanessa Bee, and Tinker was the fourth of the group to go to find a new home a little further up the country.

We know the staff at HorseWorld really loved Tinker - he had a wonderful temperament.  Sadly Tinker became very unwell recently and their vet advised that he should be put to sleep.

The staff say that Frosty and Bella are very happy in their loan homes, which is good to hear.

My clearest memory of Tinker being at Horseford was that if he was in the lower stable, he was too little to be able to see over the door so he had a special trick...He would rear up and put his hooves on the door so he could peek over to see what was going on!  Being little he would quite often be stabled in the pen in the yard instead so he had a good view all around.

It's always sad to lose a pony - run free little Tinker...Misty, Brenda, Gus and Mrs Brownhead (Tess) are over that "rainbow bridge" too.

Thank you so much to Cilla for looking through her diaries today to help me put together Tinker's story. 

To send a message or ask a question, please click on the 'comments' link below