Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Thank you...And Rain!

Our sincere thanks to all the lovely people from The Associated Free Spirits who have donated the proceeds from their 2016 meetings - tonight we were presented with a cheque for £200 - thank you so much everyone - we really appreciate it! 


We've had rain every day for the last 6 days now so we are very pleased to have the yard and hard standing for the ponies...and all that hard work our volunteers put into making hay last July means that they have plenty of food.  They don't even really want to be out in the field that long!  We could have snow later this week...!!

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Tuesday, 3 January 2017

We Do Love This Weather...Frosty Weather Ponies!!

Morning Room Service Please!



Super Fluffy Coats!



Arthur and Munchie

Munchie's Getting Better!


Wolfie
Topsy

Thank you everyone for donating the ponies' herbs - they do look amazing - this weather always shows their coats at their fluffiest!  A special thank you to Thea for sending Munchie his very own New Year special box of herbs to help get him better...and to Roy and Archie for coming to help today!

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Sunday, 1 January 2017

January 2017 - Happy New Year!

Those of you with your 2017 People4ponies calendars will be greeted with this beautiful image taken by Claudia Mellor - this is Ebony, one of the adult mares rescued in the original P4P herd. She has an earnotch as you will see in the photo of her ears below.  Ebony is very elegant.  She was fiercely protective of her young. Munchkin was one of her foals - though he seems to have more the build of his Exmoor dad (probably Tunny).

Ebony now lives conservation grazing with another of our ponies - Apache - and they live with Larry the pet sheep.  The calendar photo was taken on a frosty day on the nature reserve.  Such lucky ponies!  Ebony is one of our sponsor ponies.

Ebony in the herd field




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Saturday, 31 December 2016

2016 Year In Review


What a year 2016 has been!  Here's a brief review of the year for P4P...

...January started with frosty weather, Margaret being out of action for a while...and we had our amazing day visit from the ladies at Naturally Animals!

February saw the arrival of Puffin and Babe and the new chickens.  Babe was really quite poorly with pedal bone rotation and laminitis...we were also becoming aware of a crisis unfolding on Bodmin Moor...
In March Topsy had her own adventure and Puffin went to join our conservation herd and became instant best friends with Breeze...


...And we used the blog to expose the crisis underway on East Moor, Bodmin in an effort to get help for the ponies there.  At the point of our blog release there were 11 dead ponies out on the Common and very many in emaciated condition.  We never expected that this campaign would need to be so long running and the last emaciated ponies were finally removed in June.  In the end at least 23 died and 42 were seized in emaciated condition between February and June 2016 - on just one Common.  This was the start of our big research project into testing the ponies and the environment on Bodmin Moor.

Meanwhile...rehab of Babe continued at the yard, we did our annual round-up of our conservation ponies...and Wolfie arrived!





Topsy upgraded herself to the greener pastures of the sheep field in order to increase calories and make sure she has plenty to eat!


In July we made our hay, rescued a family of hedgehogs...and the ponies demolished one whole wall of the stable! 

 


In the late summer, Thea ran a workshop for P4P and Angela was making preparations for her quadbike adventure...there was lots of writing up and collating the Bodmin results.

 

 October saw the release of our Bodmin research...and we patrolled and reported on the 3 wild pony markets Brendon, Hallworthy and Chagford.  Bill the horse dentist came to visit Bobby and Wolfie.


 In November, Babe moved to her new home, the first snow of winter fell, Christmas fundraising stalls were underway...there was a feature on BBC Breakfast...and a water leak had to be chased.


 

And in December Munchkin returned!




What a year it's been!  We've met some amazing and very courageous people and as ever we are very grateful to all our volunteers and supporters!  Thank you!

Happy New Year everyone - we hope 2017 brings lots of joy, hope, and happiness to the world...and positive changes for the ponies that need it the most!

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Friday, 30 December 2016

Wolfie's "Freestyle" Agility

Look who we found doing horse agility on his own...it's Wolfie!  Clever boy!!



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Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Christmas Helpers

Making friends with Graham
We hope everyone has been enjoying their Christmas!  We've been really lucky this week as we've had lots of extra help - thanks to Archie, Peter, Roy and Graham, Margaret and Martin.

Munchie pre-bath trying out his hoof boots

On Christmas Eve Munchie had a bath - he was such a good boy!  We don't normally wash them at this time of year and we'd picked the warmest day possible...but it was very difficult getting him dry again...despite lots of rugs and towels on radiators!  In the end we spent 2 hours drying him using a hair dryer which he rather enjoyed.  Peter did a good job offering Munchie essential oils, and thanks to his efforts Munchie was fighting fit on Christmas morning - which was great to see.  With all our visitors he's been making lots of friends and has been for quite a few walks already!

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Saturday, 24 December 2016

Merry Christmas To All!

This lovely drawing by Margaret Cruft - inspired by our very own Topsy and Ebony - says it all!!  

Happy Christmas Everyone!!!

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