Topsy's Day In

Topsy was keen to exercise her "grand-motherly" rights today and chose to stay in the barn all day eating lots of lovely hay and keeping dry...and you can't blame her...it's cold and muddy and wet and windy!  She's doing so well and all her delicious herbs have definitely been paying off.  Her coat is so soft and fluffy!

Our pea gravel arrived last week and Margaret came over specially to help get it distributed and it looks great, just like having our own beach.

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Sunshine At Last

We're definitely at the time of year when you know you are in the depths of winter - it seems to rain all the time, there's lots of water lying on the top of the fields...of course there's mud and not very much grass to eat in the fields - the ponies get to have the most freedom they can have at this time of year with two fields, but they've already eaten all the best bits!  Yesterday it was so miserable that Topsy came back in almost straight away and had a lovely day in the barn eating the best hay we have!!  The ponies are very lucky because they always have to choice to be in or out, or to be in the mud and rain or not.  Frodo however seems to be determined to plaster himself in as much mud as possible.  He actually seeks out the muddiest part of the field and covers himself as much as possible.  I've never seen such a muddy pony or a pony that has such a determination to cover himself in the wettest mud possible.  If there was a horse competition that was the opposite of "Tidy Turnout" Frodo would definitely win first prize!!

Rocky says to Frodo that we still love him no matter how he looks on the outside!

Today we really enjoyed the sunshine and Topsy was happy to be back out in the fields again.  For today at least it felt like spring.  This evening there was a poor bumble bee that Faye rescued from drowning in the water trough - it's been so warm today...this time last year we were snowed in...what a contrast!
 
We need to say a big thank you to Travis Perkins in Tiverton this week who have given us a discount on our shipment of pea gravel...it should arrive tomorrow!

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Lulu & Ellie

We've had this lovely email and photo from Ellie with an update about Lulu.  Ellie says:
"Me and Lulu are getting on really well, we recently did our first jumping outing at codden hill and we got a clear round in the 1ft6 I was really please with her as she didn’t make a fuss just went straight in and done it, our bond gets stronger and stronger everytime I see and and we are getting on really well".

Big congratulations to Ellie and Lulu on their great work together!! :0)

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A Stressful End To The Day

 The poor ponies had quite a stressful end to their day with the local hunt, hounds and quadbikes charging around the surrounding lanes.  Catherine had helped to poo-pick the fields this afternoon but now it needs doing all over again!  Even after the hunt had gone the ponies just couldn't settle and were constantly on guard.  Bobby looked a bit like a dragon with his breathe in the cool evening air.

The weather was peaceful though!

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More Hot Branding Updates From Defra

We've received more information from Lord de Mauley (thanks to our MP Neil Parish) about the progress being made on hot branding.  On the whole, the news continues to be promising...

The warmblood societies who had been hot branding have been directly contacted by Defra and have been informed about the law regarding hot branding.  They have been informed that anyone identifying their horse or pony in this way runs the risk of being prosecuted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

The hot branding code of practice is nearly completed and Defra will be publishing the details on their website.  The semi-wild moorland pony societies will be responsible for ensuring that branding is carried out in accordance with the code.  Any concerns about poorly applied brands should be reported to the relevant semi-wild moorland pony society (hmmm, perhaps not so good!)

The good thing is that Lord de Mauley finishes his letter by saying "I consider the code of practice is a step in the right direction.  The semi-wild pony societies must also continue to look for suitable alternatives to hot branding as I am sure advances in technology will eventually make branding unnecessary".

Lord de Mauley has certainly done substantially more work on this issue than any other Minister and we are very grateful to him for his time and efforts...and of course, thank you again to Neil for helping us with this issue.

Hot branding will be completely banned in this country...it's just a matter of time!

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Go Jeremy And Rowan!

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P4P Calendar - January's Star Pony

For all of you lucky enough to have a people4ponies calendar, Bobby is your star pony for January!  As you can see, he is a fantastic colour - officially "bright bay" but somehow that term doesn't quite do him justice!  Bobby was one of the original young boys (colts) from the p4p foundation herd and his colour meant that he stood out from the beginning.  He takes his name after Bob Marley - because of his long black hair with dreadlocks!  He was very frightened when he first arrived.  He is a very sweet pony who likes a quiet life and likes to keep out of any possible fracas...although he does like to make sure Frodo stays at the bottom of the pecking order.

One of his personality traits is that he will stomp his foot when he is not happy about something.

Bobby's going to feature again in the calendar so I'll save some of his stories for later on in the year!!

This was Bobby when he first arrived - very frightened indeed

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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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Jeremy and Rowan's Christmas

Look what Jeremy and Rowan had for Christmas...lovely new jumping blocks so they can continue their practising.  What a great team, and thank you very much to Anita for sending through the photo!

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

Faye and all the p4p ponies would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  Thank you to everyone for all your support and donations this year - all your help enables us to continue our work...and, of course, thank you to the p4p volunteers for all their hard work and dedication.  A big thank you in particular to Ted and Jenny who are an amazing support to us.

Throughout the next year we'll be doing some special blog posts for all of you with people4ponies 2014 calendars - we'll try to update the blog at the beginning of each month with the story behind the pony/ponies in the photos.

Have a peaceful and happy Christmas!

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