meet the resident ponies

		Misty Misty the latest arrival is 11 years old and we are her fifth home. Once a rosette winner before coming to us she had major surgery after a nasty accident and developed laminitis and COPD. She is now doing much better as the field has limited grazing and we dampen down her feed and has made a particular friend of Nutmeg.When she first came she was very wary of humans and was difficult to catch but she is now a very happy pony and is much easier to handle.
		Marty Marty, a gypsy cob, now aged 9, had already had several unsuitable homes before he was rescued and we were asked to take him on.
		Shabba A black and white equine Shabba was taken on by us when his owner divorced and could no longer look after him. Aged 18, he was a trotting horse, but with a slight injury to his left fore-leg which makes him frequently trip up so he is now retired. He also suffers from COPD and coughs a lot unless all his food and hay is damped down. He also has supplements to clear his air passages.
		Nutmeg Nutmeg now aged 14 was destined for the abattoir when – through negligence - she became blind in one eye. She is a very pretty chestnut and white pony and upon arrival received a thorough worming programme - she was full of tapeworms and botts. She was terrified when she arrived but is now confident in her surroundings with just the one eye although she remains very nervous when taken out of her field.She has assumed the role of mother with the small Shetlands she is with and very much looks after them even breaking up their occasional squabbles.
		The Welsh Ponies An elderly lady died and when her relatives took over and did not want the animals we went in and rescued her ponies, Hungarian Puli dog and her 77 wild cats. We got the dog back from the RSPCA who had taken it away because of negligence and fostered it to a caring home. I asked my friend Celia Hammond to help and she did a brilliant job in catching, neutering , de-worming, de-fleaing and de-absessing the cats before helping us to re-home them. We took on the ponies. Their field was full of poisonous ragwort, their stable had a huge hole in the roof, they were thrown white loaves of bread to eat and had not been handled.They were in a pretty poor state when they arrived and the oldest one called Mouse unfortunately only lasted a few months. Sky is a Welsh C grey mare about 10. She is very prone to sweet-itch and as with most greys has a couple of small carcinomas on her rear end. As they had not been used to people it took some time for them to settle down and get used to all the volunteers but like her son she is very excitable and is not suitable as a riding pony. Rhett is Sky's bay son. It took 4 people two and a half hours to catch him, he was so wild. We had him gelded and then sent him away for 6 weeks for a modicum of training “If you don’t send him away” said the vet “he could kill you.” He is now doing much better though a little nervous and he spooks easily. He also suffers very badly with sweet-itch and receives regular treatment for it. He has to wear a special anti-midge coat all through the spring and summer.