Earlier this year we helped in the rescue of over 100 Welsh Hill Ponies. Unfortunately the market for these ponies has diminished in the recession and although these ponies were sold, the buyer decided they did not want them, which only left them to be put them to sleep. This was just a massive waste of life. A huge S.O.S call was put out and the network of rescue centres across the U.K headed by Shy Lowen horse and pony sanctuary went in to action. Everyone squeezed some in to their already packed rescue centres. We took 4 boys, they were wild, I mean we have dealt with wild ponies before but these guys had seen nothing, they had lived on mountain there whole life and the first time they came in to contact with any humans was when they were rounded up off the hills, brought down to the auction house, put in a crush, micro chipped, pass ported and some had ear tags put in, as you can imagine in there eyes we were just danger!
The boys taught us so much, however first of all they needed treatment, two of them came with chest infections due to stress and costs start to mount up when the vet has to sedate the animal before they can examine it. Then they all had to be castrated which is around £150 -£200 depending on the size of the animal. This is where Pets at home came to our rescue; they offered to pay for the castration of the horses, so that we could concentrate our funds on getting them to a re-home able state. We just would not have been able to do it without them.
Pets at home also helped us to get them to The Intelligent Horsemanship centre in Whitney, this is where the ponies all taught us a thing or to, however I shall leave that for the next instalment in our news!
