This is New Forest pony, Mary who is the mother of Lily who features in my book No Fear, No Force. Now in her 30's, Mary has switched semi-feral life for sheltered accomodation with her kind owners. A little while ago she developed an abscess in her foot and so had to be sedated while her foot was excavated and then poulticed. I received an urgent telehone call from Sue to say that Mary was no longer speaking to her, woudn't accept food or her headcollar and therefore they couldn't get the bandage off her foot. This morning I went down to see what I could do to help. Having decided that I was friend not foe, Mary parked herself in her shelter where I was able to put her headcollar on in the NFNF way and then start to handle her leg and foot. Centimetre by centimetre I was able to use blunt ended scissors from my first aid kit to cut away the silage tape and vetwrap bandage. Once I had released her foot she decided to forgive me and accepted food from my hand before going off to pose for photos in the field. Her tail, incidentally, has been eaten by the donkeys who share her field, special rates for pensioners apparently.
