I mourned the loss of my ponies' freedom when Juma was killed and I brought the rest of them in off the Forest. That's why I was so overjoyed to be offered the seventy-five acres of conservation grazing at Hook. Looking back, it was a fabulous adventure for them but subconsciously I worried about the fences, the public gates, and the fast fast roads surrounding it. Nowadays they are living a quiet, but possibly boring life, at least as a herd and rotating around different fields.
No-one has taken to domestic life quite like Snippet. At twenty-two and with an eighteen-month old colt still at foot, she had been struggling for a while, especially through the winter. Despite her owner giving her feed whenever she saw her, she didn't look good. Her owner struggled to decide whether she should be put down or whether to let her go to this completly alien life as a domesticated pony with Melanie who was taking on Snippet's son Mulibwanji. It was only at the last second that her owner decided to let her go.
If anyone else is struggling with this romantic notion that an old wild Forest Pony should not be taken away from its natural environment then Snippet gives pause for thought!
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| Just after winter with a yearling foal at foot |
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| In her natural state |
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| After some pampering! |
I have just been contacted by a lady in the United States who has bought a pony from what is known, all too honestly, as a kill pen. There are discarded and unwanted horses, often at the end of their working lives and injured in some way, that are transported across America either to Canada or worse, Mexico, for slaughter via various yards and auctions where people can buy them. There are many groups dedicated to rescuing, treating and sometimes having to put to sleep, these horses whose owners should have taken responsibility for putting them down at home. Many arrive with their new owners sight unseen and with a completely mysterious background. I hope to find out more about this pony who appears to be completely unhandled and her new owner now has a copy of No Fear No Force in the post.
