Fell Ponies.

I phoned the breeder of my Fell ponies tonight to find out how they ended up in the predicament they were in. She is an elderly lady who has had a spinal injury and had to cut down on her workload. She had no response to private adverts last October so sent them to the local horse sale where they went for a very small amount of money.

She was nearly in tears when I told her that they are well and safe as she had heard that they had already gone for meat.

The oldest, a six year old, she had gelded last summer in an attempt to find him a good home but he was unbroken so no-one wanted him. She says he is a very talented jumper and regularly jumped 4ft fences to get to the mares before he was gelded.

She said they had all been loved and treated with kindness and respect when they were with her. They are all registered, vaccinated, micro-chipped, gelded and passported, and they all sold for next to nothing at the sale. She asked me to send her photographs and to keep in touch.

There is a Fell Pony show near here on April 18th and I'm going to try to get the six year old, Bobby, ready to take there. The secretary is a friend of mine and says she will give me honorary membership of the society as a thank you for buying the ponies. She is interested in buying Bobby for herself if he is suitable for her.

Here are the photos I took yesterday when they first arrived. They came in the badly fitting headcollars which I have now taken off. One of the youngsters has bad rain scald but they are otherwise in good health if slightly thin. Bobby is as well covered as I want him to be. I think he had been eating all the pies!!!!!!