Introducing Pedro.

I will write about our trip to Vienna very soon but I just had to introduce you to our new arrival.

I received a phone call on Sunday morning about a very small pony who had been dumped in a back garden in our nearest town after a "domestic" between the couple who had just bought him.

I find it almost impossible not to try and help when I'm in a position where I can so by Sunday evening I had recruited a friend with a horsebox and we went to collect him.

I was told that he was a Shetland Pony but Pedro is actually a miniature horse. He is two years old, just under 8 hands high (about 80cm) and an adorable, very well behaved little chap. He was living in a very small back garden surrounded by children's slides, paddling pool, swing, etc and a very large dog who he had been trying to back scratch with.

At the moment I'm getting my horses used to him in the barn and in a sectioned off bit of paddock as he's so tiny and his legs are so short he can't run very fast, so I daren't turn him out with any of the others yet. I did think about turning him out with the donkeys but he really likes the horses and wants to be near to them.

To begin with he ducked under the electric fence and got in with Bella and Merlin, who chased him were threatening to kick him when he very quickly stopped trying to do the impossible and outrun them and stood still waiting for them to do their worst. I rescued him from them and put him back only for him to go under the other fence in with the cow and calf, only for the calf to chase him!!! Since I rescued him from her he seems to have decided it's safer to stay in his own private paddock, thank goodness! He was getting zapped by the fence as he escaped as well but he's a very determined little fellow.

One of the first things I did is to worm him as he looks very wormy. He was as good as gold for that. He had his feet trimmed for the first time ever yesterday which he didn't think much of but, unfortunately for him, he's too small to have his objections taken seriously. Apart from that he's been brilliant and he's very good to handle. When he's tied up he immediately rests a back hoof and goes to sleep.

Here he is, taken in the barn tonight. His nose is very rubbed as I think his headcollar had been left on all of the time: