Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society 

Charity Registration No: 297893

~~  SANCTUARY DIARY - FEBRUARY 2010 ~~ 

21 February 2010

Our Fostering is going strong.  Zebedee was placed in Kent as a companion horse a couple of weeks ago.  His new foster "mum" Anne, said that he and her horse took to each other immediately and have settled down well.  We were a little concerned, as Anglo Arab, Jasmine, was totally in love with Zebedee, and we knew she'd miss him, but the consolation was that she had plenty of other pals here at the Sanctuary.  Talk about Sod's Law ... another lovely lady applied for a companion pony to go with her gelding.  She wanted a gelding ... we introduced her to two potential companion geldings, but then she saw Jas ... and fell for her charms!    The lady went from a gelding pony to a 16.1hh mare!  We were so pleased that such a lovely home came up for one of our residents.   Jasmine joined her new foster family last week and, we are told by her new "mum" that she too has settled in well and has certainly cheered her gelding up who was getting quite lonely since he lost his stable companions.

Grey Shetland, Peanut, joined one of our existing fosterers up in Colchester.  Linda tells us that he is a little cautious of people buts gets on with her other Shetland like a house on fire.  Peanut had a dreadful life before he came to us - having been locked in a filthy stable with his sire, Coco, for nigh on three years - little wonder he is apprehensive of humans.  However, once he gets to know you, he is a dream.

Bedrock ("Rocky") went on foster last Friday to Ben, who is the boyfriend of one of our grooms, Cheryl.  Rocky is on livery at the yard where all the EHPPS staff keep their horses - it's becoming a bit of a home from home.  We currently have Bobby - who Nic fosters - and keeps with her horse Tiggy, Laura has Blaze, Cheryl has had Danny there for nine years now, and Sue has Nell and Rory, Tennessee Rose is also on the yard with her fosterer and now we have Rocks (or Bed Socks as one of our vets calls him!).  Added to this menagerie is also Shetland gelding, Bobby.  

Filly foal, Lily, is being admitted back to our vet's hospital unit tomorrow morning.  Lily was born with deformed front legs and was successfully operated on by Iain Paton of Paton & Lee Veterinary Surgeons.   

Now that Lily has grown considerably, we have noticed that one of her legs is buckling under her front time to time, so Iain will be re-assessing her over the next couple of days, with a view to further corrective surgery.  We have to give this little love every chance possible to lead a normal life.  Fingers crossed the operation will be successful.

15 February 2010

Yesterday evening, as one of our grooms was travelling down the A128, she spotted four ponies standing by the kerbside of the busy road, having broken out of their field - probably in search of food, as the field was full of mud with no grass to be seen at all.  The Poplice turned up around the same time as they'd received reports of loose ponies on the road.  Between them they got the ponies back  and secured the fencing as best they could.  A note was left on the gate asking their owner to call us as a matter of urgency.  No-one contacted us.

This morning, we received a call from a resident of the area who said the ponies were running all over local agricultural farm land, which fronted the main road.  The caller was also concerned that one of them was ill, as she was heaving for breath and was scouring badly.  Our Field Officers were tied up on other calls at the time, so we had to pull our Head Groom, Laura, off the yard to go and try to sort the matter out.  We were concerned that the four would get seriously injured, if not killed, should they get onto the road - also we wanted to get the sickly one seen by our vet as soon as possible.   Four hours of trying to round the ponies up - who were running riot around a huge field of mud - was not funny.  Laura and the complainant eventually succeeded in getting all four ponies loaded and back to our isolation unit.  One of the mares appears to be in foal, they all have overgrown feet, the grey (sickly) one has a thick winter coat that appears to be hiding a multitude of sins - even through the density of her coat, we can see ribs, backbone and hips quite prominently.  The Police tell us that they have been out nearly every night for the past fortnight to round the ponies up.  An owner came forward to us this evening to lay claim to them, but he has a lot of answering to do before we even consider handing the ponies back to him.  We'll keep you posted.  

SPECIAL THANKS TO ROSARY HORSE TRANSPORTATION for coming out so promptly to help us today - you were both wonderful guys!

We've now got a total of 15 Fostering Officers to carry out the twice yearly checks on our fostered horses and ponies.  These ladies do a wonderful job, all voluntary, of visiting our lovely fosterers and horses to ensure all is well.  They really do deserve a huge pat on the back.  After all, we rescue the animals from the most dire of circumstances, nursing them back to health and rehabilitating them.  When they go on foster, we certainly don't forget them, which is where our Fostering Officers roles are vital.

The Sanctuary residents are having a fine old time at the moment, completely trashing our (very inadequate) fencing.  The posts rot after a number of years, the hedgerows push the fencing over and the horses who love to scratch their bottoms on the fences all add to the destruction.  We are in the process of applying for grant funding so that we can completely get the Sanctuary re-fenced.  As the Sanctuary is on a SSSI site ("Site of Special Scientific Interest") and is protection by Natural England, we also have very strict guidelines and specifications to adhere to.  All we do know at present, is that we are looking for between £25,000 and £30,000 to get the much needed works completed.  Our hands are also tied to a degree on where we can obtain grant funding from - our Landlords will only grant very short leases (4 years at a time), and most grant making organisations will not even consider applications where there is less than a 20 year lease.  Nothing is EVER simple at EHPPS!

Zeus, one of the badly neglected ponies we picked up before Christmas, is now having to have remedial farriery treatment every four weeks to bring him sound.  This is necessary as a direct result of the lack of correct farriery by his previous owners.  Rajah has put on some much needed weight too - his winter coat was hiding the prominence of his hips.  Sadly, in our work, we often come across cases like this where people have taken on animals they are not properly able to care for - usually through lack of knowledge and/or total ignorance.   The pair were regularly breaking out of their field - which was awash with mud - in search of food and were found foraging in neighbouring gardens.  They have both settled down well into Sanctuary life where they have made many friends amongst their fellow residents.

9 February 2010

A very sad day for us all at EHPPS - we lost our Missy this morning.  Missy, who had only been with us a short while, had appeared as a fit and healthy horse.  Our Head Groom noticed that Missy seemed a little disorientated on Sunday, and subsequently called one of our vets in first thing the following morning to check her over.  Blood tests were taken, but in the meantime Missy started walking around like she was punch drunk.  The blood results revealed that she was suffering from liver failure - the cause of which we do not, as yet, know.  

Missy was transported up to the vets this morning for hospitalisation, but she deteriorated very quickly and was hardly able to stand by this time.  Our vets had little choice but to put her peaceably to sleep to prevent her suffering any further.  This could have been caused by any number of things, including an infection, ragwort poisoning or a tumour.  We are currently awaiting to hear what the post mortem revealed.    We are all still reeling from the shock of losing one of our special horses so quickly.

5 February 2010

Oh roll on Spring, when we can get the Sanctuary looking somewhat decent again (there's mud, mud, thick, gunky, glorious mud everywhere here!)   We are turning the horses out for a couple of hours each day in our sand school, as it's just too risky for them to go out in the fields - where, in some places, the mud comes almost up to our knees.   The last thing we want is tendon injuries or broken legs, so the little loves will just have to grin and bear being stuck in for now - it's for their own safety at the end of the day. 

We told you all about Cheryl getting booted in the head the other week courtesy of Shane, one of our "big lads" who stands at 16.2hh;  he had become so frustrated with the limited turnout that he accidentally injured Cheryl in  his rush to get out one afternoon.  Thankfully, she's fine now.  Then it was Laura's turn when Oliver somehow managed to double barrel her in the stomach when she was trying to bring him in from the field, shortly followed a few days later by Jacob giving her a black eye while she was worming him.    Not wanting to be left out(!) Sue managed to get hurled head first into a huge pile of mud last Saturday when she was bringing her mare in from the field  -  one of the other horses was in such a hurry to come in too, that she spooked Sue's pony, resulting in the two mares charging full pelt through the gate way, throwing Sue headlong into the mud!  Bless them.  Never one to let such a minor mishap bother her, she still went shopping at the local supermarket afterwards - covered from head to toe in thick, dried mud (oh the shame!)  Only Nic to go now ...... watch this space!