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~~ SANCTUARY DIARY - MARCH 2010 ~~
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29 March 2010 The Sanctuary re-opens this coming Sunday, 4 April (1pm til 4pm) to visitors and will do so every Sunday until the end of the year now. We're attempting a major clear up session in time for Sunday, as we've been run off our feet all winter and the place is looking somewhat jaded! 9 month old Harley and 7 month old Ben are going to be delivered up to our vets tomorrow for their castrations (ouch!). Ben has had us all in stitches with his very own unique mint eating technique. Whereas every horse or pony we've ever come across crunches a mint straight away ... Ben sucks them for about 5 minutes - really savouring the flavour. It's hilarious to watch (and quite noisy to listen to!). |
| Lily
seems to be doing well following her second leg operation and seems to be
getting stronger every day. She has just learned "velcro".
That it undoing anything we are wearing that has velcro on it - such as
mucker boots, jackets, sleeves etc.
Our fostering is going really well - we have managed to foster 4 ponies in the last couple of weeks, and another two homes are pending home assessments. On the subject of fostering, we say a sad, but very fond, farewell to Linda Moore today - who has been our longest serving Fostering Officer. Lin's own business ventures have picked up considerably over the past months and she has been struggling to find the time to carry on with her voluntary position with us. On behalf of everyone at EHPPS - we wish Lin all the luck in the World and thank her from the bottom of our hearts for all the time, effort and expertise she has put into the role over the many, many years she has been on board. Lin fosters one our horses, so we shall still be seeing her from time to time - so she doesn't get rid of us that easily! In the meantime, we are seeking a Fostering Officer to take on Lin's role - applicants must be aged over 25, a car owner and have good, basic equine knowledge. For further information on the role, please contact Sue Allery on 07515 565089. |
15 March 2010 Well the horses and ponies all seem to be behaving themselves (for a change). We had a little orphaned lamb brought into us late yesterday afternoon and were all very quickly smitten with the little love. She was "boinging" around all over the Information Centre and boldly playing tag with our Head Groom's dog, DiDi. Poor old Laura got elected to stay up feeding her all night - but what a good job she did - even if she did look like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards this morning. No easy task trying to keep a baby lamb entertained believe us! We knew we couldn't keep her, we have neither the knowledge nor the facilities to properly care for lambs, so, in desperation we contacted Old MacDonalds Farm in Brentwood and asked if they could give her a home. Luckily they agreed to take her on. We duly delivered baby to them at mid-day today; it was wonderful to see how quickly she settled in with all the other lambs. We came away knowing, without any doubt, that she would be fine there. It goes without saying that we'll be visiting her from time to time. In
between all this, one of the Sanctuary cats managed to get stuck for hours
up a telegraph pole! With some marvellous acrobatics, he eventually
managed to get safely down - with a lot of coaxing from the staff! |
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8 March 2010 During the early afternoon of Saturday, 6 March, a young man came into the Sanctuary with a tiny foal in the back of his truck. He had purchased a mare a couple of months beforehand, who was in foal. He told us that the mare wasn’t in particularly good condition when he bought her, but he had felt so sorry for her – despite the fact that he had never owned a horse before. The tiny filly foal was so premature that she still had her protective “slippers” on her hooves. He had been told of our reputation of hand rearing foals and, in desperation, asked for us to help the filly. A thick straw bed was quickly laid in the corner of our Information Centre and our vet was called immediately. Sadly, just as the vet pulled into the Sanctuary, the filly gasped her last breath and died. We were so sad when her owner rang us the following day to say that despite his vet’s best attempts with the mare, she had also died. The following morning, another foal arrived at the Sanctuary. He had been born the previous day and was slightly premature. We were told the mare had not produced any milk and the owner had no idea on how to care for such a young foal. He immediately relinquished the colt into our ownership. Initially, things were looking quite bright for Bambi (as one of the staff had named him). |
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Our
Head Groom, Laura Jardine, sat up throughout last night with him, feeding
him every hour and turning him as he was unable to stand at all.
One of our vets came out and gave him an anti-biotic injection and
was quite hopeful that surgery would be able to correct the slight
deformity of his front legs. This
morning, another of our vets came in first thing to take blood tests to check
on colostrums levels (this has to be done 48 hours or so after birth and
not before); he gave Bambi a quick check over and he was quite hopeful
for the foal’s future. Around
mid-day today, Bambi’s condition suddenly deteriorated
and within minutes he passed away. (Photo left: Bambi earlier on
today) It is always so sad to lose any of our horses or ponies, but especially so when they are so young. We console ourselves with the fact that their owners saw fit to bring them to us for help and also that both we and our vets did everything possible to give these youngsters a fighting chance.
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| Lily
is still on box rest following her second leg operation last week and is
progressing well. She has to be walked out 4 times a day for 20
minutes - a bit of a task as she freaks at everything she sees and hears
at the moment. We'll keep you posted on her.
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YOU HELP US?
We require a lady or gentleman, with basic administrative skills, to man our Information Centre and Membership desk on alternate Sundays and Bank Holidays Mondays from April through to December. Call Sue Allery on 07515 565089 for further details. |
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