Friday 7 March 2014

March Has Arrived


March features Ebony (left) and Apache (right)
This month's calendar features two of our sponsor ponies - Apache and Ebony.  These two ponies have lived together for a while now and are very happy in each others' company.  Both ponies have ear notches and so arrived with a high level of trauma.  Both were already adults in the original herd that p4p rescued.

Ebony has probably had quite a few foals in her lifetime.  She already had an older coloured foal with her when Paul and Cilla first saw the herd...and then there was Munchkin.  Although the mares and colts/stallions were separated as soon as possible, Ebony was already pregnant.  She had the last foal to be born to the p4p herd.  Ebony had a very loving foster home, but tragically the foal fell ill and despite veterinary treatment and all the caring efforts of their fosterer, he died.  Ebony's fosterer Debbie had struck up a strong bond with Ebony and they mourned the loss of the foal together.  His name was going to be "Ultimus Minimus" - The last little one.

Apache was one of the main stallions in the herd and he was Dad to Frodo and Lulu amongst others.  He was the third stallion status wise in the group. He was one of the 4 stallions who were "run" along the roads back to the farm from the herd field a few miles away.  As a means of protection, Apache would try to bite Paul (hard!) when he was handling him...so Paul invented a new technique of protecting himself wrapping his arms in magazine and newspapers.  When Apache realised that biting didn't cause people to go away, the biting stopped.

Both ponies are on our sponsorship list and now live together happily conservation grazing at a site near our main base.

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