Newsletter No 67 Spring 2014 Fforest Uchaf Farm. Maindy Road, (Maendy) Penycoedcae, Pontypridd. R.C.T, Wales. UK. CF37 1PS Tel; 01443 480327
info@pitponies.co.uk www.pitponies.co.uk www.sponsorapony.co.uk www.visitpitponies.co.uk Open to visitors; May/Oct=Sunday 11am – 4pm. Weekdays 10am – 2pm. Closed Saturdays Nov/April= by appointment, Adults £4:00 OAP/Children £2:00 or £10:00 per car. Groups/Schools/Clubs by appointment. Special needs visitors please telephone to discuss your needs.
NB. All visitors it is always advisable to telephone 01443 480327 or 07798584735 before you visit.
PROVIDING TENDER LOVING CARE TO NEEDY HORSES & PONIES
Lady is very thin & bony, had a large worm burden and has rain scald on her back caused by continual wet, cold and poor nutrition.
Not a picture to be proud of but we are glad her suffering has stopped here. A lady doing her community service with us at the Centre told us one day of the plight of an old mare that she knew of. We went to see her and found a truly miserable mud & rubbish patch with this old mare imprisoned in a makeshift stable. She stood without food or water in a leaky stable. The floor was covered in knee deep slurry of droppings, pee and rainwater. Continues over,
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There was no-where for her to lay down to sleep. There were also a lot of serious dangers in the area she had to paddle about in. Within a few minutes I counted a dozen or so nails sticking
The View from Lady’s stable. Note the houses opposite her field. This is not a quiet area.
A puncture wood from a nail like this is so painful for a horse and can be fatal.
up, rusty wire in loops, pallets, a rusting wheelbarrow chassis etc. with a little help from a passing Postman who said “Oh don’t go there mate” I found the owners house and confronted them. We also soon discovered the RSPCA had been called previously. The land was rented from the Local Authority. We wrote and told the Local Authority the land was unsuitable for horses Lady pictured after 3 weeks of good care in a fresh paddock, and why we de-loused, wormed. At night for the first time in ages she has a dry stable, a soft bed, a clean rug, a full belly and more thought so. We hay than she can eat. Thanks to you! spoke to the RSPCA inspector who confirmed he had been there in the summer. He told us he had called a vet to see her. However the vet would not give him the necessary paperwork to seize poor lady and he was left with only giving them
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a warning for their neglect. Recently after some negotiations Lady came to the Centre. Further visits from the RSPCA (6 months later) made the owners decide, signing her over to us was preferable to being prosecuted. At the hand over they told me “Oh she’s had her bread today, so she’s not hungry and then asked you will look after her and not shoot her won’t you”? From Lady’s point of view it meant immediate rescue. Her passport tells us Lady is 21 years old. She was bred for racing. She raced at both Exeter & Newton Abbott. Not good enough for racing she was disposed of by the racing industry. She is un-ride able now, so in many eyes totally worthless. If fact, most owners view such horses as a burden to be dumped at the first opportunity. Looking at her passport we see she was born in 1994 in Warwickshire, It tells us she was registered with Wetherby’s for racing and appeared on the track at Exeter & Newton Abbott. None of her former keepers have completed the ownership transfers so we don’t know the full details of her travels. The veterinary log shows us she moved about quite a bit Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Bridgend and she was once sold at Patricia grooming Lady. Malvern Horse Sales. We traced the breeders and wrote thinking they would like to know where she ended up and maybe offer her a retirement home on their 800 acre cattle Farm. To date we have not had a reply. She was apparently given to her last owner who is apparently a known heroin user. We never met him to confirm this we only dealt with his female family members. Who were very aggressive at first and threating me with trespass? Lady looks even worse just now. The rain scald is coming off with the old coat. She loves us grooming her and it comes off in clouds. It’s obviously very itchy and soon the new coat will begin to come through and she will look a lot better. She is very sweet and has stopped trying to kick us, but having been so hungry for so long don’t get between her and her food. She now has a routine and seems very content.
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Thunder & Lightening. This picture of Lightening appeared on our last Newsletter’s front page. We brought him home to the Centre last October. Sadly we had to leave another skinny little pony there as he wasn’t skinny enough to take action. However we guessed he was not pass-ported and asked Trading Standards to look into it. They warned the owner and gave him some time to get a pass-port. He did not and Trading Standards followed it up. This time to avoid further trouble the owner let us take Thunder in. A further six months on his own in this prison has left Thunder quite lean. The owner was feeding him lawn trimming whist we did the paperwork. I tried to impress on him how dangerous to any equine it was to feed grass clippings but he stuck his thumbs in his braces and bragged how he was “a travelling man” and knew how to keep horses. I felt it would be little value in arguing and preferred to The prison yard Thunder & Lightening shared.
get Thunder away from the danger and into the trailer and some proper food. He is a three year old colt so we had to take him to see the vet ASAP and get a passport and loose his stallion bits. Thanks to the ponies friends. He is now happily full of good food and a nice little green field to graze to his heart’s content in. Once Thunder was safe at the Centre we wormed him and de-loused him as he was heavily infested with biting lice. The wormer brought out a nasty surprise. In this heap of his droppings you can hopefully see a length of red baling twine. It had obviously been eaten by him as Red bailing he scavenged the bare plot for anything to eat. After twine & the chickens had spread the heap it became obvious it polythene. was attached to a piece of polythene bag each end.
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This could have so easily have killed him. Hungry horses will eat most anything they think is nutritious. They often eat their own droppings as equines have a very inefficient digestive system and only get a percentage of the goodness the first time around. We wonder how many Horses/Ponies die in absolute agony with this sort of careless owner. Who cares? If you want to see these pictures in glorious colour and have a computer or know someone who has, go to www.issuu.com/pitponyman.doc Thunder just arrived
Picture of Thunder through the locked gate. Little Thunder all settled. A full belly, wormed, de-loused and getting a little grass (Doctor Green).
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Here Thunder is pictured loose in the yard for a bit of fun and meeting Arnie with Lady watching. Arnie is very playful and soon gets Thunder playing. It’s really good for him to exercise his muscles as the 6 + months he spent in that little yard have left him very unfit.
Lady quietly watching as Arnie & Thunder get acquainted.
Soon he will be ready to go out with all of the herd. As soon as his muscle tone and general condition has improved he can be re-united with his old friend Lightening. However Lightening now has a little filly harem that he has been with whilst Thunder was imprisoned and he may not want to share them with Thunder. We will have to wait and see. We hope you are proud of the work your support allows us to do. I am sure Thunder & Lightening would say Thank you if they could.
Anybody got a bigger Farm?
Give-a-Car is where people can dispose of their old car, van, caravan, motorcycle etc. in an environmentally correct way and any proceeds come to the ponies. Mr Richard Silver donated his old banger and the ponies got £79.80. Ms Jean Maher donated hers and the ponies got £48.44. Mr Richard Davies donated his and the ponies got £91.00. Not bad for a load of old bangers. It’s a simple system. To arrange free collection, call 0207 736 4242 and mention Pit Ponies at Fforest Uchaf. Of course it’s open to your friends, family, neighbours etc.
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Some folk say it’s been a wet winter! We say what winter? We are over 800 feet above sea level so flooding is unlikely. However heavy rain on soddened ground can cause water to “run off” causing considerable damage as it rips off the surface. Roxy looking after the chicks.
A deluge of water coming down the drive bringing stone & mud with it.
Of course climate change is a serious business and we all need to do what we can
to lower our carbon footprint. We have some steel laser cut wind-vanes in our little gift shop. They are very attractive in the yard or garden and come to you flat-packed with instruction and are easy to assemble and put up. We look at ours often as its nice to know which way the wind is blowing and they are a pleasant silhouette to see. The cost £39.99 including post & packing. The Welsh Red Dragon and the Prancing Pony are also at the same price. We only of Each in stock but could get more if needed. However there their might be a short re-stocking delay.
available have a few more get there
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Gleision mine deaths
Sandy at the Darrell Colliery April 1991
The trial of a mine manager accused of causing the death of his four colleagues. Miners, Charles Breslin, David Powell, Garry Jenkins, and Philip Hill, died after a huge inrush of water occurred. The Manager is accused of causing their deaths through gross negligence in September 2011, The trial has started at Swansea Crown Court. Manager Malcolm Fyfield, had been in charge of the Gleision mine in South Wales for 10 weeks before a flood killed the four miners trapped underground. Mr Fyfield, who used to run The Darrell Colliery and sold Pit Ponies Sandy & Patch to a riding school in Pembury when they had finished using them, denies the charges against him. The two directors of MNS Mining are Maria Seage and Gerald Ward. They are Patch & Sandy at the riding school. also on trial and have denied four Now both sadly passed away. charges of corporate manslaughter. The jury was told that the directors "knew hardly anything about mining" and left responsibility for operations underground to the manager. I would describe the Fyfields as a mining family. Roy met several members around different collieries when we were checking on the working Pit Ponies in the 1990’s. Mr Malcolm Fyfield worked at the Darrell colliery and took over from his father who bought the colliery in December 1979. He also worked at many other collieries apparently. We went after Sandy & Patch to try to get them a retirement. The Riding school wouldn’t hear of it and insisted they were only used occasionally and for lightweight riders. I returned several times and on one trip found people I had not met before in charge. I asked for a short session on a special to me, pony called “Sandy”. They obliged without question to prove the point I paid for a ½ hour lesson out into the wood. I am definitely not lightweight. I only sat in the saddle long enough for the photo. We tried again and again with the owners and the Council who licence the establishment we sent them and the Vet who inspects the photo of me on Sandy but sadly all to no avail. If you have computers type this into your browser to watch old Blackie at work at Nant Hir and hear what the miners thought of him. You will also see Malcolm Fyfield talking about mining in the future with his son. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKh77nd7WE If you don’t have a computer ask a young person to help you or go to your local Library and ask them to help you see it. Don’t do your shopping first as you may feel a strong urge to throw eggs and tomatoes at the screen.
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A little taste of Wales Cacen Gneifio / Shearing Cake. Ingredients: 450g flour 2 eggs 1 teaspoon full of baking powder 300ml milk 240g butter One pinch of freshly-grated nutmeg 360g caster sugar The freshly-grated zest of 1 lemon 3 teaspoons of caraway seeds, lightly crushed One pinch of salt Method: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl along with the milk then add to the flour mixture and mix in. Finally add the nutmeg, caraway seeds and lemon zest and stir to combine. Spoon the batter into a spring-form cake tin that's been well-buttered and lined with greaseproof paper. Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin then tip out and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with lashings of hot tea. If you have any Welsh recipes you’re proud of please let us know and we will share it with our friends!
Liz Lambert had a nice idea.
She put a note on her Facebook that she would not send Christmas cards to her friends & Family and would donate for the ponies instead. Thank You.
Fearless.
Beauty.
The xmas donkeys. Puzzle & Bonnie. Lightening.
Winston.
Arnie.
Sandy Hughes had the brilliant idea of cutting out pony pictures form her Newsletters to decorate the box she saves stamps for the ponies in. Well done.
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Mango
It is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the death of Mango. He had been here for many years and we will all miss the little gentleman that he was. He suddenly lost weight. The Vet came and examined him and worked on his teeth. Mango had a very rough early life and his teeth were never very good. He had other problems also, a large hernia, was generally weak and prone to infections, probably all a legacy of a bad start in life. Despite diet changes and supplements he could not manage. Mango died here at the Centre without fear, pain or distress. Sadly several of our residents have had similar bad starts in life. We cannot undo what is already done but with your help we can give them a chance at some enjoyment & freedom from pain & fear.
Mrs B David sent a donation in lieu of a Christmas gift for her sister in law.
Her sister sent in the money she would have spent on her gift to Battersea Dogs Home. What good girls you both are!
Mrs H Hutchin wrote a note with her donation to remind me that we have not sent a “Gifts list� for a long time. We will endeavour to sort one out later in 2014. Thank you for the reminder. We will try to sort it this summer.
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Grand St David’s Day Prize Draw. Winners 1st Prize No 12230, £250:00 cheque went to the Pet Aid Society in Birkenhead. The lovely people there re-donated the money for the ponies. Thank you. 2nd Prize No 14201, £50:00 cheque Mrs A Irwin from Leicester. Also re-donated the money for the ponies. Thank you. 3rd Prize No 16780, £25 gift voucher Ingrid Fordred of Banbury. Also re-donated her prize for the Ponies. Thank you all three! A hat trick. Well done all who took part. Of course the real winners were the ponies.
Ragwort sadly is a common killer of Horses & Ponies.
Every year we carefully clean our pastures of this weed. It’s a pleasure to be out with the ponies in the high pastures here and we take finding every last one an important job. Sadly not all owners do. Alfie Southall from Lye was banned from keeping horses for 10 years, fined £1000 and ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work. He grazed his horse in a field at Stourport– Ragwort has two stages. Initially it looks like this on-Severn last summer. The field ↑. Later it throws up flower stems like this ↑ Both contained over 50% of Ragwort plants. stages are poisonous to animals and man. She had to be put down after suffering liver damage. He admitted knowing of the danger to his horses. It’s an expensive bit of not bothering for him. Hopefully the news of this will spread out through the horse keeping fraternity and will galvanize action from owners. Well we can live in hope can’t we?
National Small Charity Week. 16th till 21st June 2014.
There will be many events. The celebrity auction on eBay is one we will take part in. We already have a few lots left over from last year. Even signatures of celebrities, footballers etc. make considerable money. Last year we were lucky enough that Sandra was in a Hotel and saw the Welsh Rugby team and had the presence of mind to ask them to sign some blank cards she had in her handbag and minimum we got was £5. Almost a bag of feed! Last year’s bestselling lots included: A breakfast, lunch or dinner with Simon from the “Inbetweeners”, A high profile internship with a top PR company, A signed Lionel Messi “T” shirt, Tickets for the X Factor final and a signed Manchester United Shirt. Our best item last year was a Harry Potter item. The signed location security pass for Robbie Coltrane who played “Hagrid” that made £100 for the ponies.. If you have any ideas, contacts, opportunities or items please think of the ponies. People collect all-sorts of things these days.
Posters are available from the Centre to put up in Pet-shops, vets, Doctors, Hospitals in fact any waiting area where people have nothing better to do that read the posters whilst they wait their turn. Angela had the brilliant idea of trying Chinese take-away & restaurants as it is the Chinese new year of the Horse we thought they might be sympathetic. Just let us know how many you want and we will send you some.
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In Loving memory.
Mr F J Wallace, Margaret Vincent, Mr Derek Myers, Mr Sean O’Shea, Mr Charles (Charlie) Tootill, Mr Walter Wolodynayr, oOo The Lawrence Family’s Sooty, Mrs H.G.Hutchin’s dog Amber
Thank You all who have been collecting stamps for the ponies and sending them in. The last box load of stamps went to a dealer in Ireland for £20 per kilo. Please send your collected stamps in to the Centre in future to allow us to shop around for the best price.
Mr & Mrs M J Taylor sent in the contents of their home collecting box to help with the running costs. Thank you both and all the other supporters who save their loose change for the ponies. Well done all!
Gail Evans has been busy again with her Webb Ivory catalogues and raised a magnificent £100 for the ponies. Thank you.
John & Bettie Mair recently sent a cheque as when John asked Bettie what she wanted for her birthday the girl who has everything said “send some money for the Horses & Ponies”. What a good girl? Thank you both.
Mrs Janet M Lewis has been a loyal supporter & sponsor for many years and sells manure from her ponies to raise funds for the ponies. Well done girl?
Wedding season is upon us again. If you have a wedding to go to and are lost for a gift idea we have some beautiful hand decorated genuine Horse-shoes in the gift shop. This picture does not do them justice. They are very unusual and truly beautiful.
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