*Caution this story might be distressing for some and contains disturbing images

Penny Ha’Penny didn’t give up on the ponies left with the owner under the other agency’s supervision. Unfortunately, consistent supervision was not carried out by the other agency and after a while the owner was able to secretly move the remaining ponies away from Sling Lane. The location of where the ponies were moved to was not revealed to Penny Ha’Penny or the other agency, in retrospect it was lucky that Spring was on it’s way and the new location had grass to begin with.

Fast forward to after the ponies had been moved and Penny Ha’Penny received a phone call from the Sling Lane ponies owner’s brother. The owner had gone on holiday and asked him to take care of the ponies while she was away. She hadn’t left him with any food and there was no grass left in the field. What’s more,  two of the mares had, had foals, one of which the owner had taken away from its mother to bottle raise at home-in the garden! Then she left the foal to go on holiday. The brother called us to help as he had no idea how to look after the days-old foal and had no food to give to the others. He called Penny Ha’Penny as he had nowhere else to turn and knew that we had already rescued half of the ponies. Sue immediately responded and agreed to take the foal in and asked for the mare too so they could be reunited, giving the foal the best chance at survival, luckily they agreed to hand her mum over (see Ruby’s story).

Penny Ha’Penny collected the foal from the house first and then went to collect the mare (Izzy). When we arrived at the new field, we were horrified by what we saw, despite what had happened in February,  the horses had once again been left to starve. No hay for the brother to feed, no grass left in the field, the water tank was so filthy the water was black. By far the worst scene was a second mare and foal locked in a stable. The stable was absolutely spotless, nothing left on the floor…the mare had resorted to eating her own manure to survive and feed her foal.

(A very skinny Heidi in the bare stable, backbone visible, eating fresh picked grass while waiting for the hay to arrive)

Penny Ha’Penny immediately had hay delivered and cleaned the tanks, giving the pony in the stable much needed food and fresh water too. 

This was too much, there was no way Penny Ha’Penny could possibly leave the ponies here, no matter what the cost. We could not allow the owner to keep the ponies and starve them again. The brother put us in touch with the owner and after a heated and very difficult discussion ALL of the ponies were surrendered to Penny Ha’Penny. Transport was arranged for the following day and the hard work started all over again.

Rescuing abused and neglected animals is physically and emotionally draining, it can be dangerous and not nearly as easy as it should be to have horses surrendered or taken away from a proven bad situation.

The present
Each of the Sling lane ponies have a different ending to their story and some are still waiting on their next chapter…

N.B. Following the rescue of the Sling Lane ponies we were contacted by many locals in the area to tell us about the suffering the ponies had previously endured, from violence to neglect and despite many reports to other agencies, Penny Ha’Penny were the first to attend in person and acted immediately.

This story is dedicated to the memory of Patch and Flump who lost their lives in February, the foal who didn’t survive starving in the stable also to Ceiriad and Lady who lived out their days well cared for and happy.

Look out for the photos and stories for the Sling Lane ponies – Freckles, Ceiriad, Taboo, Heidi, Flicker, Chase, Izzy, Lady and Starlight, also for Benjie and Ruby who were born to them.