Womble
2017 | Skewbald | Gypsy Cob | Under 12.2hh
We would really like to be in a position to respond to incidents just like the one that brought us to help Womble and Cheyenne.
We believe that helping other charities to protect horses and ponies, no matter what the circumstances, is key to dealing with animal welfare issues most effectively.
Your sponsorship of Womble means we will be able to continue to do that – thank you!
The story so far...
Back in 2017 we were called by one of the RSPCA Animal Welfare Officers asking for help to catch two foals running wild on playing fields in County Durham.
The area was wide open and adjacent to a busy road and one of the two foals was particularly flighty.
We decided to take catch pens and also a decoy – which can be very helpful in situations like this.
The decoy – one of our Shetlands ‘Amazon’, worked a treat.
Despite initial mad dashes for freedom, we applied a bit of patience and some careful planning, which led to the round up taking us less than an hour.
We named the two ponies Womble and Cheyenne and thankfully their condition was fairly good.
No owner ever came forward and the wayward girls duly spent time growing and learning to live life around humans.
In her second year, Womble developed an unusual skin condition which affected the white areas in her coat. The scaly rash caused bald patches to develop but then started to resolve over winter and we hoped it would continue to improve, despite the indication it was adversely affected by the sun.
However, over the following summer, the skin worsened and Womble’s face developed scabs which caused the skin to become highly sensitive. Then all her tail hairs fell out too!
Investigations led to the conclusion that this was an auto-immune disease and we would have to carefully manage the symptoms as it was highly unlikely the condition could be resolved.
Thankfully over time, things have improved enormously – Womble now has half a tail! We will always need to protect her from sun – especially on her face but otherwise things are much better.
In the late autumn of 2022 we decided that Womble was ready for a start under saddle and she was duly packed off to our Trustee, Claire Robinson’s yard in Cleveland.
Theo Hopkins very kindly stepped up to volunteer for this project. Theo has done a superb job producing Womble for us and we are all so grateful.
Some of the pictures here, recently taken at Wombles first ever show; clearly indicate just how successful a careful start to training can be.
We are very excited that Womble will soon be ready to join our Loanie Pony Scheme and we will be looking for someone really special indeed to continue adventures with her.
Likes:
Carefully nibbling apples like the lady she is and being fussed over by small people.
Dislikes:
Staying in for a bath when friends have gone off to the field.
