Dusty was one of three ponies rescued from appalling conditions in Valle de Algaidas north of Malaga. She was rehomed a few months ago at Los Prados, a local livery stables. They have just sent us the following report on her progress there.
“Just a little progress report on Dusty! She has managed to turn her fear into curiosity which is exactly what we have been working towards at her own pace. We have gone from a timid pony who didn’t want to approach people to a nosey pony with her head over her special little door, her daytime stable is next to the tack room (obviously she has the biggest stable at the yard, it used to belong to Roland’s 18hh horse). She wants to see everyone and everything and be involved all the time. She is now a really good girl for Tom to trim her front hooves, she is still not keen on him doing her hinds but it’s coming. She has a special turn out at night in Aly’s garden where she terrorises my chickens and keep them in order, and last week she was the star of the show at our new pony club, being handled by 6 children both loose and with a head collar on. We can now turn her out without a head collar and she is a really good girl to catch. We have progressed from bribing her with carrots and apples to co-operate to rewarding her co-operation, and the next stage is removing the treats and asking her to do things for scratches on her itchy spots instead, which we can do but the kids can’t quite yet. Her confidence is still fragile and we need to let her dictate the pace but we can now touch her pretty much all over, and Sheona, our working student, is working with her as her summer project.”
So lovely for us to hear about our happily homed rescues!