Ponies

As of yesterday evening we have four shaggy ponies in our field. They belong to a father and son who "have gone a little mad" rescuing horses from abandonment and the meat trade.

They're very restful creatures.  All girls (I think). Julia says she's seen them cantering, but I've only seen them standing still. "Megalith still" as Ted Hughes has it.

Think of them as self-propelled lawn-mowers.


Juia says this one isn't in such good condition. Her shoulder muscles and thigh muscles (I expect there are technical terms for them) are wasted. That probably means she's been kept tethered or in a stable with no opportunity to run about.

Footnote To Last Post

Something Julia told us.

The cost of keeping a horse is so high these days- as we know from having to pay for the upkeep of the last of my mother's super-annuated race horses- that people are "fly-grazing" them on common land or just abandoning them.  Favourite dumping grounds are the water meadows by the Thames- where they get bogged down in the mud at the water's edge and have to be dug out...