About Re-homing Our Ponies

The ponies that we take on at market or are donated to us every year stay with us until they are happy to be around people. When we feel that they are ready to be re-homed we start looking for possible loan homes for them.

At the moment we have quite a few ponies taken on in 2008 that will be looking for loan homes in spring/summer 2009. For pictures of them please see below. Some may be ready to be re-homed now if the home is right.

We normally look for loan homes that will take on two ponies, as this will give them more stability when they go to their new home. Also, as the ponies are only normally a year old when they are re-homed, sometimes younger, we try to find homes that already have an older horse or pony so that the new ones have a role model. This again makes them feel more secure in their new homes. It also means if there are three of them it is less likely a pony will get left by itself whilst say the other is being ridden.

We do, however, consider homing ponies individually, but this only really happens when we have a really confident pony, and there must be an older horse at the new home.

We do sometimes have older ponies to re-home so we would consider different types of homes for these ponies as they although will need company this will not necessarily need to be an older pony.

We try to vaccinate and castrate all the ponies that come to us before they are re-homed. If we feel a pony is ready to be re-homed before they can be castrated (they are too young to be operated on or perhaps had not developed in time to be done that year,) then we would either ask the loaners to arrange for the castration, or try and sort out alternative arrangements e.g. the ponies coming back to us for the operation.

We try and make sure that all ponies are happy to be caught, led around, have their feet picked up and be tied up before they are re-homed. However, most ponies will always require more work when they go to their new home and some may not have had their feet worked on. Again we assess the home's capability and the ponies available at the time and if we think a new home is able to carry on the ponies education we are happy to home them before being fully trained.

We like the ponies we home to be able to live out 24/7 with shelter.

Most of the ponies we take on have absolutely nothing “wrong” with them. They are just normally a bit wary of people. The ponies that we work with can go on to be fantastic riding, driving or therapy ponies, or just fantastic companions. We don’t require that you break them to ride or drive when they are old enough. Actually the most important thing to us and to them is that you can provide them with a loving, stable, long-term home. Oh and a bit of hay in the winter and lots of cuddles!

If you are interested in re-homing then either download a copy of our loan home questionnaire (you will find it on this link http://www.dptc.org.uk/rehoming.html) and send it back to the address on the form, or give us a call on 01364 654609. We are happy to discuss any queries you may have and are always on the look out for good, kind, long-term homes for our fantastic ponies.

Storm

Lindsey has e-mailed a couple of photos of Storm in his lovely summer sheet! It;s 36 years old but still doing a good job though think Storm is checking it's edible! He is on a restricted diet at the moment! He is off to a yard in Coombeinteignhead shortly to be backed which is exciting. We will keep you updated on how he gets on!

ALFIE - Available for re-homing

Alfie is back with us! Sadly he was becoming a little unmanageable in his home with Leo, he wanted to be boss and was becoming a bit boisterous which was dangerous for the loaner as she has young children.

He is back with us and hasn't put a foot wrong yet. He needs to go to a very experienced home where he cannot get away with being the boss! He will need a strong minded confident handler. He is a very sweet pony and loves attention, he is already following us around the fields! He would make a great riding pony for a child or small adult.

We believe he is around 5 years old so is of an age to be backed.

Alfie is the one on the far right in the photos with more than one pony!

Amy (re-homed) & George available for re-homing

Amy came to us wild from a local farmer together with her foal George, she has been used as a broodmare all her life, we are unsure of her age but believe her to be around 7. Her colt foal was born last year.

Amy has been reserved and will be moving to Gloucestershire to do some conservation grazing, George has been weaned and is looking for a home. He needs castrating when he is ready and needs some handling work (though has had a headcollar on and been lead in the past) he has been turned away in a bachelor herd for a while, he will be coming back to our fields shortly so we can start work. He is very friendly however and it won't take much to handle him!

Rona - Available for re-homing

Rona is the foal born at the centre last year. Rona was re-homed for a shortwhile but has had to come back to us. It was discovered she really doesn't like dogs and will chase them!

She is also testing of any handler, though very friendly and easy to lead around sometimes if she isn't in the mood she can be a madam, we are still working with her and teaching her the necessary manners. If she were to go to a home now it would have to be an home experienced with dealing with these issues. We are sure she will grow out of it as long as her handlers do not take any of the nonsense!!

Archie & Ronnie Homecheck

Our second visit of the day was Archie and Ronnie at Easterbrook Farm. As you can see it was an awful day, we had torrential rain non stop and poor Archie and Ronnie didn't look too impressed! Luckily they are hardy Dartmoors after all and so will survive! We told the Easterbrook residents and staff to stay inside in the warm and dry whilst we said hello to the boys, no point in us all getting drowned! Archie and Ronnie were both very well and very friendly which was great to see, the residents at Easterbrook still love them and the novelty of having ponies has not worn off!

Smarty Home Visit 6th June 2009

On Saturday Natalie, Ro and myself had a day out doing a few homechecks. The weather was horrendous much to my annoyance, having spent all week stuck in an office whilst it was glorious sunshine I was not amused that my day off should be so wet! However off we went and our first stop was Olivia and Smarty. We are pleased to say Smarty is very happy in his home and Olivia has done an excellent job with him, he is very well trained and has even been lightly backed though he will not have any work done with him for another year as he is still young.

Here are some photos Olivia sent us of her and Smarty