Nl69 Winter 2015

Newsletter No 63 Fforest Uchaf Farm. Maindy Road, (Maendy) Penycoedcae, Pontypridd.

R.C.T, Wales. UK. CF37 1PS Tel; 01443 480327 info@pitponies.co.uk www.pitponies.co.uk www.sponsorapony.co.uk Open to visitors; May/Oct=Sunday 11am – 4pm. Weekdays 10am – 2pm. Closed Saturdays Nov/April= by appointment, Adults £4:00 OAP/Children £2:00 or £10:00 per car. Groups/Schools/Clubs by appointment. Special needs visitors please telephone to discuss your needs.

NB All visitors it is always advisable to telephone 01443 480327 or 07798584735 before you visit.

PROVIDING TENDER LOVING CARE TO NEEDY HORSES & PONIES

Old postage stamps have brought in sufficient funds to pay for a load of hay for the winter. We have been weighing and bagging in 5kg (11lbs) lots and selling them on e-bay the auction site. Well done all of you who have been collecting them trimming them with ¼ inch of paper around them and sending them in to the Centre. Please ask all your family & friends to save theirs and send them in. It seems like money for old rope to us but who cares. The ponies certainly don’t.

Pictured left are Jake & Dylan trying to eat their way through a lorry load that just happened to have stopped outside their stable? Eyes bigger than their bellies springs to mind.

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Is a way anyone with a computer can go shopping online and raise money for the Ponies. www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pitpony is the links to type into your browser and bookmark to use each time you want to go shopping on-line to 2,700 shops you will be spoilt for choice. It will cost you nothing to use. For instance suppose you want to go onto ebay motors to get some car polish at a very good price sent to you. Use the www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pitpony link. In the search for retailer box type “E-bay” choose “ebay motors” from the drop down menu. Find the polish you like, check for the best price. Add it to your basket or buy it in your normal way. When you leave e-bay easy fundraising will tell you how much you earned for the Ponies. Imagine if you bought a car or caravan on e-bay!! Don’t forget to tell your friends, family etc.

Is another way to help the Ponies. By using www.easysearch.org.uk instead of Google, Yahoo or any other search engine you can make a real difference for the Ponies and its completely FREE and by making a habit of using it and making just 10 searches a day you could raise around £20 a year for the Ponies. As well as raising funds easysearch also gives you the best search results available on the web today. The internet is so big that different search engines will often deliver different results for the same item search. So by combining the strengths of several search engines together Yahoo- MIVA and many more you get the best results in terms of accuracy and relevance which means you find what you’re looking for quickly and easily every time all in one easy search and help the Ponies!

A Pit Pony hauling his huge tram of coal in the snow at Pant-y-Gasseg small private mine in Wales. We sincerely hope none are working this winter. Sadly despite many promises the politicians have never made it illegal. The 2006 Animal Welfare Act has made it more protected but who will police it? We will in our area and regular trips around the likely areas

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were drift mining is possible is the only way to be sure. This picture of Gremlin at work was taken by Roy on one such trip.

The Saga of the seven little ponies we took in from Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council’s Animal Warden still rumbles slowly on. They arrived at the Centre on 15th November 2012 over three years ago.

Thanks to your support we have been able to care for them fully since. Their legal status is a real problem for the Charity.

They came to us without passports. On trying to passport them we discovered they were already micro-chipped and pass-ported by the Welsh Pony & Cob Society to the owner who abandoned them. The owner has been approached and will not hand over the Passports.

They have also been asked by the Council and the Pony & Cob Society to no avail.

Time goes by and we are left holding the baby. Volunteer Patricia has been working with them and has backed several but we cannot look for foster homes for them because of the Passports or rather lack of them. We have recently asked the Welsh Government to intervene on our behalf. So far all we have is a letter pointing out the legal position which we have sent to the Welsh Pony & Cob Society without response and have now re-sent it recorded delivery. We have enclosed some leaflets/flyers to give to your friends, work colleagues, Family etc. they tell them how they can help raise funds for the Ponies without going deeper into their pockets or purses. You can order some for you to use on the back of the address sheet that brought your Newsletter to you. If you have signed up for Electronic Newsletters Please Just Reply to the e-mail And we will send them To you or send you the file so you can print some on Sometimes nice people lose their old Pony or Horse they demand. One or two have cared for until the end of it’s life. When they are emotionally are included with your ready they come with the paraphernalia they have collected to care Newsletter for your for their Pony. Here Beauty is pictured in one such rug brought information and into the Centre. It’s just right for keeping her old bones warm & dry from the bighting wintersand windthanks & rain. of how you help us help them.

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approval.

Please pass them on.

Gallery Sometimes a picture just works. This one was taken by a visitor “Tracey Bassett“ with a good eye and lots of luck.

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Spike & Jake touching noses and Bonnie watching.

P.S. Bonnie is one of the Ponies from the Lorry mentioned on page 6

Dylan

Our stall at summer shows.

IGGY

Gallery Help & Suggestions always welcome here! info@pitponies.co.uk/Tel 01443 480327 or drop us

Collecting/Selling gifts at Summer a note.

Shows.

Lightening has very bad teeth. He is not so old and we can only assume it is to do with his previous life. He is coming in each day for a little feed to keep his condition now the winter is here. He is pictured above with some of his little lady

Iggy

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friends queuing to see the Farrier. He shares his stable with the three little brown ladies Candy, Rhona & Caramac.

A gypsy horse thief was jailed in December after he was caught stealing his own horses after they had been seized for fly grazing. Thomas Hope Price, 29, was stopped by police in a bright yellow lorry that had been seen loading the stolen horses. Price jumped out of the horse lorry in front of police and tried to pretend he was enjoying a walk along the busy road. A court heard that when he was stopped by officers he said: "I know nothing about it, I am out for a walk - where the hell am I?" He was arrested for the theft of nine horses and later pleaded guilty. Price, of Cardiff, was arrested alongside his father Thomas Tony Price for the theft but the court heard he could not be prosecuted because of "identification issues". Newport Crown Court was told Price is a member of a well-known gypsy horse breeding family who have been in court on numerous occasions for the neglect and mistreatment of animals. The Court was told that nine horses were seized from a playing field in Ely by Cardiff Council in March 2013 after reports they were running loose. The horses were taken away to a field for seized horses and had become the legal property of the council. But later that same day a yellow lorry belonging to the Price family was seen parked next to the field and three men and a woman were reported stealing horses. One man told a witness who took down the registration number "There is nothing to see here." The lorry was spotted by police officers half an hour later in Treforest. Police stopped the lorry and a male got out of the passenger side and started walking away. "That man was Thomas Hope Price. "The horses were discovered along with many others in the back of the lorry. The Judge told Price he was probably not the mastermind behind the theft and he hadn't been driving the lorry. But he said he had to show his "community" that you cannot get away with breaking law. He told Price: "The fact of the matter is you have pleaded guilty to being a party to a flagrant breach of the law. "The local authority has acted perfectly properly and you were party to a planned operation to flout the law and you were arrested nearby. "It mustn't be thought in the community that because you are in effect a tool of somebody else you will not be punished. "You have to be properly punished to deter others." Price, who is on unemployment benefit and has 50 previous offences for the care and treatment of horses, is currently serving a 12 month prison sentence for the non-payment of £43,000 of court costs from a previous trial. The Judge sentenced him to a further eight weeks in prison and ordered him to pay an £80 victim surcharge. (These words taken from the Court report on-line.) When asked, neglected pony Bonnie had no comment and carried on eating!

Grand Bonfire Night Prize Draw raised a magnificent £3373:00 for the Ponies winter feeding, Vets and Farrier. Thank you all who took part. First prize of £250 pounds went to Mrs Chris Parsons. Chris sent the cheque back re-gifting it for the Ponies.

What a gem! Second prize of £50 went to Miss Ann Cox who sent a wonderful cheque sharing half her winnings with the Ponies. What a good girl! Third prize of a £25 gift voucher went to Mr John Fisher of County Durham. However Mr Fisher returned the voucher un-used to treat the ponies. What a good lad! We are sure the Ponies would say a big “Thank You” if they could.

The ponies draw tickets are a tool for you our supporters to gather in some monies from their contacts for the Ponies. Perhaps some from people who do not even like

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animals Ha Ha! Please do your best to sell them on but Please remember if you return unwanted books of tickets please include your details and we won’t send you so many next time.

Kathleen Dyer & Lucy Robson both sent donations in lieu of Christmas presents.

Brenda Hayman wrote telling us of her new book called “Snippets”.

She included several copies for us to sell in our gift shop. Brenda says all the proceeds are going to animal welfare.

Kara Nelson send a donation and best wishes all the way from New Zealand for the ponies, on the back of a card telling us about their antics with Tea, Scones and Nuclear Disarmament and told us the still both dance at 94. They sound like good girls!

Mrs Hawksworth wrote a note and included a wonderful donation for the Ponies from the Annual Plant Sale she and her friends Mrs C Batham, Mrs B Jackson, Mrs A McLennan hold in the summer each year at Mrs C Batham’s home in Nottinghamshire. Well done again you green fingered girls.

Tricia Sturgeon who lives in a coastal village in Norfolk has written to tell us of her new book of poetry called “Cockleshells” saying all the Royalties will be going to animal charities including our ponies. Apparently you can have a peep on Amazon, Pegasus or YouTube.

Lynn Robson sent a donation as part of her lovely Mum’s Mother’s day Gift.

Then she sent another as her friend Anita wouldn’t take money for a lovely handbag and finally a donation of her own just because! Well done Lynn!

Inter-Aid is a small Charity shop in Cryws Road in Cardiff.

They have been supporting us for several years and are very generous to the Ponies. If you live within reach of them please think of them when you are Spring Cleaning or sorting out your cupboards.

Ruth Street a supporter from Australia has been sending Jewellery from Oz for several years. It all goes to Inter-Aid to be sold.

Donations have recently been received in memory of; Lady Nicholas, Sheila Stout, Mr Charlie Coates, Mr Clive Leigh, Mrs Barbara Allsop, Mrs B Thompson, Mrs Joan Clark,, Gloria Phillips. o0O0o Mrs Bruce’s cat “Truffles”.

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This autumn when it cooled sufficiently and the flies disappeared we had little Puzzle gelded. He was very good when being handled and the Vet was very gentle with him.

Puzzle and Arnie are good friends and come into the yard each morning from their stable for a little extra feed for Puzzle as he is a growing lad. He is much calmer and happier with his friend Arnie for company. The Vets also gave Marki and Beauty some dental care. Thank you all so much it is good to be able to call the Vet when we need to and know we can pay the bill. Pictured above you can see Puzzle and Bonnie with some of the Jacob Sheep off in the background he is taller than his mum already at just 18months old.

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