George

George was found wandering by a busy road in the middle of the night by the police in 2008 and after they managed to rescue him, asked us to take him in. It was evident that he had been subjected to a bad case of neglect which had left him underweight and his hooves overgrown. George soon put on weight at Hope Pastures with the aid of some special feeds and was turned out to graze.

Oct 2009 In February this year 'little' George was rehomed. At first all seemed to go well, then after an altercation with a pet sheep it was decided it was better if he came back to Hope Pastures. We had been looking to rehome him ever since but during a 'routine' visit from the vet and farrier everything turned very nasty and George lashed out hurting himself, the vet and the farrier. The vet and farrier both agreed he was too dangerous to handle and should be put down. This is not what we do!. Sophie, our yard manager started to ask around for help with George and soon a reply came back from Julie at Positive Equine Partnerships in Cheshire who agreed to try to rehabilitate George with help from The Donkey Sanctuary's behaviourist, Ben Hart. They have made great strides already with George and you can follow his progress through a blog on their site .http://www.quarrystables.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rehabilitation
We, the staff and trustees, would also like to take this oppertunity to thank Julie and all at Quarry stables for working with George. We are sure that with their skill and patience George will eventually return to us a new boy. As you can see from the photos he is quite a sweet pony if he is treated well. The best part about it all is they are volunteering their services for the love of George! We appreciate their kindness and generosity.

March 2009 Being young and now fit, it was decided it was time to find him a new home. It took us a few months to find the right home, but now we have, George is enjoying his new life with his new friends and has never looked happier. To see him rescued, rehabilitated and successfully re-homed gives us a great feeling of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, 'little' George was returned to us as his new loan home didn't work out. Whilst he got along well with the family's ponies and made good friends with 'Max', it was discovered that George was rather boisterous with the family's pet sheep and whilst trying to rough play with one of them he caused an injury to the sheep's leg, so the loaner wasn't comfortable having him around any longer.
It is such a shame as he was getting along great in most other respects, and when he came back and was unloaded from the trailer he had a look on his face as if to say 'what did i do wrong?'
However he has settled well in his paddock,and his behavior does seem a little more relaxed as we now feed him a special feed supplement which helps to calm him down.
We had George 'rig tested' when he got back to check that his behavior wasn't due to anything physical, and we were relieved when the teat results came back negative as if they were positive it could have meant a complicated operation.
We are now re-advertising George and are hoping a special person with the right experience and time to handle him will come along.
If you are interested please contact us to arrange a home visit

Below is a series of pictures of George and his new friends Max and Penny

Early days of rehabilitation

George- 'too dangerous to be handled'