Lady (Arrived at Hope Pastures April 2008)

Lady is a 14hh piebald mare who is aged around 24, she is very shy but very sweet natured too, and has made good friends with Zak since her arrival.
Lady has had a bad time in the past, she was tethered up for many years and suffered abuse.
Some local horse lovers had known and seen Lady tethered on their local common for years and began to notice her regularly getting loose and wandering on the main roads. Concerned for her welfare , they approached the people who they thought owned her and asked what was being done to keep her safe.
It was explained that the elderly man who had kept Lady tethered up had died and Lady had simply been left to fend for herself. She was hungry, frightened and alone with nobody to care for her.
One kind lady took it upon herself to visit Lady every day and to take her hay and water.
Eventually the pony was given to the lady and she found a farmer who would lend her a field so that poor Lady could come off of her tether and have some much deserved freedom.
On the other side of a river that ran alongside this field were two other ponies, and when Lady's field was no longer available for use it was agreed that she could go to live with these other two ponies and have some company of other horses.
It soon became clear that as she had been tethered, Lady wasn't sure how to interact with other horses and so was always bullied a little by other ponies, she didn't know how to defend herself but was soon accepted and lived in her new home for 2 years when we were asked to step in and take Lady.
The place where she was now living was to be taken over by the local council to build flood defenses, and all the ponies needed to find somewhere else safe to live.
As she had taken such a long time to connect with people and other horses and had such a tough life we decided that she deserved refuge at Hope Pastures and she has now been accepted by the rest of the herd in the big horses field, especially Zak who likes to protect her from bullying.
She is a pleasure to have around and is very quiet and gentle, there is still a flicker of fear in her eyes and we can see that she has bad memories that will always be with her. She also had physical scars- there is still glass deep inside her shoulder where the vet says she was either hit by a car or stabbed with a bottle, this causes her no discomfort and will come out over time.
Lady is very well loved by us and will enjoy the rest of her days being cared for and she will never want for food, water, shelter or love again.

Spring 2010
Lady is well and enjoying the spring grass and sunshine.
Now that she has lost her winter coat she looks very bonny and shiny, and she is still good friends with Zak even though he has a second girlfriend now in the form of Bronte!
Lady was a lucky pony as in mid May she was chosen as one of the ponies to be helped by James French from The Trust Technique. He helped her to become more confident away from Zak and also worked with her emotions and to get past her bad experiences of being bullied by other horses. We  will carry this work on and it will build Lady’s confidence.
This involved slowly separating her from Zak and bringing her into the school and calming her down, she really responded well to this and was soon standing with James and relaxing.
Lady especially loved the camera man, Josh and would go over to stand with him and examine his camera, the feeling was mutual and Lady now has a new friend in Josh .
As all this was filmed we hope to soon provide a link to Lady’s experience with the Trust Technique along with some lovely footage.

Lady when she first arrived