Sparky
 (arrived at Hope Pastures May 09)
Sparky is a beautiful Palomino pony who was recently rescued from a horse market after the Meat Man had reserved him.
He is the most sweet mannered, adorable little pony and he is so clearly grateful for all the love and care from all of us at Hope Pastures.
The vet has done blood tests for anemia as his colour was very pale, luckily the results later showed that he was fine and that his pale colour was due to him being malnourished rather that anything more serious.
Thelwell took an instant shine to Sparky and followed him around like a little dog, which was lovely for us to see as Thelwell had been a loner since his friend Dante passed away a few years ago. Since then, he has settled in so well, he is such a pleasure to care for and he and Thelwell love one another.
Spring 2010
Sparky is a different pony to the one we rescued a year ago, he is very full of life and he is now in lovely condition, in fact he may even be a little bit too well so we have now cut his feed down to a weight loss diet.
He is used on pony days as he is so good with children and behaves so well when he is being groomed and led around the school. He adores Thelwell and will neigh out when he is not around, he also protects him especially when we walk Charlie, one of our new residents who has poor sight, in his field he tries his best not to let Thelwell meet him!
Sparky has very flat teeth so needs soaked pony nuts as he can’t chew hay properly but as he eats his feed so fast we have put 2 large round stones in his bucket on the advice of the vet, so that he has to work harder to get his feed in and can’t take such big mouthfuls. This seems to work well and his feeds last him much longer into the night.
1st November 09
Sparky is doing very well and has settled in happily at Hope Pastures.
He is so full of life compared to when he first arrived when he seemed very weak and helpless. Every night we let him run from his field to his stable and he always gallops as fast as he can as he loves his food.
Sparky has been used on our pony days as he is so well behaved and the children love to groom him and lead him around the school.
Sparky is on a special diet which consists of a 'haynet in a bucket' as he cannot manage normal hay due to his teeth being too worn, he has a special bucket full of dampened 'chaff' which we feed to horses with worn teeth as they find it much easier to chew and to digest. We are lucky to have expert nutritional advice from Spillers who help us devise diets for those older horses or ponies with specialist feeding needs.
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Sparky and Thelwell
Sparky looking good,
3 months later (Aug 09)
Below:
before and after arrival at Hope Pastures
Waiting by the trailer at the market
On arrival at the sanctuary
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