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.

George was re-homed in February 2009 and he seemed to settle in well. 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 and he was returned to us.
It was 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?’ We had George ‘rig tested’ when he got back to check that his behaviour 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.

Then, 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.
We, the staff and trustees, would also like to take this opportunity 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.