Eli drove with her trailer, I had huge fun sitting in the back with her twins, Billy and Ted who are approx 21 months old and most entertaining!! That left Jo map reading.........Not her specialist subject. Still we made it in time, despite Eli and I having phone sat navs that disagreed with our planned route and each other! Eventually I silenced mine and went on sense of direction, and the vague map of Britain that lives in my head.
When we arrived Jo filled in the paperwork, while Eli ran around after the twins, and I hung on to Prudence, while re-filling my coffee beaker from the WHW office kitchen! Good job WHW are so professional.....we managed to look like the not far off pikeys that we are. Having imprisoned the twins in a buggy and Pru in the truck, we professionally stood back while Lil was loaded and hurried off before they could change their minds!!
The trailer was completely devoid of partition or hay, and Lil was travelled loose (as per WHW instructions). She trotted around the trailer for a bit, which we could feel even in Elis' Land Rover! What I found most disconcerting was when she stood with one eye firmly pressed up against the little window at the front of the trailer.
After a while she stood quietly and I went back to playing with food with the twins. Yes they ended up covered in chocolate spread, with sweets in their ears, while I wore Prudence on my head, trying to stop her being fed too many treats! We went back a completely different way, and ended up for a brief stop at Burger King, pretty much blocking the entrance for anyone else. As Lil was loose we had all the doors closed and it was looking like a sauna so I opened the jockey door and fed her a carrot, but was worried she might make a break for it. As we weren't too far from West Meadows at that point I figured if she escaped she would probably end up there. Not an improvement from where she came!!
Lil was rescued with 70 others from a Gypsy Cob dealer in Wales, 2 years ago. Back in 2012 he was banned from keeping horses and fined £44,000. But that didn't stop him and by 2016 he had a herd of 70 again, that were tethered all over the place in appalling conditions. They don't mess about in Wales it seems. The local council removed the ponies and had him prosecuted again.
The ponies went to various rescue centres. WHW have several more from that rescue, that are ready to be re-homed. As I said....She is a lucky lady. If it was Suffolk County Council, she would still be tethered and would have had foals by now!!
When we got home, Lil came out of the trailer calmly, just a little sweaty from the sauna effect, but not in the slightest traumatised. We turned her out with Polly in a paddock-pen between the Biggies and the Minis. She had a drink and a roll and calmly started munching on the grass. Having watched them for a hour or so, we left them to it.
The next day was lots of children and lessons. We moved the fences around so Lil was with the Minis when they came back. Dora stormed into the field all gung-ho, marching up to Lil, full of wrath. Lil gave one squeal, struck out with her front leg and with that Dora stalked off sulking. Mini just doesn't care whats happening. So that was that. Thing is, Dora thinks she is the boss of the Mini field, but in truth neither Mini nor Polly care what Dora thinks...They just do their own thing. Lil is very similar......No big show, just indifference. So Dora has no-one she can bully. By the next day they were all grazing very close to each other. I would say Lil has settled in very well.
We brought her in with Polly when all the children had gone, and gave her a groom, foot clean, fly spray and some carrots. All of which she took in her stride. She seems very laid back at the moment. No doubt she will test the boundaries when she has her feet under the table....
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