We found the following irresponsible ads on the internet recently advertising small ponies as ‘ideal Christmas presents’ for children. No animal, especially ponies, should be given as  Christmas presents. Ponies, even miniatures, require the same level of care as any other equine, including the bills that go with it! Just because someone has moved into a property  “with room for a pony” does not necessarily mean that they have the knowledge and funds to care for such a high maintenance animal.

For the child who is begging for a pony, why not find a local Centre Equestre and book some lessons, some of the  more responsible ones will include lessons on how to care for a pony too.  They can learn just how much work is really involved! This will also allow the family involved to find out just what they are getting into, and if their interest and finances are up to it.

There are of course good alternatives to living pets these days, why not visit our Amazon store and take a look at Butterscotch, the life-like pony!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Janie Feakes, who on October 25th, completed the Great South Run raising over £315  for ERF.

Proudly wearing her ERF T-shirt, Janie completed Britains biggest 10 mile road race in a fantastic time of 2 hours 37 mins and 28 seconds! This annual race held in Portmouth each year raises millions of pounds for various charities.

Janie has a link with French rescue horses as she is adopter of Normandy cob mare Maddie  (previously called Sunrise), initially rescued by ERF President Kathryn and Jon Dobson prior to ERF forming. Janie and Maddie have a great relationship together and have been doing tremendously well with their Parelli work gaining very good marks from the Parelli HQ recently.

Thank you from all of us at ERF!

For the past year or so we have been pushing the authorities to act in a case of neglect to 4 Shetland ponies feet in the Charente. Their feet had been grossly neglected for years making it extremely difficult for them to walk about.

Strangely though, they were otherwise reasonably cared for with ample hay and shelter provided. We are very pleased to report that the ponies feet have now been attended to and we hope that they see a farrier on a regular basis now and not allowed to get into that state again. Hoof neglect is a large problem in France that  regularly gets reported to us – a neglect that the authorities still do not rate highly enough on their list of concerns. We constantly have battles with the authorities to get help to those equines most vunerable in France. It is a difficult job we have to get someone to listen to our concerns, and we ask that people  please be patient whilst we try and get help to them. We try to do our best on the limited resources we have and our small but dedicated team of volunteers at ERF.

Long term donkey friends Daisy & Dora moved down to the Haute Vienne today, to live with their new adopters Shirley and Gordon. These two were probably the most well-behaved donkeys we have come across this year to load and travel. Luckily we got them delivered and settled in before the  before the heavens opened….

Daisy carefully steps off the trailer....

The girls head off to investigate their new surroundings!

"I think we'll like it here Dora!"

"ooh look Dora, our house"

Thanks go to their new adopters for offering them such a lovely home, and to their old owners for entrusting this special pair into our care to find their forever home.

Whilst doing some research today I stumbled across an article where a miniature pony was being used as a guide for a blind lady.

I’d never heard of an equine being used in this way before, and, being interested to learn more, found a website called the Guide Horse Foundation . One of the benefits of using miniature ponies over the more traditional guide dogs is a longer lifespan, an average of 30-40 years. Other benefits, apparently, of using these ponies as guides include their wider range of vision, calm nature, excellent memory and a natural instinct to avoid danger. It make’s interesting reading and there’s some great photo’s on their website of these ponies in action!

Yesterday was a long and difficult day for us at ERF. We travelled down into Cantal, to Maurs, to monitor their autumn horse fair. It is one of the biggest horse markets in France, with the majority of the equines sold going into the meat chain.

The conditions and treatment of some of the horses was very shocking and disturbing to witness, with no apparent welfare regulations in place for the horses. We will publish our report on the blog once we have collated all our photographic and video evidence. We are more determined than ever to push for improvements to be made at the Horse Fairs such as these. For this, we will need to call on public support, so please watch this space, the misery these animals endure is unacceptable.

A horse yesterday awaiting it's fate...

It’s only 66 days til Christmas, time to start thinking about presents for our family and friends…

ERF has it’s very own Amazon Store where we have chosen lots of great gifts that we think you may like. Sit back from the comfort of your living room and do all your Christmas shopping in one go…..it’s so easy! And better still, with each direct purchase you make from the shop, ERF will earn commission, so in turn you’ll be helping the horses whilst you shop. If what you are looking for isn’t in the shop you can click on the Amazon logo on there and still earn ERF commission (or tell us and we’ll add the item to the shop to earn a better level of commission).

Long gone are the days when Amazon just sold books…you can now also buy:

Dvd’s/Videos/music – electrical items – toys – clothing/shoes – DIY – beauty  items – computer items – jewellery – home & garden- horse wormers and equestrian equipment

Amazon have an excellent reputation as an online store, shipping items all over the world. New items are being added to the ERF shop all the time so keeping checking in.

We just wanted to say a big thank-you to Professor Derek Knottenbelt , for taking the time to offer his advice to us recently with a difficult welfare case we are dealing with.

Prof. Knottenbelt is a highly respected leading expert in equine oncology and dermatology and we appreciate him taking time out of his very busy schedule to offer such rapid email assistance to ERF.

We couldn’t resist posting some photos of Brandy (formerly Gucci) and her new pal enjoying the sun this week.

(P.S Brandy is the one with the bigger ears!)

"errr...what are we supposed to be looking at?"

"Did someone mention food?"

"I think this must be the bar....?"

"What does a donk have to do to get served at this bar?"

The beautiful Cairanne has been on our website looking for an adopter for a few months now. Although she is 22 yrs old, she is in good health and could be lightly ridden by a competent person. Being good with other horses means she would also make a very good companion for a lonely horse or as a nanny to youngsters as she has been a broodmare herself in the past.

She is papered, microchipped and vaccinated and ready to be rehomed now.

Please contact us if you are interested in adopting Cairanne.