The ponies have now been moved to the Roundel field in Eglinton Park for their winter grazing. For them it really is a wonderland!  Full of natural obstacles, shelter and even a pond. Its quite hilly and should keep them fit just moving around it!  We have a couple of the girls that are prone to a condition called Laminitis so they are checked daily for any signs of this, unfortunately Ruby came down with it a couple of weeks ago and is spending some time on box rest at Cynthia's.  We hope she will be able to join the rest in the new year. 

While the Lady Jane field is empty we hope to have some works carried out to set up a small yard area around our container and a couple of pens behind it, we will finally get water put into the field to an automatic drinker that has very kindly been given to us by the park.  And then the real work of setting up our paddock paradise system will begin! 

The Paddock Paradise system of grazing is based on the way wild mustangs behave in America and helps to keep the horses mentally, emotionally and physically fit.  As we dont have Mustangs or the dry climate they live in we are having to adapt it quite a bit to meet the requirements of our mainly native herd and our changeable British weather.  I have no doubt that we will learn a lot form this project and will be looking to work with other groups within the park to help us create a sustainable system that the ponies will thrive on!  By creating the Paddock Paradise track system for the horses we should be able to limit the intake of their grass and watch their waistlines!  As all of our ponies and horses are barefoot this will help them to keep healthy hooves and with the right surfaces it will toughen them up.  It also means we are making best use of our limited space and keeping the horses in an area that will be more accesable for people with limited mobility.  We have been offered a large quantity of sand from a local Livery yard that has renewed its arena surface and this will be put into good use for our track system.  So watch this space for progress reports on our improvement plans!  Hopefully with all this in place by the Spring we will be able to get a Riding Establishments license and start to take in some of the clients that are patiently on our waiting list! 

For more information please get in touch via the email address or contact sheet.