Help the working and rescue ponies on Gili T

What an incredible few days we’ve had! After a long 2 year wait, we finally welcomed some amazing volunteer vets back to the island.

They gave all of the ponies at Stud an MOT, so we are happy and confident that the pony you are riding is happy and comfortable in their work!

They all received a trim, and shoes where necessary, and most importantly, the staff at Stud received more farrier training so that we are able to take care of our ponies without relying on experts from overseas.

We also checked over all of the rubbish collection ponies, other working ponies, and several of the horses from Horses of Gili came to Stud to receive hoof care and shoes.

These visits are so important for us, not only for the welfare of our own horses, but also for the working ponies on the island. The horse cart drivers are learning to trust us, and that we only want to help their ponies. We are not here to judge! Several years ago, many of the drivers were reluctant to allow vets to check their ponies.. now they are actively seeking our help.

Most importantly, many of the drivers are now showing an eagerness to learn skills like hoof trimming, so we plan to arrange more visits designed to educate and teach these hugely important skills. Education here is key!

There is so much we want to do to improve the lives of the working ponies on the island. Now that covid seems to be over, we can get to work!! Our next project is to try to import better quality horse shoes. At the moment, the shoes are made from flattened rebar. They are terrible quality and do more harm than good. The drivers are extremely keen to be able to have access to have better quality shoes, so we hope to be able to put this project together as soon as possible.

As always, these projects require funding. If we are going to be ordering shoes in bulk, we will need to generate the money for the original investment.

Donations are hugely appreciate and 100% of the money goes toward the horses!

We are all exhausted but so happy and excited to help all of the ponies on Gili T.

As always, a massive thank you to @thebiomechanicvet, who have not only given up personal time from their busy schedules, but spent the last 10 days grafting. We are forever in your debt and all of the ponies on Gili T thank you!

We have seen Prabu on the island pulling a cart for several months and have been deeply concerned about his welfare. His owner refused all of our offers to help him, and we felt very stuck and frustrated. Luckily for Prabu, he got a new owner, (who we have been sponsoring throughout the pandemic and lives just in front of our stables), so we jumped at the chance to help him.

This little pony really got under our skin. Our immediate reaction was to try to purchase him, but we had a long discussion with his new owner and decided that another option might be to help his new owner to rehabilitate him. This way, we can help Prabu while educating his owner. It is unrealistic to think that we can just buy every pony that needs our help (even though we would love too).

So, Prabu will come to Stud during the day where we will feed him up. We will monitor his progress and the amount that he is working (ideally not at all, but we appreciate that this is perhaps unrealistic). If he is not improving then we will rethink our plan.

We always follow the guidance and advice of an amazing overseas team of vets and farriers to try to work out the best possible course of treatment for the horses. With our limited resources, we sometimes have to find alternative solutions.

Thank you so much for supporting our stables with your generous donation. If you have the chance to share this with your friends and family, please do! We can't wait to update you again soon with Prabu's progress and health.

All the best,

Sarah and the Stud Rescue ponies