Help the working and rescue ponies on Gili T

Life in the Gilis

It seems that life in the Gilis has returned to ‘normal’! Finally! Tourism is booming, which means that the working ponies are working extra hard.

We now have 23 ponies living onsite at Stud Rescue. We offer horse rides to try to cover the costs of the feed, medications, staff salaries, equipment, and upkeep of the property, but the expenses are never-ending.

Our mission is to continue supporting the working ponies on the island by providing clinics for them and educational clinics for their owners, (luckily, the next one to take place soon, on the 1st July).

We always provide medical care where requested by horse cart drivers if their horses are having any issues. Recently a pony in terrible condition was brought to us with laminitis. His body condition was also not good, so we provided medical treatment for his feet and gave his owner some pellet feed to supplement his diet.

We are often brought ponies with a range of issues including coughs, wounds, or diarrhoea. After seeking advice from a passionate team of remote vets that support us, we will always provide whatever medical treatment we can. However, medicines are not cheap to purchase. Often they need to be imported from overseas. A great deal of our donations from our wonderful supporters goes towards medicines and treatments like this.

Since our last hoof care clinic, we have set up a new local farrier station on the island. We've provided it with better tools and access to good quality shoes and nails. The imported shoes that we have are slowly beginning to sell, and news of their availability is spreading.

Here's hoping this will bring a future of safer, more durable horse shoes for all the working ponies. Along with a more sustainable income of the local farriers that the volunteer vets trained.

What’s Next?

We will continue to push forward with our hoof care education project. We will arrange another clinic towards the end of the year. As always, teamwork with the local horse cart drivers and Koperasi is key. We aim to promote good working relationships between us and the drivers in order to offer better care to the ponies.

We would also like to work together with local vets to promote tetanus vaccines being given to working ponies. We are establishing good relationships with government-supported vets and hope to offer these vaccines in the future.

Once again, we thank all of our compassionate horse loving supporters who are helping us to keep this project alive for the better future and welfare of all Gili ponies.