Moving Connie

 

We were asked by the RSPCA if we could take in an 18 year old, 16.2hh ex-eventer. We were informed that if she was not off the premises of her temporary abode she would be put to sleep. Because we mainly deal with smaller ponies and are close to saturation point at our rehabilitation yard we had to decline, however we offered to assist in moving the mare, named Connie, from Newquay to her new home eight miles up the road to St Eval.

A transport company had tried loading Connie for two days to no avail , she was lame, due to having no shoes and severe sand cracks and was clearly distressed. We were informed that she had gone over backwards on at least one occasion and would not load, no matter what methods they used. It became apparent that our methods were very different and the differing methods were causing confusion and further distress to the mare. After a short dicussion it was decided the transport company would leave and we would attempt to load Connie using our natural horsemanship methods.

Our attending staff continued to work quietly and patiently with Connie for a further two hours, in which she had ventured up the ramp and was half way on at points. Under normal circumstances we would have left her to calm down and return a couple of days in a row in order to gain her complete trust, however with the end of the day restriction we knew we had to get the mare moved. The attending RSPCA inspector had discovered that Connie used to load onto a large 7.5 tonne lorry, our lorry is much smaller at 3.5 tonne. Our welfare officer swiftly organised for a larger lorry along with a farrier to attend in the hope that Connie would load onto the larger vehicle, shoes would be fitted in the hope some pressure would be taken off her hooves.

The larger lorry and farrier arrived with two hours, the farrier managed to get shoes on her poor feet and we attempted to load her onto the larger lorry. A futher hour of work and Connie was still reluctant to load. Time was running out fast and our team had to make a decision, get Connie moved or allow her to be put to sleep!! It was decided to walk her to her new home.

Our team took it in turns to walk with Connie, whilst being escorted by the farrier in a car. It took an hour and three quarters to arrive at their destination, by this time it was almost 7pm and light was fading fast. Connie walked beautifully and only became lame again in the latter stages, however we were all thrilled that she finally arrived at her destination where she will now retire.

Our attending staff worked tirelessly and patiently with Connie for 10 hours, we were not reimbursed by the RSPCA for our time, petrol, staff wages or the emergency farrier costs.