Mocca is a 14hh pony of typical mixed Portuguese breeding. She came from a rescue group who sadly no longer operate in Portugal - as with many organisations out there, the costs of hay and just the sheer number of horses needing help out there become overwhelming. She had a foal very young, and an nasty injury on her hind leg. But this has proved to be superficial, other than scarring, and she will be able to be ridden with a training refresher!

Star is our unregistered Lusitano, who came from the same rescue organisation as Mocca. She was only 2 when we took her on and has grown and matured a lot since then! She is quite confident, and definitely lets people know what she's thinking. She was rescued from a camp where she had been abandoned as a young foal tethered around her fetlock. The tether dug into her skin and has caused some thickening in that joint from scar tissue, but she has always been sound in the field so far. We will assess her suitability for ridden work once she is back in the UK.

The mules came from a young man who was looking after them when their owner became unable to or uninterested in caring for them anymore. They were in a shed with a young foal that had a bell tied to her neck and some sheep. As we left with the mules, the young man who had been caring for them caught up with us in his car and asked if we would also take the young foal. But we could not, and I often wonder what happened to her. Indiana took a very quick shine to me, to the point where she did not want to be taken away from me just to be loaded onto the trailer. Even when I visited her months after moving back to the UK without them, she remembered me and let me stroke her ears (which she does not allow just anyone to do!) Her mother was a Fjord horse, she is about 13hh high, and probably about as wide as tall! She just wants to trust people and be loved by someone, but she worries that something bad will happen. She had previously been used for lead rein rides, but I would certainly want her to have some more training before she did that again.

When I came to meet Jones, he was tied up short in a dark shed away from Indiana and the foal, covered in sweat. And nervous, so worried about who I might be and what I was going to ask of him. He is incredibly hard to catch, and so I assume he had been herded around the field for a long time to catch him so we could see him. He can be ridden and driven, but I have not done anything with him as he definitely deserved time to decompress. Of course, ideally I'd have been working with him earlier than now, but until he's here he will continue to live in his herd with the ponies and Indy and Star, where he feels safe and doesn't have to worry about demands placed on him. He is a lovely looking mule, with an unregistered Lusitano mother, and has lovely horse-like gaits.

We got Lissie through an aquaintance who took her on for training, but when she told the owner that Lissie would not be suitable for his needs, he said he would not take her back, and if she had insisted on returning Lissie, he would have shot her. She looks like the perfect little girl's pony, but the fear she has, coupled with a lack of socialisation, makes her unpredictable. She has now been living in a small herd with our bigger horses for a few years to help her learn some social skills from them so that we can restart her when she's back with us.

We have three personal horses remaining (we did have to sell the fourth), and as Sully and Tottie are semi-retired, and Arya has some recurring hind leg and back issue, these guys will come back to the UK with the rescues. Please be assured that donations will NOT be used for our personal horses.