The Blue Cross Look for a Home for April, this April
Blue Cross is hoping that April’s namesake month will prove to be her lucky charm. The little chestnut pony was battling the odds for survival when she was taken in by the animal welfare charity as a pitifully underweight, parasite-infested yearling. Now, three years on she has a spring in her step and is ready to find a new home where she can showcase her ability to become a lovely riding pony.
April was crawling with lice and infested with worms when she arrived at Blue Cross back in 2015. With a body condition score of just 1.5 on the 0 to 5 scale she was a tragic sight and was terrified of human contact.
“We had to win her confidence and train her to be caught and handled before we could treat her”, recalls Marie Kavanagh, Horse Rehoming Coordinator at Blue Cross Rolleston. “Her condition was so poor that had she not come to us when she did it’s unlikely she would have survived much longer in the circumstances in which she was found.”
With patience, kindness and care April was eventually ready to be placed in a short-term home to enjoy growing up with other youngsters. She soon became used to dogs and children and all the usual goings on at a busy yard and learnt to relax for the farrier and the vet.
Maria continued: “April really blossomed in her short term home. It’s put her in good stead for the next phase of her life, which is to find a project home. She is a calm, clever pony and shows every promise of becoming a super riding pony.”
April is one of several ponies at the Blue Cross centre in Rolleston, Staffordshire currently looking for homes. Her friends Beastie and Tristan both came from Bodmin Moor, where they had never been touched by humans and had to fend for themselves. They are now both very sociable and comfortable with being left alone for short periods so would make excellent companions for a ridden horse.
National pet charity, Blue Cross has two specialist horse rehoming centres at Burford and Rolleston and 11 Centres nationwide. To find out more about the pets needing a home, or to make a donation towards their care, visit www.bluecross.org.uk
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.