Pretty Man was a plump white pony in the forefront of a sad picture. The photograph showed the seizure by the RSPCA of 123 horses from a farm down the road from where I live. The picture came to summarise many aspects of a story that exploded on to social media and released so many emotions among the public, especially horse-lovers.
A plump white pony is standing defiantly in the middle of a herd of muddy horses being rounded up and loaded on to lorries to be taken away. Later it emerged that the pony wouldn’t load. He refused to get on the lorry. It took most of the day to get the horses on board and the ones who went on first had to stand on the lorries for hours. The plump white pony was the last to go up the ramp. He protested to the last moment.
He didn’t know his home was a mess. He may have been standing in a muddy field eating hay from bent and broken hay-holders. But his opinion, for what it was worth, was that he didn’t want to leave.
The farmer was going blind, his partner had cancer. The farm was falling to pieces around them. Pretty Man was one of the family’s ponies, not the dealer horses that made up the majority of the herd that was seized. He was one of six ponies the farmer and his girlfriend insisted were the children’s pets.
The vet report soon after seizure judged Pretty Man to be healthy in every way. Well fed, in good condition, no worms, good feet, good teeth: nothing wrong with him, apart from being ‘overweight’. None of the criminal charges brought against the farmer related to him.
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