A pony dumped in a field in London “on the brink of death” has “beaten the odds to survive” and will spend Christmas in his new home.
Ronnie, thought to be a part-bred Hackney, was rescued from Cranford Park, Hillingdon, in March, by council staff, who contacted the RSPCA.
Ronnie was emaciated and was the weight of a pony half his size, the RSPCA said. He was suffering from equine flu and had a heavy worm burden, and blood tests showed a weak immune system.
“Despite being only two or three years old it is thought that he had been used as a driving pony and abandoned because he was too weak to carry on,” said an RSPCA spokesperson.
“He was brought into the care of the RSPCA Millbrook Animal Centre who worked as a team to bring Ronnie back from the brink of death.”
The centre’s yard supervisor Charlotte Neary said Ronnie had a body score of 0.5.
“The whole picture was quite shocking. Not only was he so young and underweight, but he’d obviously been expected to work as well and when he couldn’t, he was dumped,” she said.
“Ronnie has been the sweetest pony from the first day – everyone who spends time with him instantly falls in love. He was really shut down and very quiet but was still such a gentleman and let everybody treat him; the farrier, vet, dentist and the staff. It was like he wanted to take all the help because he knew he needed it.”
Ronnie was carefully managed back to health. After six weeks, he made enough progress to go into a bigger paddock with a pony called Frodo.
“As Ronnie grew stronger he became happier and started playing with other horses. But his mannerism never really changed, he was the perfect little gentleman. It’s the only way to describe him,” said Charlotte.
“He would give us a happy little whinny every morning and it was just so heartwarming to see him not only get better physically, but mentally as well. He put on 32kg in four weeks and this shows how incredibly underweight he had been.”
After four months in the care of the RSPCA Ronnie reached his ideal weight of 225kg.
“He proved to have quite the following on our Facebook page and our supporters were just incredible, they donated so many items for him such as rugs, fly masks, treats, enrichments and salt licks. We are incredibly grateful to our community for their donations and want to say a huge thank you to them,” said Charlotte.
“He had a massage kindly donated by Mary at Vitality Equine, who said some of his muscles were quite tight which would collaborate with the fact he was likely used as a driving pony, despite his young age.”
Ronnie in his new home.
Ronnie was adopted by Kera Hodson and her mum Claire Preston, who have three other RSPCA rescue ponies.
“We saw Ronnie’s heartbreaking story on Facebook and knew we needed to help him. Kera set her heart on him and said ‘He’s coming home’,” said Claire.
“He has got a home for life and has slotted straight in. There’s always something very special about taking on a rescue and they know they have found their people. When we go to the field they all come running. To be abandoned and left – it breaks our heart to think what had happened.”
Claire said the family “can’t wait to celebrate Christmas” with Ronnie.
“He will be very spoiled just like his ‘siblings’ George, Splash and Shelly. They will have a special breakfast and lots of love,” she said.
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