The Lonely Pony
Page 6
Polly, a three-year-old skewbald horse, was shockingly thin when she arrived at Felledge Equine and Animal Centre.
Because she hadn’t eaten properly for so long, Polly was half the weight she should have been when she arrived at the centre.
An underweight Polly at the start of her recovery
She was given a special diet, and the amount of food she received was increased gradually so she didn’t get colic (a potentially fatal stomach condition).
As well as helping Polly gain weight and improve her health, work began to help her trust humans and teach her “stable manners”, including allowing people to enter her stable, simple voice commands and having her feet picked up.
Rachael Duffy, a groom at the centre, was in charge of her training, and spent many hours with Polly, trying to gain her trust. She said:
“Polly would put her ears back when you went near her and didn’t like anyone being in the stable when she was eating. But after a few weeks of working with Polly, she began to understand that I was there to help. Suddenly she started waiting for me at the field gate when it was time to come in.”
After six months, Polly was ready to for staff to see if she could be trained to be ridden. This was done in a gentle and gradual way, by introducing new experiences and building up Polly’s confidence.
Nine months after Polly arrived at the centre, Rachael sat in the saddle for the first time.
Groom Rachael Duffy riding Polly for the first time
Rachael says:
“Polly is perfect now. She loves cuddles and kisses and is a lovely horse to be around.”
Polly loves kisses!
To find out more about the work
the RSPCA do, go to:
www.rspca.org.uk
Scholastic Children’s Books
An imprint of Scholastic Ltd
Euston House, 24 Eversholt Street
London, NW1 1DB, UK
Registered office: Westfield Road, Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 0RA
SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2014
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2014
Text copyright © RSPCA, 2014
Illustration copyright © RSPCA, 2014
eISBN 978 1407 14513 6
RSCPA name and logo are trademarks of RSPCA used by Scholastic Ltd under license from RSPCA Trading Ltd. Scholastic will donate a minimum of 15p to the RSPCA from every book sold. Such amount shall be paid to RSPCA Trading Limited which pays all its taxable profits to the RSPCA. Registered in England and Wales Charity No 219099
www.rspca.org.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this work is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Scholastic Limited.
Produced in India by Quadrum
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
www.scholastic.co.uk