Dinky’s search for a friend
We all need a friend in life and none more so than Dinky the 8hh miniature Shetland when he arrived at our member charity Blue Cross’ Burford rehoming centre.
“Dinky’s owner had a change in circumstances so needed to find him a new forever home,” Jess, Adoptions Preparation Lead at Burford, says.
“Many people think Blue Cross only deals with welfare cases but we’re also looking to help horses before they become welfare cases.
“Of course, people can experience changes in their circumstances – financial difficulties and family break-ups for example. Whatever the reason, we have multiple ways we can help. There’s Home Direct, where the pony stays with their original owner until a new home is found or, if that’s not possible, the horse can come to us, like Dinky did.
“He was obviously a much-loved little pony, scoring a perfect three on the body score index. But, at the age of 14, he was still a stallion. That meant he wasn’t socialised – it’s possible to socialise stallions but the process has to start at a young age. Dinky was well beyond that.
“So he’d always lived alone and, seeing the other horses in our yard and fields, became quite a handful.
“He was desperate to be with them – horses are very social animals and want to live in a herd. But, even after we’d castrated him, he didn’t know how to act around other horses. He was hard to handle – always looking around watchful, neighing, swishing his tail and rearing up. He had a lot of anxiety.”
Poor Dinky – the Blue Cross team tried to introduce him to a couple of potential friends but he wasn’t their cup of tea.
“He just didn’t know how to act around them – he had no knowledge or experience of how a normal social interaction worked,” Jess says. “So he was way too full-on, running over and trying to touch and sniff them straight away, missing the very subtle social cues horses give each other. The other horses ran away or, if Dinky really persisted, kicked out.”
Then the Blue Cross team decided to introduce Dinky to Sunshine, an 11.1hh Welsh pony who arrived in the main fields at Burford a month after him.
Could this laidback ten-year-old be the sunshine in Dinky’s life?
“We put them in next door fields so that they could safely interact through a fence,” Jess says. “Then we swapped them over which meant they were smelling each other’s scents. The third step was to move them – together – to a neutral field.”
The moment of truth – and the pair were a match!
“They had a quick sniff and then set out happily exploring their new environment together – we were all so happy for Dinky,” Jess says.
“Sunshine has a very calm way about him and Dinky seemed to find comfort in that – he calmed down too.”
Now the pair are inseparable. On the day of our photo shoot, when we led Dinky from their shared stable to the yard for his close-up, Sunshine whinnied: “Where’s my pal gone?”
So we invited Sunshine to come and have his photographs taken as well. When the pair were reunited – after all of ten minutes apart – they rubbed noses in the equine version of a hug.
“Dinky is so happy now he’s with Sunshine,” Jess says. ‘Their friendship really warms all our hearts so we’re looking for a home for them together. They bring smiles to the faces of everyone who meets them.”