the breeders of unwanted shetlands, new forests which are unhandled, unwanted, not valuable have to ask themselves why they put the mares in foal or people with 'problem' mares who see having a foal as an outlet for her to solve their issues again think about why they are doing it.
I have the most amazingly NF pony and it makes me so sad to think that his brothers and sisters or children could end up at a place like Amersham. He is a gelding now but ran as a stallions on the forest for a bit before I had him. The semi feral ponies of GB with the right handling make such great ponies for adults and children that we should not give up on them before they have been even given a chance to prove themselves. We have so many great horses and ponies here yet people are still fueling the demand for cheap imports from overseas from dealers whilst our native ponies end up going for meat.
The demand for bargain horses encourages dealers to buy lots of cheap horses with problems or unschooled youngsters and then sell them on to unsuspecting homes and fueling the cycle of unwanted horses.
I know this may be controversial but if we all stopped looking for bargains and were willing to pay more and be more careful in our horse purchases then we might find horses changing hands less. Sadly on this forum there seems to be alot of people saying they are going to sell their horse cos it is unsuitable or looking for very cheap horses.
A well schooled or handled healthy pony or horse is unlikely to be a bargain because of the amount of work it takes to produce them.
I think as buyers and sellers of horses we need to take more responsibilty to make sure that our horses end up in the right home.
Would n't it be wonderful if everyone on the forum donated a little to help the horses, hopefully most people can spare at least £5.