The future is bright for young ponies rescued from Welsh common

A group of young ponies rescued from Gelligaer Common in Wales last year are now thriving at our Penny Farm Rescue and Rehoming Centre, near Blackpool. Despite having arrived unhandled, most of the ponies – who were named after characters from the hit musical Grease – quickly began to make really good progress. In fact, they’ve done so well that the first two, Sonny (pictured above left with Centre Manager Adam Cummins) and Sandy (above right with her groom Cloe Croston), are now ready to find loving homes of their own. 

“A few of this group were very timid around people, which is understandable given their previous semi-feral existence, so we took time to start building their confidence around us. Others were more curious and started coming up to us quite quickly,” explains Centre Manager Adam Cummins.

“We’ve been working with the Gelligaer Commoners Association as part of a project group for several years now. We were able to use our learnings from previous arrivals to support our latest ponies through their rehabilitation in a way that really works for them.”

How insights from earlier groups have shaped the rehabilitation of the recent arrivals

One of those insights has been the realisation that splitting the ponies up into groups and managing them in smaller areas is more beneficial than keeping them as one big herd in a large open field. World Horse Welfare’s Rescue and Rehoming Centre crew yards are ideal for this – enabling small groups to live together, with sufficient space to move around freely and express normal behaviours.

“We’ve found this approach allows the ponies to get used to the grooms working around them – cleaning out their crew yards, poo-picking, checking water, and topping up hay – without any pressure to interact,” explains Adam. 

“Young ponies are usually quite curious by nature, so once they’ve got used to us, they start to approach us to investigate – often in hope of finding food! Keeping them out in a a big herd just didn’t create those kinds of low-pressure, positive experiences for them to get used to us and offer spontaneous interaction.”

The team’s experience with unhandled ponies has paid off for the latest arrivals from the common, seeing them blossom so quickly that Sonny and Sandy are ready for rehoming just five months after arriving at Penny Farm.

“We’ve been so pleased at how well the ‘class of 25’ have come along. Sonny and Sandy are already on the website and several others will soon be ready to find homes too. We’re looking forward to seeing them all flourishing in families of their own. We hope most of them will go on to make lovely children’s ponies, as a number of their predecessors from the common have done,” says Adam.

One of the original arrivals from Gelligaer Common, Neil, is leading the way

Amongst the earlier arrivals was a bay gelding named Neil, who found a home in summer 2024 after being rescued from Gelligaer Common in November 2023. Having arrived entire and unhandled, Neil was very wary of human contact to begin with. His groom worked hard to gain his trust – and now he’s a much-loved lead rein pony.

Neil’s rehomer Charlotte explains, “I originally applied for another pony, but when I went to meet him, we just didn’t quite click. However, Neil was on the yard too and I was immediately drawn to him when I saw him. I think the initial attraction was that he reminded me so much of my childhood pony, but then we really gelled as soon as I met him properly. I knew he was the one for us!”

Once all the necessary steps had been completed, Neil was on his way to his new home. “He was brilliant when he got here, although he was quite nervous of being groomed to begin with,” recalls Charlotte. “I just took it slowly and was really consistent with him. Patience paid off and within a few weeks he was happy to be groomed loose in his stable.”

After he’d completely settled in, Charlotte felt Neil was ready to start working towards being a ridden pony. “Neil took to work really well – he got the hang of lunging really quickly. He did get a bit of a fright at one point when we started long reining, when one of the lines slipped lower than he liked, but we simply took a few steps back in his training and built his confidence up again. He just hasn’t looked back since,” explains Charlotte.

Now, Neil has been successfully backed to ride and is currently doing a wonderful job as a lead rein pony for Charlotte’s three-year-old daughter. “We had him professionally backed at home, so he didn’t have the stress of going somewhere else,” says Charlotte.

“He never put a foot wrong – it was brilliant to see him taking it all in his stride so calmly. My daughter absolutely loves him. I’m hoping the pair of them will have so much fun together once she’s a bit older.”

Having settled in so well, Neil is now a much-loved member of the family and hopefully will be with them for many years to come. “He’s not going anywhere!” laughs Charlotte. “Rehoming Neil as a blank canvas has been so rewarding. It’s given us the opportunity to really shape him into the pony we need. I’d recommend rehoming to anyone.”

To see the horses and ponies currently ready to find new homes – including several of the ponies who arrived at Penny Farm in November after being rescued from Gelligaer Common – check out our rehoming pages.

Related reading

• Charities collaborate to take young ponies off Welsh common as part of long-term project
• A UK-first, as drones used to assess population of semi-feral ponies on Welsh common
• A brighter future for the ponies of Gelligaer