TheEquine |

TheEquine : "When Mrs. Margaret Bell tries to get on with the housework it's Fred who gets in the way. He just marches into the house and generally monopolises the kitchen - which is surely his right as the retired member of the family.
Fred is on of the 1,500 remaining pit ponies whose twilight world down the mines is coming to an end. Within the next 18 months, the Coal Board plan to have found them all homes. Or if they are too old and ill, they will be destroyed.
For Fred, now 26, with 22 working years behind him, it's time to rest at the Bell's home at Witton-Gilbert, Durham. He's not been 'put out to grass' because left alone under those circumstances he would probably fret or fight. Instead, Coal Board officials and the R.S.P.C.A. have thoroughly inspected his new home; his sleeping quarters and the family's ability to feed him through the year.
The Bell's wanted Fred for a pet 14 months ago. But, like thousands of others in England, they had to wait four months. They could not choose him. It was a question of whether the Bells were fir enough to give Fred a good home.
Pit ponies probably get a better life than their relatives above ground. Their stables are spotless; their handlers dote on them and take down sweets and sandwiches for tit-bits. To quote the R.S.P.C.A. chief veterinary officer Colonel Ian Tennant: 'They have to be kept at a reasonable temperature, the same was wine is kept in a cellar."