Horses at Port Dickson

DVS Checking out the Pony

Nursing a bloody hangover I limped my way to Port Dickson to verify a cruelty report. Did I really have to drink that last vodka neat? We were met by DVS Negeri Sembilan and the Chairperson of the Negri Sembilan SPCA. When we first saw the animals they were standing under the shade waiting for customers (hum not sure that turn of phrase sounds right. Makes them sound like sex workers). There were one horse and two ponies. The horse was a TB poss. ex race and the ponies were indigenous Malaysian ponies. All were on the thin side but not in such horrific condition as to warrant seizure. On questioning it was found that min. care was being administered i.e. they were fed twice a day with some evidence of grooming although their feet condition was not great. The horse had cracked hooves and one of the ponies had possible signs of founders. The DVS gave the handlers a warning to feed the horse and ponies with more food, have water always near them and to get their feet checked.  It seems they bring them in from Malacca for pony rides then bring them back to Malacca when the weekend is over. This explains why the horses kept disappearing! It was decided that we might as well check the Ranch anyway just to make sure that all the horses were okay and these weren't the better conditioned ones at the Ranch. The handlers were not very forthcoming when we tried to find out more about the Ranch. Maybe we should have bribed them:) What we did manage to get was the owner's name and the area where the Ranch is but not the exact address. We are going to locate the ranch and the owners and work at it from that angle.