Trinityglen Highland Ponies

Well we are finally all home. The ladies are so happy to be back on the 20 acres and the boys are thrilled to be reunited with everyone. Little Thistle was amazing and the best girl. Talk about being trailer savvy now. Glad to have the ponies all in one place at home. This past week was challenging with driving roughly 200 miles a day to care for the ponies in their various evac area plus working. I appreciate everyone that DM me during this trying time. We are home and safe.

Long before tractors and Land Rovers, the whole life of the Highlands rested on the strong back of one small, sturdy pony. They called it the garron, and it carried Scotland through. 🐴🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The Highland pony is one of the oldest and hardiest native breeds in Britain, shaped over thousands of years by the mountains, the moors and the bitter northern weather. Broad, powerful and calm, with a thick winter coat and often a dark eel stripe running down its dun back, it was built to work where no other animal could. It hauled peat home from the moss to warm the cottage, brought the harvest in, carried the shepherd to his flock, and bore the stalked deer down off the high hills on the estates.

Its temperament is as prized as its strength. A good Highland pony is gentle, sensible and endlessly patient, sure footed on ground that would turn an ankle, willing to stand quiet under a heavy load with a red deer stag across its back. For the crofting families of the glens and the islands it was not a luxury but a lifeline, as much a part of the household as any working member of the family.

Even the royal family keeps Highland ponies still, working the hills of Balmoral just as their ancestors did. 💙

These ponies are the quiet heroes of Scottish heritage, the beasts that made life in the glens possible at all. If your people crofted or worked the land in the Highlands, a garron like this one very likely shared their days, hauling their peat and carrying their burdens through wind and rain. When you picture the old Highland life, do not forget the pony standing patient in the yard. It carried more of Scotland than we will ever know. 🪻

While evacuating one of the ladies I went on that ride in the Tahoe wilderness sent me these pics. What a fun ride this was before the craziness is the fires and evacuations happened. 😳😳

Finally done with evacuating the ponies for the second time in 3 days. They are now roughly 20 miles away from the new fire line. The highways to get to where they were originally evacuated to both had closed so took an alternate route that came in like a back door approach, it added a couple hours to getting to them but thankfully was able to get them all moved again. Like the first time, they were stressed but all loaded into the trailers immediately. Love these guys so much ❤️. The pics are the fire exploding again as I was coming into the valley they were in from the backside and as I got closer to them. So very thankful for everyone who helped us evacuate again. They are all angels 😇

The fire has shifted again and where Liam was evacuated too is now in a red zone. I am so thankful to my Farrier, who lives closer to there than me and was able to take back roads that she knows because she is picking him up for me to get him out of danger. I am still trying to make my way there, but highways that leads to him as well as where the girls are which is about 10 miles from him have been closed. This was a green zone that got moved to red immediately with the change in the wind.

My God! The dang fire. Crossed over the ridge and is starting to go back down to 395 again just north of the starting point. Liam is evacuated on the other side of this highway about half a mile from this. The fire would have to cross four lanes of highway to get to where he’s at and we are supposed to be getting thunderstorms and a flood warning today so I’m hoping that happens at some point to help tamp down this fire. Liam is on standby again for possibly getting moved again. If it looks like they can’t get this fire stopped before it hits the highway. They are using water support on it now.

There are three different fires that are going on in this area. Two merged, which is the fire we have evacuated from. Now has burned 57k acres and only 4% contained. The other is on the other side of us—not too far away as the crow flies and 20k acres burned and no containment.

I do have to brag on my ponies during this very stressful time. They had to get evacuated to a few different areas with the stallions going to individuals who are set up for a stud. My brag-every single pony including little Miss thistle jumped into the trailers without any fuss. They have made new fans and fast friends with the kind people that are caring for them. Even though they were clearly stressed and scared with evacuating they all behaved perfectly. I cannot say enough times how much I love these ponies and this breed.

All the ponies in the shelter in the one picture have a very large area but they are sticking close to each other in this stressful time so if one is in the stall they all try to be in there too😳🥴

All the ponies have been safely evacuated. Truly in the nick of time because where the ponies live turned into an evacuate now situation.

We are in the yellow get ready to evacuate zone and the winds are picking up. Rather than wait for us to get in the red zone and try and move everyone which will take three or four loads to do safely. We are starting to evacuate now. Anyone in this area that would be open to moving one of my stallions down to Washoe Valley I would really appreciate it. He halls very well and is very well mannered but a little bit stressed right now. With basically such a large Horse community getting evacuated a lot of the evacuation centers are full, so my ponies are all going over the border to California which thankfully is just a 45 minute drive from us. Any help would be so appreciated.

Getting staged to evacuate if necessary for the bug fire. 🔥 so far we are just out of the “get ready to evacuate” yellow zone. Trailers are hooked up and everything is ready to be loaded.