We have approximately 15 rescued horses at the Hill View Farm. Sultan is a Kathiawari horse that was rescued from 'lucky horse shoe' -business. Raja is a Marwari horse that was trained for dancing in weddings and fell off from a transport truck and hurt his back. Mino and Strong are ex-racehorses rescued from the Ooty streets.
There are over 50 rescued ponies at the Hill View Farm, whose background varies from being rescued as orphan foals in Ooty to being retired ex-cart ponies from Maharasthra or confiscated ex-circus ponies from Kerala. We also have couple of young ones that are either born at the farm to rescued female ponies that were pregnant already as they came or that were very young when they were rescued together with their mothers.
The Hill View Farm Animal Refuge is home to over 160 donkeys. They have been rescued as abandoned and injured on roadsides, as abandoned after a construction project was over or retired from their work in brick kilns and mines. Some are born in the farm to females that were pregnant on arrival.
Our cattle and buffaloes have been confiscated from illegal cattle transport trucks or rescued by individuals who have found them as small calves waiting to be slaughtered.
Many of our goats used to work in a circus, jumping through rings of fire or climbing ladders. Now they just graze with the horses and sheep and enjoy relaxed life.
Most of our sheep came from the Pasteur Institute India, Coonoor, when they closed down the lab where they used to need sheep for their vaccine production purposes. Two rams were rescued from being fighting rams.
Traffic accidents are common among the free-roaming dogs on the streets and often the fractures are so severe that the only way to save the life of the dog is to amputate the limp. Dogs do well on three legs and our three-legged dogs run around happily on the farm and jump almost meter-high fences easily.
From being found locked up in small cages or left in a box behind our doorstep to being discarded because they were not breeding anymore or because owners could no longer take care of them, our dogs would have different stories to tell you if they had the words. While it is often possible to find good homes for puppies and young dogs, older ones are usually left with us.
These two buddies were performing artists in a circus in Kerala before getting a peaceful home at the Hill View Farm Animal Refuge. They are not well socialised and show symptoms of traumatised past. However, when left to play by themselves they are a happy and content pair.
In 2015 we received six ponies and one Kathiawari horse that had been rescued from a circus in Kerala. The horse was named Felix and on his arrival he was skin and bones, very reserved and bullied by the other ex-circus ponies that he had been with.
In August 2018 Felix was looking great and we had found a good, loving home for him where he would be living with two other ponies and taken care by dedicated people who also run a school for disadvantaged children.
Felix is enjoying life in his new home and in March 2019 Kate Fenner was also able to visit him. He is dearly loved by the children of the family as well as those in the school. Gentle horse having a great new life.