Regular handling of horses and ponies is needed also in animal refuges and sanctuaries where horses have come to retire or where they have been rescued from their past abuse. Without regular handling, routine procedures that are essential for the health and well-being of the animals, can become stressful and unsafe for both the people and the animal involved. At Hill View Farm Animal Refuge we also have been rearing many orphan ponies and some of our older rescued mares have come to us pregnant and so we often have young ponies in our care. These ponies need the chance to learn useful skills so that their life with humans can be free of fear and distress and that they could also potentially be rehomed into good homes eventually. Together with kandooequine, we have produced some videos that demonstrate some basic methods that we use in handling and training our rescued and/or young ponies. Under our Hill View Farm Pony Club program we also provide handling training sessions for people interested in learning these skills.
In 2020 we were lucky to meet with Vishal who is a natural horsemanship trainer living in the Nilgiris district. He has been visiting the farm regularly to help with the horses and to give practical demonstrations on ground training of horses using the natural horsemanship methods. Especially many vets who have been at the farm learning about basic equine vet practice on a WVS India equine vet course, have benefitted of these demonstrations.In 2021 we again expanded our experience in learning about young horse training when we had Rasika Reddy and Yash teaching us new techniques and excercises for training on ground.