Heartbreak as rescued pony Basil dies

He had been saved by a Norfolk rescue centre, Little Tinkers, run by Julie and Ken Bassett.

At the time, his history was traced back to 1995, when he was sold by his then present owner from his stable in Burgess Hill.

His story from then was never discovered and Julie contacted Sussex Horse World this week to say that Basil had sadly died.

She said: "Basil was the most heartbreaking pony I have ever seen and I hope I will never see another one like him. I found Basil in April 2008 as I was walking my dogs. He was in a very wet marshy field standing in water almost up to his knees.

"He was skin and bone and hardly had the strength to walk.

"It was evident that this pony had been severely neglected for many months.

"I returned to the field every day with a bucket of feed and was always hopeful his owners would turn up.

"Two weeks later while visiting Basil with his feed, I spotted two men in the field with him acting very strangely. I asked them to let me take the pony but of course he came with a price tag. I returned that night with the money and took Basil to safety."

Under Julie's care. Basil was given a special diet because his teeth had rotted. He started to gain weight during the summer and his spark came back.

Then, in the middle of September, he began to go downhill very quickly and despite every help from Julie's vet, Andrew Illings, he had to be put down.

"Basil had his last summer with us knowing he was loved and being cared for and he was happy.

"I tried to make him well, but due to the neglect of others his body could not recover. It makes me very angry to think people treat animals this way. If they did not want Basil, why did they not give him to people who would have looked after him before he got in such an emaciated state?" she said.

Julie added that she wanted to thank all the Sussex Horse World readers who helped try to trace Basil's history.

To read his full story, see her website www.freewebs.com/littletinkers-

shetlandponies/basilsstory.htm