Little Man and the Guineas

Little Man and the Guineas

   Little Man, the Shetland Pony who used to ride children around at a fair in Los Angeles has been living in the canyon for some fifteen years now. He’s pretty old now… heck, he seemed old when the local farrier came back into the canyon with him after rescuing him when he heard the owners of the kiddie fair were going to have him out down due to his age.

   Since then he’s become something of a fixture in the canyon. He used to roam free, visiting different houses in the canyon and eating what he could find or was given. Now, since some objected to him eating their gardens and flowers he has to stay locked up. So now,  many people in the canyon give him some of their leftover veggies…. but he can’t chew well either, so it has to be soft foods.

   Some of the local women and children will open his pen and take him for a walk up and down the canyon road… to give him something interesting for the day.  All in all, it’s a bit of a sad life for the little old guy.  Still he’s better off than many animals in factory farming conditions… kept in stalls too small to turn around in, and deprived of sunlight. This would never have happened if he were only in France… they’d have eaten him by now.

    He’s blind in one eye now too.  In the wild animals never really grow old… they get killed by some predator….

   The local Guinea hens have become friends of his… perhaps lured by the occasional produce lobbed over the fence.