PENELOPE

Penelope is a black pony who was found wandering with a large herd in the hills surrounding Milpitas, California. In the summer of 1999, Redwings was notified by the Santa Clara Humane Society that the property of a local man had gone into foreclosure. For 20 years, the man had allowed a herd of ponies to run wild and breed on the property. The ponies lived like wild horses and were never handled by humans. When the authorities began to take notice, the man allegedly herded the more than 100 horses onto the neighbors' cattle ranch. Once the story hit the press, the neighbor became averse to all of the publicity. He called the area brand inspector, who seized all of the ponies as strays. They were loaded into trucks and taken to Auction 101. Stallions, mares, and foals were all mixed in together; families were separated, and many horses were both hurt and terrified.

Redwings provided further publicity about the ponies’ plight in order to interest local people in buying the ponies at auction. Private individuals bought all but six of the older stallions, who were tragically bought by the killer buyers. Redwings ultimately assumed the care of five ponies—Elvis, Butch, Sundance, Etta Mae, and Etta Mae’s new foal, Penelope. Penelope was the only one of the group who was unafraid of people. After more than two years of training from Redwings’ humane equine trainers, the other four ponies eventually learned to trust humans.

All these ponies now reside at the Sanctuary along with their friends Little Bit of Stardust, Bambi, and Magic.

Go to Little Bit’s story >>

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