‘He laid in his lap and took his last breath’: devastation as much-loved pony dies after public feeding

The owner of a Shetland who died after he was fed chestnuts by a member of the public said he was loved by all those who knew him – and should have had many happy years ahead.

Zoe Mullins’ nine-year-old Reggie died in his owners’ arms at the end of last year, despite all best efforts to save him. Zoe told H&H that she had repeatedly put signs up asking people not to feed him but that these were ripped down from the edges of his field in Kent.

“My daughter’s grown up with him; we’d had him since before she was born,” she said. “She’s absolutely devastated.”

Zoe said the family spent time with Reggie every day; grooming and playing with him and poo-picking his field. There is a public footpath nearby and houses backing on to it but she said everyone she spoke to was respectful of the need not to feed Reggie.

One morning late last year, Zoe got a call to say Reggie was unwell.

“He was foaming at the mouth, green stuff coming out of his nose, he couldn’t breathe properly,” she said. “I knew it was choke straight away; I called the vet, who treated him but after eight hours, he was no better.”

The vet tubed Reggie that evening but could not dislodge the blockage.

“She gave us two options,” Zoe said. “Take him to Bell Equine for surgery or put him down. We couldn’t leave him to suffer but they a miracle happened; we were rubbing his throat and managed to dislodge the blockage.”

Reggie was put on bute and antibiotics for 10 days and seemed to be recovering but the day after he finished his treatment, Zoe had another phone call to say he was ill again.

“We got there and saw a huge pile of chestnuts, a bag of cut grass and a big loaf of crusty bread and we could see he’d been eating it,” she said. “My partner went to get him so my daughter and I started picking it all up, then I heard my partner shouting for me.”

Zoe ran to the other end of the field to her partner and Reggie.

“It was horrific, how we found him,” she said. “He couldn’t breathe, and as my partner put the headcollar on him, he collapsed. My daughter and son were screaming, we were trying to get up, and all the people from the houses came out and were watching. I lost it; I said ‘It’s because of you; you killed this pony’. They all said it wasn’t them and just walked off; not one person offered to help.”

Zoe rang the vet again and she and her partner managed to get Reggie to his feet but had to support him to stay upright.

“I ran back to the yard to get him a rug; I ran as fast as I could but when I got back, my partner said ‘He’s gone’. He’d just laid in his lap and took his last breath, and that was it.”

Zoe said they had had Reggie seven years but had no issues until about a year ago when foods such as tomatoes, rabbit straw and potato peelings started appearing in the field.

“We put signs up and someone kept ripping them down,” she said, adding that she always checked the field and removed any potentially dangerous foods.

“He was nine; he was happy and healthy and everybody loved him. every little white pony my daughter saw afterwards, she’d say ‘Mummy, Reggie’s back’, and I’d have to say that wasn’t him, he’s in heaven. She’s devastated.”

Zoe posted on Facebook about what happened to Reggie and had hundreds of comments.

“People were saying they would miss him,” she said. “One lady said she’d lost her husband and his name was Reggie too so she’d walk down there every day to see him and she adored him. I just burst our crying, he was so loved by so many people.

“I’d never feed an animal without the owner’s permission. Why couldn’t people look at the signs and leave him alone?

“He was a lovely, lovely pony. We miss him so much; there will never be another one like him.”

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