HorseWorld - Reuniting stolen Maisey with her owner

The tale of Maisey, a tiny miniature Shetland pony, is one that tugs at the heartstrings. After a harrowing theft incident back in July 2023, Maisey was mysteriously taken from her field in Wiltshire. Despite steady media attention and numerous appeals, the trail went cold and Maisey’s owners feared they would never see her again.

On 29th February this year, HorseWorld received an urgent call about a severely malnourished pony. The team sprang into action and went straight to the scene where they found a very sorry sight. The pony they found was a shadow of her formal self. She was skin and bone, weak and covered in lice.

The team gently welcomed the frail pony into their care, oblivious that this was Maisey. The truth unravelled when the RSPCA processed her microchip data and identified her as stolen. Maisey has quite distinctive markings and as our CEO, Petra was looking over photographs of the rescue, they triggered a memory of something she remembered seeing on social media. With a little more delving it quickly transpired that HorseWorld had shared a Facebook post about Maisey’s theft back in July 2023. We quickly telephoned the RSPCA and shared the amazing news that we believed we had identified not only the pony, but where she had originally come from too!
This revelation spurred an immediate cooperative effort between HorseWorld and the RSPCA, leading to the reunion of Maisey with her overjoyed owners.

HorseWorld is an equine welfare charity in Bristol specialising in rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming horses, ponies and donkeys in need. To find out more, visit www.horseworld.org.uk