‘Death Row’ pony Bonnie saved

A 35-year-old Shetland pony was saved from the knacker’s yard thanks to the owner of the field in which the horse had grazed for more than a decade.

The Observer of March 1985, explained the stallion was the last survivor of the Shetland Pony stud of the late Lt Col Roger Hyde, Braes of Greenock, Callander.

Bonnie was a ‘near relative’ of Cruachan, the 34-year-old former regimental mascot of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who at that time was enjoying a well-earned retirement in a field in Oxfordshire.

Col Hyde’s widow, Betty, had died a year earlier in Thornhill and Bonnie, who was not expected to survive her, had for the previous 15 years been grazing in a field owned by Mr Alan Cantlay at Callander. The Shetland pony was being looked after by 78-year-old Mr Robert Wilson, Julia Cottages, Bridgend.

According to the Observer, a relative living in England, who had been purchasing fodder to supplement Bonnie’s grazing, decided that for the sake of the Shetland and Mr Wilson it might be better if the horse was put to sleep.

However, on the day the ‘executioner’ arrived Bonnie received a last-minute ‘death row’ reprieve. Mr Cantlay, of Glens, Callander, stepped in and said he was prepared to keep Bonnie and Mr Wilson was happy to continue looking after him.

Although Bonnie’s sight and hearing were failing, he was ‘perfectly fit’, said the paper, and came regularly to be fed by Mr Wilson whose home was close to the field in which the stallion grazed.

Regarding Bonnie’s appointed execution date, Mr Wilson said: “It was as if he knew his time had come. On the day the man arrived to put him down, he was away over on the other side of the field instead of waiting patiently by the gate for me. I had to entice him over with peppermints.”