Pair of Shetland ponies stolen from national park 'found starved and traumatised near traveller camp 75 miles away' - as hunt continues for four others taken by crooks
James Penny said he was 'so angry' when he discovered six of his miniature ponies had been swiped as they roamed free in the fields of the New Forest National Park.
The theft sent shockwaves through the local community, with residents rallying to help track down the missing animals during a two-week search.
Then following a tip off, the 14-year-old mare and her three-year-old daughter were found 75 miles away in Hilllingdon, west London, wandering roads near the M25.
Mr Penny, from Cadnam in Hampshire's New Forest, said the Shetland ponies were 'traumatised' and 'starved' when was reunited with them.
He added the younger one had been shaved in an attempt to remove his ownership brand.
Mr Penny explained that two weeks ago he had to speak with travellers at a field near his New Forest home because he witnessed them handling some of his Shetlands.
He said it was 24 hours later, when he was rounding them up, that he realised six of the ponies were missing.
Mr Penny explained there is also a traveller site near to the location where two of them were found in Hillingdon.
He said: 'I was looking through the bunch and realised this one was missing, that one is missing.
'They are all females, the mare is about 14 years old and the others are all two or three. I bred them all.
'I was so angry, so annoyed. In the last two weeks, I looked around everywhere.'
Mr Penny said his neighbours have been invaluable, with Leesa Merritt and her daughter Anna launching an appeal on social media to find the ponies.
He said: 'My neighbours have been brilliant doing the social media and responding to the calls they get.
'They have had over 2,600 calls. They have all been from people all over the UK.'
Anna was contacted and told that two of the ponies had been found wandering a road in Hillingdon.
Mr Penny said: 'One of them was in a stable by the time we got up there, people had caught her.
'But the other went running away, she went through a garden and into a maize field.
'There was half a dozen of us and it took us two and a half hours or more.
'She was so traumatised, she knew my voice but they [the thieves] had not been very nice to them.
'There is a traveller camp nearby to where they were found, police told us not to go looking there for the others.
'The two were found on the roads, they weren't far from the M25, I dread to think what could have happened.
'They look like they have been starved. They shaved the younger one trying to shave the brand off.'
Mr Penny said the two ponies are 'happy now' back at home and have been 'turned out to relax' in his field.
Mr Penny believes all six ponies were swiped by travellers.
He said: 'They keep ponies, that's what they do. they keep them and trade them for money.'
'Everyone needs to keep alert and keep looking for the other ponies', he added.
Mr Penny's ponies bear the brand 'TP' on them, which was his father's brand. He also farms cattle and donkeys.
In the New Forest, 'commoners' are allowed to turn their livestock out onto the open forest so they can roam freely.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Police for comment.
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