Eventful evening - gypsy Shetland in my neighbours' garden!!

[Django Pony]

I came home to find a Shetland pony in my neighbours garden! Turns out she had found him wandering by a main road with no headcollar or tack on so brought him home! There is a gypsy site not far away, we thought he must've come from there. She's spoken to the police who said they had had reports of a pony but when they asked the gypsies said he wasn't theirs so there wasn't anything they could do. I was all set to make him comfy for the night and try the RSPCA/WHW/local rescue centres tomorrow.
I went to the yard to sort my boy out, and bought back some hay and a water bucket for him. As I got back a combo-van pulled up followed by a landscape gardening truck. It was the owners (gypsies). They proceeded to literally shove the poor little mite in to the back of the combo van! The eldest gypsy could see I was horsey and tried to sell me a 14.2hh piebald mare for £100!!
I'm kind of glad he is back with his owners as I have no idea what would have become of him, but all the same I can't help but worry. I hope he'll be ok!
There is also a very small part of me that is disappointed that I couldn't keep him!

 

[KalaJ]

Poor pony

A girl at my yard has just rescued a shetland off the gypsies that was tethered to a rock in a garden with the most awful overgrown hooves, sweet little thing too.

 

[Aarrghimpossiblepony]

Same thing happened to me once with a dog we found and had for a couple of days.
I don't even like dogs much but there's still this bit of disappointment when you manage to find the owners.

You should have hidden him in the garden shed.

 

[Django Pony]

To be fair, he was in pretty good condition. His hooves were a little long but not too bad. I just hope he's ok after being shoved in to a van like that! He didn't have a headcollar on or anything so wasn't tied up in the back, he was just in there loose!