Our youngest daughter has always liked horses, and spent many years trying to convince us of the reasons why we should get one.

Our stories about having nowhere to put a stable worked quite well for a couple of years, until one day in the ’shed’ she noticed that there were feeding trays and the like – and that the buildings we call sheds are in fact stables.

The previous owners of our property trained horses for trotting, the popular French version of horse-racing, here in our bottom field so in truth we are quite well set-up to have horses, although two children and two cats is already plenty for us to deal with.

So we never did get horses and the issue seems to have been forgotten about – in the face of Nintendo DS and ‘online chat’ our daughter’s demands for a horse seem to have declined slightly.

For those of you who are passionate about horses, I heard of an organisation yesterday that dedicate themselves to the well-being of horses in France (also ponies and donkeys), and spend a lot of time and energy on rescuing and caring for horses and donkeys that have become neglected.

It seems there are lots of expats who buy horses in France or bring them here from the UK, so if you are one of them be sure to visit Equine Rescue France – they will perhaps even have a horse or pony needing a good home near where you live.

They have advice about what you should do if you come across a neglected horse yourself, and also lots of useful advice about bringing horses into France – horse passports and registration etc – and about caring for your animals. Be sure to check it out of you are a horse enthusiast.

Incidentally the foal pictured is looking for a home (with mum Maddie) in the Vienne department or nearby. Could be you?