With regards to the horses on Gili Trawangan, there are probably still more than 200 horses on the island. I will explain the situation of the different groups of horses on the island separately. Stud Horse Riding AdventuresThere are 16 horses in total. They are a mixture of retired, rescued and riding horses. Usually a sustainable business, as they offer sunset beach rides. Due to the lack of tourism, their income has completely gone. They have resorted to turning the horses out during the day to graze around the island where they can. This has halved their grass bill, but even so, their expenses are around 17,000,000rp per month average. This includes rice bran, half grass supply, fresh water, minimum wage for 2 staff, Vital pellets, extra mineral supplements. FMPL Rubbish PoniesThere are 8 horses that work for FMPL, collecting rubbish around the island. Even though the island is not so busy with tourists, they are still required to work collecting rubbish and recyclables, as this is the main method of transport. Since many businesses are closed, FMPL are unable to collect money for their service, so they are trying to support their staff, and keep their horses well fed, but are struggling. These horses used to be sponsored by Animal Aid Abroad, but they withdrew funding early 2019. The average monthly cost for these horses are 12,000,000rp. General Island Cidomo and Cikar PoniesThere are still around 150 horses on the island. The government has started a big building project to allow them to earn some income by transporting building materials. However, we have noticed that many of these horses are being traded for much younger ponies, maybe around 2 years old, as we guess they would sell their larger horses for meat, and buy a cheaper one. This is extremely sad, as after the years of horses clinics we provided, the care and wellbeing of these working ponies had improved considerably. I feel that we are going backwards again. Ideally we would be able to help provide the drivers with some feed for their horses, in exchange to get them to agree to not exchange their horses for smaller or younger ones. Many of the drivers have been approaching us to ask when the next clinics will be, (which of course we don’t know), and asking for medications, wormers and general help. It is sad that we no longer have the ability to provide them with anything, as we have more or less run out of stock as we’ve not had a clinic since November 2019. So as you can see, it’s a tough time for us. We are scraping through, and all of the horses are doing ok, but we are running out of money, and it’s becoming harder to fund raise. My primary focus has been on Stud and FMPL because I manage both of those businesses, so I have 24 horses that I’m directly responsible for, but I would love to be able to help the other drivers. I give a lot of my own money for all those horses and my friend Sarah as well. Now as we personally run out of our own money, we are trying to fundraise and we help the horses with our own time and energy. For example, I start to apply my farrier skills to cut and trim hooves! Please help us with donations or sponsoring a horse every month (about 70 euros)
