Wicked got his new name on the day he came with Tregony to live with us, nearly six years ago.   His previous owner had called him Flicket, Flick, for short. He was very nervous about going into the horse box. Michele was leading him up the ramp, encouraging him all the while, "Come on Wicky, there's a good boy" At first I thought I had misheard, but she explained later that it was another pet name for him.

As 'wicked' is a pretty cool thing to be, (and in view of some stories of less than angelic behaviour), but mainly because it's the name she used when he was troubled, Wicky stuck. Flick became Wick, then Wicky, and then Wicked!!

Wicky was saved from the ‘meat man' by Michele. She spotted a skewbald pony in a barn when she was collecting another little Shetland. She asked about him and was told that he was going to be sent to the market the next day because he was ‘a little **** !

For the rest of that day she couldn't get the little pony out of her mind, wondering how she could find the money to pay the £50 that was being asked for him. Luckily, Michele's brother in law was willing to help out, even when Michele found that the price had risen to £75 when she went back to buy him the next day!!

He has never been a ‘push over' ( trying to buck if he thought he could get away with it!) but he has always been a bit of an old cuddles if you respected him and treated him right. He now has Cushings Syndrome, which affects a lot of elderly horses and ponies. It is caused by a non-malignant tumor in the pituritary gland. A common symptom is that the coat grows very long, thick and curly and cannot be shed in the summer months. Wicky has to be clipped regularly to ensure that he is comfortable - neither too hot nor too cold.