Putting the ‘neigh’ in neighbour! Every day the Hebridean island on which I grew up becomes more and more like Craggy Island. (A good thing.) At this rate I might have to move back.
So many great quotes in here: ‘The situation is not ideal’; ‘I will sell myself before I sell that pony’; ‘Who would want their next-door neighbour to be a horse?’ and more.
Anyway, whether or not the woman is a dedicated and compassionate animal-lover or whether she is less than stable, her neighbours are saddled with the situation.
It is an average, neat semi-detached house on a remote Scottish island, owned by a divorcee animal lover in her sixties.
But Stephanie Noble has horrified neighbours in Back, Lewis, after moving in her pet pony as a lodger.
The three-year-old dapple grey, named Grey Lady Too, has taken up residence in Miss Noble’s living room after a dispute over grazing left the filly without a field.
Her owner has put in a hay bed and turned her chairs into feeding troughs to accommodate the animal, which she now refuses to move.
Miss Noble is now the subject of numerous complaints and visits from her local council and the Scottish SPCA, but because it is her own home officials said last night there is nothing they can do.
Miss Noble said: ‘This is my own property – if I want to even keep an elephant in the house I can. I have had nothing but stick from people because it is unconventional.
‘It is not normal to keep birds in a cage, because they should be flying about, but people don’t complain about that. Grey Lady Too is very happy.
‘She goes out to the lawn – though she has eaten a couple of the neighbour’s plants – and comes back in the house herself. The situation is not ideal, but it is safe and secure for her.
Neighbours beside the semi-detached home in Broadbay View say they often see the horse staring out of the ground-floor living room as they pass.
Grey Lady Too – named after Miss Noble’s first pony, Grey Lady – has two chairs full of straw to feed from and a bucket of drinking water regularly refilled from the kitchen next door.
In the living room, close to a desk and chair is the pony’s bed of hay, on top of 60 litres of cat litter and four heavy-duty rugs for the filly’s droppings and urine.
The pony was kept on land a few miles from the house after Miss Noble bought her in September, but moved because the grazing was ‘unsuitable’.
Taken to land in the nearby village of Gress, the filly was left on Miss Noble’s property on Christmas Eve, she says, after a dispute over payment.
She spent a night in the cells after putting the pony in a nearby shed, which she says she believed was in common ownership.
The ensuing argument with the property owner saw her reported to the procurator fiscal for an alleged breach of the peace and vandalism.
After that, she took the pony into her house.
The owner said: ‘I will sell myself before I sell that pony. I don’t think any horse or pony should be out in this climate in winter. All I’m doing is fighting for my rights against people, who because it’s unconventional, think it’s wrong.
In the meantime, the £1,850 pony, which is not yet broken-in, remains in the living room.
Miss Noble, a qualified British Horse Society instructor who lived in America until 1994, hopes to eventually use the filly for breeding. Her neighbours, however, are less than happy with the bizarre set-up.
Another described the divorcee as a ‘fruitcake’, while a neighbour added: ‘People are concerned about the horse and her.
The Scottish SPCA has offered to take the pony in but been refused. Inspector Andy Brown said yesterday: ‘We are concerned about the welfare of the pony. But it does appear to be in good condition and well cared for.
Miss Noble was not answering her door last night, but a spokesman from Western Isles Council said she was free to do as she pleased in her own property as long as public safety or hygiene were not affected.
Do you like Gaelic music?
*Dedicated to the memory of Peggy MacNeil.
A typical news day in Scotland: deep fried butter goes on the menu (it’s served with Irn Bru ice-cream and is called Braveheart Butter Bombs); a dog is fitted with a pacemaker; Scots are advised to fortify foods with Vitamin D to compensate for lack of sunshine (I’ve also heard this from a few specialists); train fares are set to rise even though trains all over the country are exceptionally poor value for money in comparison with trains elsewhere in Europe; Highlanders are told a Disney cartoon could bolster the economy.