Snicklefritz was our oldest resident at Maplewood Farm, born in 1997. He came to us from Gabriola Island and has been part of the farm family since 2002. Over time, he outlived many of the animals who once shared the farm with him.

In his younger years, Snicklefritz helped bring joy to countless visitors as one of our pony ride ponies. After retiring from that role, he spent his days enjoying a well-earned retirement with his best buddy, Frodo.

For most of his life, Snicklefritz remained relatively healthy. The main challenge we managed were his lack of teeth, which meant he couldn’t eat hay and needed to be fed soft meals throughout the day to keep his weight up. Recently, our veterinarian came out and performed bloodwork. The results were difficult to hear. Snicklefritz was found to have kidney failure, liver cancer/failure, low white blood cells, anemia, and diabetes. None of which had been present the last time he was checked.

Surprisingly, his behaviour did not reflect how serious his bloodwork was. He was still running around the field, playing with Frodo, and enjoying his days.

The Vet told us we could have days, weeks, or possibly months with our little guy, but that eventually a decision would need to be made.

The staff at the Farm chose to take things day by day and week by week, watching closely to see how he was doing. For a while, Snicklefritz continued to enjoy life, running around, playing, and eating fairly well. But over time we began to notice weight loss, less energy, less eating, and less moments of running and playing with Frodo.

These decisions are always the hardest. We knew the end was coming, but deciding when is incredibly difficult. We made the difficult decision to let him go peacefully before he declined further.

We are so sorry to everyone who loved and met Snicklefritz over the years. He was a fantastic pony full of sass, personality, and spunk, and he touched the hearts of many visitors and staff.

Frodo will now be moved in with our other pony Krokur and our donkey Ringo so he will still have friends nearby.

Please feel free to share any memories or photos you have of Snicklefritz. We would love to see and hear them. Please have a look at some photos of him over the years.

Rest in peace, Snicklefritz, we all love you, run free now. ❤️