Above: Pam’s house at the height of the floods.By Nicole Williams
A MINIATURE pony was born out of the floods; exactly one week after Pam Higgins nearly lost all her horses and miniature ponies in the deluge.
When the water inundated Pam’s Narre Warren property last week, the local community rallied to save her animals from drowning.
“I just want to thank everyone,” she said.
“I don’t know everybody’s names but without them…”
The group had gathered on Saturday to share stories and to hear Pam’s thanks when one of the rescued miniature ponies went into labour.
Passers-by jumped in the water to help the horses and people heard of the plight at a nearby agistment centre and rushed to help.
One man even went out in his kayak to open paddock gates and free a path for the team.
“It was beautiful to see everyone come together,” passer-by Vivenne said.
“Everyone from the community came out to help.”
Some people from nearby houses offered food and blankets to the good Samaritan.
And Bunnings Fountain Gate has donated breathing masks so Pam can get back into her house to begin the big clean-up.
When help arrived around noon the ponies were unable to stand and the horses were belly-deep in water.
“The bigger ones could handle it but the little ones… it was horrible seeing them,” said Juliette, from the agistment centre.
“If it hadn’t been for members of the public they would have drowned.”
Pam recalled one particular horse that was getting desperate.
“I will never forget his face, his eyes were all bloodshot.”
The volunteer group spent about four hours getting more than 20 horses out of the water, from the properties of Pam and her two neighbours, Henny and Murray.
Passer-by John said Pam was amazing during the day although very out-of-sorts.
“You were going all day, it was an amazing feat,” John said to Pam.
Some horses spent the night at Berwick Fields Primary School and the rest were ferried in floats to Merlinfa Horse Agistment, where they have been for the past week.
Pam’s dogs, cats and birds are staying at various friends’ houses, as did Pam.
During the week, she stayed in five different houses before settling in a shed on a horse property in Pakenham, where she intends to stay.
Pam runs a pony business, hiring the ponies to parties and teaching children to ride.
With the flooding of her property, her business is on hold.
“For the moment, I’ve lost my business but I’ve still got my animals.”
