I used to be a humane investigator when we had a state humane society. We tried to be very diplomatic when we'd go on a call...talk to the people, asses the situation, condition of the horses, the owners' skill level, what the feed supply looked like, etc. If the horses looked critical we would contact the local law enforcement, a vet, and get a court order to remove the animals. In many cases the horses weren't in danger, and we would advise the people what needed to be done to improve the situation and give them a couple weeks (monitering the situation through local volunteers), then come back with a vet and law enforcement. I'd say the majority of my cases were people who had just moved out to the country, had some land and got some horses, figuring they could just eat grass and drink out of ...whatever. When they realized just how much work and money they'd need to put into them, they were happy to let us find homes for them. But in one memorable case--when we arrived with a bunch of trailers, police officers and volunteers to remove the horses--the owner met us at the barn door with his shot gun telling us he had his reasons for how the horses looked and we had no business there. Thank heavens for those nice policemen! When we got in there, three horses were dead and the other 7 could hardly walk. We just had another case here in Minnesota this week with many starving horses. The guy's excuse was he'd had surgery, and was working two jobs and didn't have time to take care of the horses. He also swears he's going to get them back.
I would suggest this person worried about the pony talk to their vet and see if maybe the two of you could go talk to the owner in a rational manner. If the pony is in really bad shape, then contact your local law enforcement immediately. If they don't have an officer who does animal control, they should be able to point you to someplace that does. Please don't shut your eyes to this problem even if it seems small. We are the voice for those who cannot speak.
