Infrastructure

I suppose I felt I ought to include a section on infrastructure, but the point of all terrain access is that you don't need infrastructure. Ponies cope with terrain because they have evolved over millions of years to do exactly that. The iBex has been designed to carry a wheelchair and go everywhere possible. It is pretty good at exactly that.

I operate with am elderly Transit van, and even older pony trailer, lots of bad language and some good friends who can persuade vehicles to go properly. With this, an iBex and a reject rescue pony called Obama, I can take anyone anywhere, across Dartmoor, along the beach, through the forest or through City Centres, all are possible.

The project needs people and ponies, but the places that the users of the service want to visit already exist and they are already accessible. I have driven over most of them. This project can give a lot of freedom for minimal money, and the vast majority of the money will go to pay helpers. And people who help people on a day to day basis don't expect high wages, which is lucky really as they certainly don't get them.

The infrastructure we really need is money, not a vast amount, but enough to open the project works to a bigger public than can be achieved by one mad bloke, a knackered Transit van, and a rescue reject pony. 

We need lots of mad people working with loads of slightly less knackered Transit vans and hundreds of rescue reject ponies. We don't want fancy ponies, we don't want well bred ponies, we just want to give a future to the ponies nobody else wants.

The people who use the service aren't frighteningly fit with papers to show how well bred they are, so the ponies don't need to be either. Anyway Bex, Linda, Sarah, Ben and all the rest like Obama, so why change a winning formula.