A 14-YEAR-OLD girl has adopted two ponies which were abandoned on an industrial estate after rescue centres said they had no room at their stables.

Cressida Killick, of Borrowby, near Thirsk, said the female Shetland pony and the black and white male cob, which she has named Mary and Joe, had been left by the driver of a transit van without food or water.

Her family, which has adopted animals in the past, was alerted by a rescue organisation after the ponies had spent two weeks being fed bread by workers and passers-by.

Cressida said the ponies were both underweight with matted coats when they were found and had promised her mother, Jill Mortimer, to fundraise to pay for their care.

The pupil at Queen Mary’s School, at Baldersby Park, near Thirsk, said: “I felt really sorry for them and felt they needed a second chance.

“We want to raise awareness that ponies are getting abandoned everywhere and that rescue centres do not have the capacity.”

Cressida and her friend Polly Barker, 13, will run a stall at Thirsk Christmas Fayre on Friday (November 30) to raise funds for the ponies.