AN ECCENTRIC equestrian has moved her horse into the living room of her semi-detached home after a quarrel with neighbours.
Stephanie Noble shares her home with three-year-old filly Grey Lady Too after a series of disputes with locals near Stornoway on Lewis.
But the horse and all its paraphernalia take up most of the space, leaving only one habitable room for 65-year-old Stephanie.
Yesterday, she said: “It will look strange to most people but I really had no choice.
“I’m living in one small bedroom upstairs. Another bedroom is full of horse equipment, another is full of horse meal and the living room is full of horse. Even the bath is full of horse mats.”
She added: “I’ve heard that some call me a mad old woman but I don’t give a stuff. I know that all I’m doing is defending a principle.
“We didn’t win two wars by just sitting back and letting the Germans come steaming in. I won’t be shoved around.
“The council has told me that there is no problem with me having the pony living with me but it is not ideal.”
Stephanie moved to the Hebridean island nine years ago. She had previously ran equestrian businesses in Ireland, Europe and the US.
In September last year, she decided to follow her dream and buy a Connemara pony, similar to the first one she was given as a 13-year-old schoolgirl.
She said: “I spent £1850 on her and I think it was money well spent as she is beautiful. My first ever Connemara pony was Grey Lady back in 1959. I decided to call her Grey Lady Too.”
Stephanie claims the first stables and grazing arranged for the pony fell through after she was let down.
She then tried to house Grey Lady Too in an unused outbuilding on communal land close to her home.
But one of her neighbours then said the building belonged to him. Police were called and Stephanie was arrested and spent a night in the cells.
The SSPCA tried to persuade her to allow the pony to be rehomed.
She arranged alternative lodgings but her relationship with the stable owner broke down in a row over money. They brought the pony back to Stephanie’s home on Christmas Eve and tethered the animal to her wooden porch.
Stephanie said: “I was faced with the choice of leaving her out in the cold or bringing her indoors and I chose to bring her in.”
Over the past few weeks, she has used furniture to create walls within her front room and built a stable door.
Stephanie has also spent hundreds of pounds on rubber mats to place hay and straw for bedding and bought 60 litres of cat litter to deal with the pony’s bodily functions.
But she hopes eventually to build a stable next to her home but needs at least £1000 to get it up and running.
Last night, one neighbour said it was the local people who were victims, not Stephanie. He said: “Who in their right mind would ever want their next door neighbour to be a horse?
“The problem is not unsympathetic neighbours. She has been a pain in the neck from the minute she got here.”
He added: “The pony seems quite nice – but she’s not.”
A spokesman for Western Isles Council said Stephanie was free to do as she pleased on her own property as long as no issues of public safety or hygiene arose. He added: “We don’t encourage people to keep horses in their homes.”
