But it provides an insight into the the way the ACT Government deals with the "little people'' and the importance of neighbourhood amenity, the attributes of a suburb that cannot be measured in dollars and cents and which are simply good for the soul.

Celia Kneen has been told by the government to remove her two ponies and one horse from the paddock on Dixon Drive by December 31 after she has had animals grazing on it for 23 years. Planning Minister Mick Gentleman has blamed overgrazing of the paddock and denied any development is slated for the plot.

The issue also points to how the government manages historical arrangements for public assets, becoming aggressive when it wants to end an arrangement that may have been in place for years, even decades.

The ponies of Holder have more than a few parallels to the case of Jenni and Peter Farrell who were evicted from a government-owned cottage in Weston Creek in 2008 after living in it for 26 years, to make way for the Molonglo development. In both cases, the government has tried to show the people involved are somehow rorting the system, when it is the government which has been aware of the arrangements in place and let them remain sanctioned and untouched for decades.

The Farrells can be credited for saving the 1926-built cottage which had originally been sidelined for demolition as part of the development of North Weston when Chief Minister Andrew Barr was planning minister. The Farrells not only saved the house from destruction during  the 2003 fires, they also nominated the cottage for heritage assessment as the government sought to level it. A decade later, the cottage still stands, now in the suburb known as Coombs and as a heritage-listed community facility for the burgeoning suburbs.

But it was a hard-fought win by the Farrells, who were evicted by police from their home on a cold night in June, 2008, after the government sought a court order for their removal and after the couple had their character attacked during the campaign.

Whether the case of Celia Kneen reaches the same point remains to be seen.

No one is disputing the residents of Holder have access to open space, not least Mount Stromlo. But nearly 16 years after the 2003 firestorm wiped out the pine forests of Weston Creek and as suburb after suburb has been built in their place,  places such as the Holder paddock offer residents some respite from the development.

It is one of those cherished places in a neighbourhood that make people feel good about living there. Residents go there with their children to pat the ponies and feed them a carrot or apple. Those kinds of experiences are the intangibles that set the bush capital apart from other overdeveloped cities. The government maintains the Holder paddock will now be subject to "natural regeneration''.  Whether the block remains free of development in years to come, is something only time will tell.