26th April, 2014 Alive and Well

A day trip to HorseWorld, Bristol today and I think it would be fair to say that they are experiencing difficult times. At a time when so many horses need help and yet so many people are counting their pennies, it was felt that the Visitor Centre as not bringing in enough money. Although footfall was pretty high, many people were coming back on season tickets which entitled them to enter for free time after time. The Council turned down a planning application that would have enabled them to build a brand new Visitor Centre within the grounds of the Rehabilitation Centre next door and that, at least for now, was the end of that. Very sadly it also means that several members of staff are facing redundancy and that decision was still hanging over them today. Our remit was to go, work with the horses, and to cheer everyone up. We did our best but it is very hard not to feel the pain and worry of staff that have worked there in one capacity or another for years. Pay rates within the charity sector are never brilliant for those on the ground and most are driven by their compassion for the animals that they work with.

It should be emphasised that the Rehabilitation Centre is a busy as ever and serving it's crucial purpose of rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing. There are currently 134 horses at the Charity following an extremely fruitful period of re-homing only matched by the number of horses still in urgent need of help. Just this Friday sixteen more horses arrived through a joint operation with Redwings. Many of the current intake are the product of totally indiscriminate breeding by just one notorious traveller.

Today we dropped off 25 rugs and lots of other equipment donated by some of my wonderful clients. You can imagine that a charity like this goes through hundreds of rugs in one season alone.

Tracey and I met up with fellow IHRAs Bronwen Packham and Jenny Major and worked with three of the traveller's ponies that had arrived in an earlier batch. I had a fifteen year old mare who was none too keen to be touched and was prepared to use her front and back feet to emphasise this point. I worked on just asking her to move her head towards me and encouraging a softer expression. Never has touch and move away been more important.

Whenever she heard mens' voices in the yard she went on to mega-alert. What do they mean to her?

Inevitably Tracey ended up with Bella, a younger pony who really began to appreciate the benefits of a lovely rub - but only on her right hand side for now.

Bronwen and Tracey worked with a feisty youngster who again was prepared to kick if she felt that things weren't to her liking.

During the breaks we went to look at all of the others. Many had been kept in a big barn at a holding yard before being allocated to the Charities involved and although picking up weight they were still short of muscle and had very matted hair. They are really enjoying the spring grass, the opportunity to stretch their legs and to shed their coats.

Tinsel arrived just before Christmas and is the only one out of four that survived. Jo, who has worked for the Charity for twenty seven years, is especially pleased with this little mare who has gone from being extremely nervous and at death's door (weighting less than 200 kgs due to the combined effects of neglect and Salmonella) to confident and much rounder.

There are a number of donkeys at HorseWorld and these are the special love of Lin who has been connected with the charity for over forty years. She is also a fierce defender of the mules including Mowgli a Poitou donkey pony cross.

HorseWorld have an incredible record of turning horses around and turning them into useful riding horses. Kayleigh and Caitlin work together to get them started and going forward. Their latest success is Gunner.