Sept 2023:  NEW APPEAL FROM THE HORSE TRUST

Will you please become a Horse Trust Hay Helper and help ensure the horses and ponies in the care of the Horse Trust can have hay for the winter?  One small bale of hay is £5.  Find out more.

The amazing Horse Trust in Buckinghamshire look after horses who have retired from the police and military, and ex-therapy ponies.  For instance, Fred and Starling used to live at a care home that catered for people with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour.  Caesar worked for Thames Valley Police, and Sydney had a career with the Royal Mews.

The Trust also take in severe welfare cases, and examples include Star who came from Spindles Farm and Bear  and Shetlands Fidget and Widget who were found in a field with only a puddle to drink from and no grass to eat.

Many of these horses need specialist veterinary treatment and the Trust has launched an Urgent Vet Appeal:

The Horse Trust is looking to raise £45,000 to secure essential medical equipment and deal with the repairs needed for their Isolation Unit.

These steps are vital to enable the team to treat severe welfare cases, such as little George, and to care long term for those service horses who are living out their retirement at the Horse Trust and who deserve the very best we can do for them.

• £10 will pay for forage for George for a week
• £30 will help pay for essential lab tests for horses and ponies
• £50 will help the Trust buy vital laboratory equipment such as x-ray and ultrasound machines
• £100 will help repair the Isolation Unit

Please will you help the Horse Trust today?  They are based in Buckinghamshire.  Thank you for reading this.

Please help by donating to the appeal here

You can also help the Horse Trust help retired horses
who have served the nation by sponsoring a resident such as Caesar
who served for Thames Valley police.
Image ©Horse Trust

Our thanks to everyone looking after these wonderful horses, and thank you too to the horses themselves.  

#StopHorseSmuggling

World Horse Welfare has sent out a mailing with the information that horses are still being smuggled out of Britain to European slaughterhouses.

They need the help of everyone who loves horses and cares about their welfare.  We need to put our love for them into action!

on Wednesday 19 April 2023

 Please write about it to the Prime Minister - 
you can find out how here

World Horse Welfare need our help for two things:

1. To pass the Kept Animals Bill to make export for smuggling illegal and
2. To get practical compliance and enforcement measures in place to stop horse smuggling.

The current government manifesto has pledged to make the Kept Animals Bill law.   This would make it illegal to export live animals from British shores for slaughter, including horses.  The bill has support across the parties and World Horse Welfare have been busy lobbying, but this law is still not in place, so horses can still be smuggled into Europe “under the radar”, as World Horse Welfare put it.

What’s more, many of the horses have been loved by families.  Some are ex-sports horses who can no longer compete.  There are young horses, too, who have no future as horses to be ridden.  Many of these horses have been sold on to what owners thought would be safe homes.

They can be issued with false documents which makes it impossible or very difficult to trace them.  They have to go on journeys with very poor welfare conditions.

World Horse Welfare have 3 aims with their fundraiser

The charity is aiming to raise £150,000 through this appeal.  The funds raised will enable them to do three things:

1. “Ramp up” pressure on the government to implement and enforce the Kept Animals Bill, so that it is harder for horses to be smuggled out of the country.
2. Expand their port investigations – currently these monitor ports in Wales and Scotland, but these ports need expanding so that World Horse Welfare can get empirical evidence that horses are being smuggled out without the right documents
3. Invest £20,000 in research and analysis – this is to identify trends in horse smuggling to better protect horses and support enforcement action.

Please donate if you can and help World Horse Welfare  #StopHorseSmuggling.  And please spread the word  Horses need our help as do other animals affected.

There are other ways to help on the World Horse Welfare website. 

You can see more about the work World Horse Welfare does - here's an example of a rescue from a Scottish island.

They also have a number of videos on how to care for your horse here.

The Lluest Horse and Pony Trust urgently need the help of us many of us as possible.  They are situated on a 40 acre site in the stunning Brecon Beacons. 

In March 2023, they announced on Facebook that they were sadly having to close after 38 years of rescuing horses and ponies.  This was due to some horrendous and unexpected repair bills that had come in.

You could sponsor a donkey as the cheeky Misty,
or a pony, or a stable

The Trust’s basic running costs are £10,000 a month.  The Trust’s work is funded by donations, legacies and a few successful grants. 

Can you please spare £2 a month to help Lluest?

Lluest Horse and Pony Trust are asking everyone to donate just £2 a month by standing order to help them.  They need 5,000 people to donate this amount to cover their monthly running costs.

This would leave them free to concentrate on the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of equines who desperately need the help of the Lluest team.

Please help us all!  We need you!

Other ways to help are:

• Do a fundraising event for Lluest – perhaps with a pony theme
• Shop and use your computer – details are on the website – with a Co-op membership card, Easyfundraising, Give as you Live, the search engine Everyclick.co.uk
• They have an Amazon wishlist
• Donate tack
• As a business, you could help with staff fundraising, payroll giving and Charity of the Year
• Sponsor a horse or pony or donkey or stable
• Rehome a horse or pony through the Guardianship or Fostering scheme or their Direct rehoming scheme
• Spreading the word on social media
• Simply donate online or send a cheque – details are here
• Volunteer!

We cannot let this amazing rescue close and we need to give them all the help we can.  Please help if you can.

You can visit their website here to find out more.

Visit their Facebook page here.

Images copyright Lluest Horse and Pony Trust