The Horse Trust 125th Anniversary parade
Written by Angela, Sales Advisor.
On the 8th June 2011 myself and my colleague Charlotte were invited to visit The Horse Trust for their 125th anniversary parade and afternoon tea.
Animal Friends have an Employee of the month scheme, where a member of staff from each department gets £1,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. As a dedicated horse lover, The Horse Trust (The Home of Rest for Horses) seemed the obvious choice.
The oldest horse charity in the UK
The Home Of Rest For Horses is the oldest horse charity in the UK and was originally started by Miss Ann Lindo who wanted to provide a facility for the horses used for London cabs to use so the horses could rest.
Since then the rescue has grown in size and assisted injured horses during the 1st world war and the charity also supports and has given grants to support projects to improve health and welfare of horses including research into cancer and African horse sickness. The work they do undoubtedly benefits horses, ponies and donkeys from all walks of life.
On arrival we watched a parade of recent and past horses The Horse Trust had rescued and re-homed, this included some of the horses rescued from Spindles farm and also retired army and police horses recuperating due to debilitating illnesses rendering them unable to carry out their work in the forces. One of these horses was called Tom who was a striking 18hh bay gelding 17 years old, he had been retired from his duties of a carriage horse as he had been diagnosed with a potentially fatal arrhythmia which is an irregular heartbeat, so has now taken residence at the rescue centre to live out the rest of his years.
It’s always the small ones who are the cheekiest….
During the parade, all but one horse behaved, this one little Shetland ‘Rose’ who is 19 years old standing at 10 hands high who refused to stand still and proceeded to rear much to our amusement, being a typical cheeky Shetland.
After the parade we were allowed to walk around the stables and meet some of the other residents. The stables and surrounding area was immaculate and very well organised and we met some of the horses including a lovely Shetland called Thomas who is a 24yr Shetland and is 24inches high, he was a lovely boy and very affectionate and soon found out he likes to dish out the kisses as you can see in the picture.
My favourite out of all of them was a gypsy colt who couldn’t be older than 8 months old; he was in the outdoor pen with two other Shetlands. He was so sweet and I could have easily taken him home and would not stop nickering to me I don’t think my horse Gilbert would have been very impressed if I brought him home!
The staff at the rescue centre were very welcoming and after we had spent a couple of hours looking around we were provided with cucumber sandwiches and homemade lemonade and sat on a picnic table in there beautiful surroundings, bliss.
We would like to thank The Horse Trust for the invite to a wonderful afternoon.
For more information about the work they do, please look at their website, www.homeofrestforhorses.co.uk
If you would like to see more pictures of our day out, please visit https://www.facebook.com/FeelGoodPark - if you give our page a 'Like', we'll even donate £1 to charity on your behalf!
