Page 2 - HT_2016WinterNewsletter

Dear Friends...
Welcome
It has been another busy year here at The Horse Trust, amazingly our 130th year, and as ever it’s been filled with moments of great joy and some of sadness. Being a unique retirement home for those equine civil servants that have served in the Police, Army and for Charities that use ponies to help people, we are proud to offer specialist care, love and dignity to the end for these proud and faithful animals. This does bring its fair share of sadness and to have lost so unexpectedly, such big characters as Mr Twister, Lochnagar and Zulu, as well as our farewells to those we can no longer keep comfortable, our team and supporters have shed more than a few tears.
In happier news we said bon voyage to Starlight, Maggie, Squiggy, Freda and
Felix as they all found new forever homes after suffering neglect or cruelty in their early years. Ponies that arrived here in dire need of sanctuary and intensive care, ponies who had learned to be
frightened of people or who had simply been ignored, fly grazed, dumped or badly treated, have learned that humans can be trusted and have left here happy, healthy and some of them even have new skills in being ridden or driving carriages. We are immensely proud of how our rescue ponies have had their lives turned around so completely. It’s a team effort and you, our supporters, are an essential part of that team for which we are deeply grateful.
Our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal helped us mark our 130th birthday and was shown an amazing pageant that told our story through the years as well as meeting some of our sponsors, partners and those who have been kind enough to open their homes to our ponies. HRH also watched a fascinating demonstration by our colleagues in Hampshire Fire & Rescue and a wonderful celebration was had by all, despite the English Summer rain!
Whilst the horses, ponies and donkeys in our immediate care are always our number one priority, we are only a relatively small sanctuary and so we’ve found exciting new ways to help so many more horses through our “Equines in Crisis” training programmes. This training is giving essential skills, knowledge and confidence to professionals who may come into contact with horses in the worst of circumstances but who are not horse professionals, those people that keep our communities safe but need our help to keep them safe in a crisis involving a frightened horse. We have been training Police Officers, Fire and Rescue Officers and most recently, Highways England Officers, all of whom may be called upon to deal with a terrified horse, probably in pain and in need of rescue be they stuck in a ditch or running loose on the motorway.
We also continue to support vital projects aimed at improving the health of all horses and you can read more about that in this newsletter or on our website. You will also get to read Duchess’s story, a starving, dehydrated, frightened pony dumped in the New Forest. Duchess has a long way to go and many obstacles ahead of her so please help us by reading the letter that came with this newsletter and make a Christmas gift that will help us care for this beautiful young mare and the many more like her we already know will be coming to us in desperate need of sanctuary and care this winter. As I mentioned earlier, giving new hope to ponies like Duchess is a team effort and we would sincerely love you to be a part of the world’s oldest horse charity.
Jeanette Allen Chief Executive
www.horsetrust.org.uk