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When Rachel’s rescue hit the headlines, we came into contact with a charity in the UK called Henry’s Helping Hoof. A small, volunteer run organisation whose sole purpose is to alleviate the pressure on bursting rescue centres by helping any way they can.

Henry, a miniature horse was once in need of substantial help himself, his owner Caroline Howarth found herself faced with a massive vet bill in the region of £7000, so she and some friends set about doing some fundraising to cover the costs of Henry’s care. The community rallied to raise funds for Henry and eventually the colossal vet bill was paid. So overwhelmed by her communities contributions Caroline Howarth, Alex Harris, Jackie Fairclough and Katie Aspey decided to set up a charity in Prince Henrys name, in order to raise funds for other animals in trouble.

Two days after Rachel’s dramatic rescue, Caroline got in touch, with an offer of help for Hungry Horse Outside. They donated £500 pounds to help with the horses in our care. We read her message in disbelieve and found it considerably hard to believe, that the work done by Hungry Horse had tugged at the heartstrings of complete strangers in the UK. When the shock subsided, the two charities eventually got to chat and it was decided the folks of Henry’s Helping Hoof would come and visit us in the spring of 2014.

Time moved on, the drama continued to unfold at the yard, horses/ponies and donkeys continued to come and go as usual. Rachel settled in and was slowly coming around. For the first time since the yard opened it’s stable doors to rescue horses, there was hay in the shed, feed in the store room, we were not continuously worried about the dreaded word “winter”. Then disaster struck, 10 acres of land we had been renting was sold and we needed to vacate it in a matter of weeks. Suddenly worry and panic set in, unsure of what to do, we decided to roof an existing building for shelter so the horses could all come back to the yard.

To our surprise Henry’s stepped in again, this time with a further £400 to help buy materials for the roof. What do you say to that, people who have never actually met us, believe in our work so much that they felt they should/could help and at present all Hungry Horse can do for them is say thank you! Thank you a million times, Henry’s Helping Hoof Charity are continuously making the lives of so many animals better and each and every one of us should be grateful to them all.

It is almost a year ago since Charlie whirlwinded into the lives of the volunteers of Hungry Horse Outside. It is almost a year since that fateful Sunday morning that a call came in to collect four stray and abandoned horses roaming the streets of Longford. Little did we know when the horsebox was hooked up what lay in store, a controversy that left the nation reeling, one which is heavily debated to this day.

Upon finding the location of the horses we were met with four in total, 3 mares and 1 brazen stallion. After loading them all up and bringing them home, we found the stallion had a microchip, rang the relevant authorities to trace his owner, only to be told that stallion was slaughtered 11 months before and was officially recorded as dead. News spread quickly, camera crews from all over the world flocked to meet the “Horse that damns Ireland”. Anyway today is not a day for dwelling on his background too much.

A long time ago a natural horsemanship expert from Belgium got in touch with us, wondering if it would be possible for him to rehome two Irish cobs. After many months of to ing and fro ing we decided Charlie and his friend Duchess would be the ones to send. A decision we did not take likely. Charlie and Duchess left the yard at 2pm,  they are expected to start their travels this morning and arrive in Belgium on Sunday. They will be met by Dirk just outside Brussels who will bring them to his “prairie” to settle for a few days.

We have sent a “fostering agreement” with them both,   the agreement states that HHO Charlie and Sai Duchess will remain the property of HHO for the duration of their lives, we are happy for their new foster carer to keep them for the remainder of their life, HOWEVER if it happens for one reason or another that he needs to rehome them (which is hopefully never), but in the event that does happen HHO will pay for their return to Ireland.

The whole experience was bittersweet, we joked earlier on the day of their departure that there would be tears when they leave, a crazy thought we’ve seen so many horses come through the doors, we were so happy for the life they have ahead of them, when it came down to loading time, we felt ourselves not wanting to leave the lorry after they had been loaded, too busy chatting to them, telling them all about their new life and they were to be a good boy and girl. (Sounds crazy we know but welcome to the world of a horse lover)

So after we eventually let the driver close up the lorry we stood and watched Charlie and Duchess drive away in a state of the art 132 lorry, symbolic of their new lives.

Charlie’s story is one of twists and turns, we feel he had no luck in Ireland. Unwanted, Abandoned, Starving and not forgetting  “Slaughtered”, in other ways Charlie’s story brings us hope, how lucky he was that Sunday it was Hungry Horse who went out to rescue him, he’s off to a new life with a very experienced horse man, who will install a camera in his stable so we can check in on him. Charlie has been given a chance of a bright future, a special home, where children will fuss over him, a fantastic future for a fantastic cob.