Equine Welfare Progress

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.

Who remembers our massive influx of donkeys? We had 28 at the last count!

Well a good friend of ours convinced a friend of his to let us use a few acres of land for some of the donkeys. So we dropped 3 over one day.
We proceeded to geld, microchip and mark each of them and drop them one by one to this piece of land. We had 10 on the land to date.
Today as we dropped yet another two over we met Ciaran a man who has been helping look after our growing herd. (12 altogether). He informed us that our donkeys had been adopted by the whole community of Drumlish/ Ballinamuck. All the neighbours have taken it upon themselves to look after the donkeys, to bring them carrots and give them a scratch and have come together as a community to look after their welfare.

After all the negativity we are forced to report, it gave us such an lift to hear that we have a whole community are willing to care for these donkeys without ever been asked. It restores my faith in humanity. I believe they even have their own Facebook page! That same man Ciaran, then showed us yet another 5/6 acres that we are now allowed use for our 3 pregnant mares, who we know will be equally as well loved as the donkeys.

The team at Hungry Horse Outside and the horses, ponies and donkeys would like to take this opportunity to thank Ron and Ciaran but especially want to thank a lady called Anne McGee who instigated the whole adoption by setting up their Facebook page and has asked all the neighbours to drop vegetables to the donkeys. Anne you truly are an angel, you have done something magnificent and the team will never forget what you have done for our donkeys. I would also like to say a massive thank you to all the residents in the area of Drumlish/ Ballinamuck for the kindness they have showed towards these animals who once faced certain death.

Some time ago we took in two donkeys called Seamus and Bartley, who had suffered horrendously at the hands of a cruel and callous owner.

We nursed them back to health and eventually fostered them out to a man in Delvin Co. Westmeath. This particular man also fostered a pony called Mighty Mouse, a little pony who also suffered horrendously but was brought back to life by the volunteers at Hungry Horse Outside.

Anyway upon arrival at their new home, they were an instant hit with the community. EVERYONE pulls together to look after their needs, they have loads of visitors and are spoilt rotten by the locals. I have also heard that Mighty Mouse has been adopted by the local children who take great pleasure in riding him and looking after him. I just received a text tonight saying they have built 3 brand new stables for our trio in the village.

THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF!

A huge thank you to the community of Delvin who spend so much time showing these abused animals there is kindness in the world. We are so proud of you the community and them for making such an impact on all you guys.
A special heart felt thank you to Denis Murtagh and Sean Barry who encouraged the community to get behind our boys. Well done to you!

THEY EVEN FEATURE ON THE DELVIN WEBSITE.

Hungry Horse Outside are completely inundated with colt donkeys.
At last count we had 20 ready to castrate.

That’s a lot of testosterone in the air around the yard.
Although there is so many of them we are confident once castrated they will all get new homes.

Had these donkeys not been taken in by Hungry Horse Outside each and every one of them would have starved to death.

In a bid to combat the problem of overbreeding of equines in Ireland Hungry Horse Outside enforces a strict castration policy.

It is prevalent that we do so as each stallion is capable of reproducing hundreds of unwanted horses/ponies/donkeys throughout the span of its lifetime. We would encourage anyone with a colt to please consider castration as an option. It not only alleviates unwanted breeding but also makes horses more homeable.

Since the beginning of 2013 Hungry Horse Outside have castrated 63 colts (a colossal figure), a huge but necessary expense.
Each colt costs on average €100 to geld. Please ,please start castrating your colts.