Wow what a fantastic day. Guess who arrived at our yard today. Tony Head from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his lovely partner Sarah Fischer. Tony and Sarah have set up a fantastic campaign called Cool to be Kind to help all rescue centres world wide.
Tony and Sarah spent the whole afternoon with us, met a lot of the rescues currently in our care. We had such a fantastic time and thank you so much for spending so much time with Jamie, Gadaffi, Cupcake, Mortimur and our star struck volunteers.
Cool to be kind bands are available to buy through our facebook page or in Maxi Zoo Longford. Each cent raised goes directly towards caring for the animals at hungry horse. Thank you so much Tony and Sarah and thank you for choosing HHO as one of your stops we are very privileged to have you visit and we’re looking forward to having you back.
Every now and again (about every 3 years), we manage to convince Hilary to leave Hungry Horse Outside for a few hours. We felt it was prevalent to show the young boys and girls that spend their summers doing their part to help Irish horses how a sanctuary is run. The differences between a rescue, rehabilitation and training facility to the equally important Sanctuary and the peaceful beautiful life the animals have with Sue Paling of Sai Sanctuary. Sue works equally as hard as everyone involved with Hungry Horse, giving each animal the quality of life they deserve.
Happy Donkeys
Sometimes even we need a reminder to take a step back and enjoy the animal in hand and a stark reminder of the importance of what Sue has created for these animals, animals that would normally be put to sleep, due to age, health worries or a simple lack of space.
Sue extended a huge warm welcome to our young volunteers and answered all their questions as regards what she does, how she runs and how she built the life she has for the animals.
Sue helps Hungry Horse Outside out in any way she can, she has taken and supported many of our horses on a short term basis, she has also taken in many of our donkeys as well as some little ponies including Twinkle who featured on our page a number of weeks back.
Donkey loves his rubs
Thank you Sue for showing us all your Sanctuary, for letting us meet all the animals in your care and for even looking after some of the HHO bunch for the summer, a truly remarkable woman whom we have huge respect and admiration for.
A huge huge thank you Sue for having ourselves and the gang today! (and for the cake)
On behalf of the Directors and the Volunteers of Hungry Horse Outside we would like to thank Minister Coveney for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to visit us in Longford. During his visit the Minister announced that he would be offering us €20,000 to continue our work, a very unexpected and much needed surprise.
Overjoyed by the great news!
We would like to thank the Minister and his Colleagues for their appreciation of what we do in Longford, we saw a different side of both the minister and his colleagues yesterday, normal, caring people with a great fondness for animals.
Ruby and Corky tugged on the heartstrings of Ms. McGuinness however it was Possum who is to be rehomed today to an autistic non verbal child really stole her heart.
There were several oohhs and awwhs when our ladies arrived on the riding horses, who we have to saw behaved impeccably as always, loved the attention they were getting and Esther even had a surprise rider on her back one of our local candidates.
Rescue Horses show what they can do!
We would also like to thank everyone who came over to support from our side, Donnagh McDonnell our vet, Michael King our County Vet, Sue Paling from Sai Sanctuary,Robert Donaghue who lent us his trap for Garfield again!Your ongoing support and believe in what we do has been incredible.
Finally thank you to all our followers who consistently supported our work we hope you will continue following us, our work and our animals through their journey from being rescued or impounded until they day they finally go home.
This money will benefit the animals of Longford greatly! Still in Shock.
Hungry Horse Outside win Public Service of the Year for the second consecutive year. We are so proud of what we have acheived however we would not have been able to do it without a significant amount of help and dedication.
Firstly a big thank you and well done to Amanda who spent hours painting and repainting Gypsy. To Robert Donaghue who lent us a harness and trap for Garfield. To Doireann who rode spot, To Shannon and Kevin who led some of the ponies and donkeys, to Marie, Shauna, Luke, Gypsy,Chloe who all helped out on the day.
Artistic painting depicting the inside of a horse.
It is incredible feeling to part of something that is making such a significant impact on equine welfare, we are all so proud of all the animal that walked with us today.
They were the stars of the show, stopping to say hello to the crowds, get their pictures taken. We are incredibly proud of the people who work tirelessly nursing these animals back to health, training them and rehoming them, the people who keep Hungry Horse Outside alive day in day out.
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.
Henry Smiling, knowing that he helped his fellow equines!
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.
Hungry Horse Outside is an entirely voluntary organisation, we run almost solely on the kindness of the public. From December 2012-2013 the organisation has helped 312 equines.
It has 120+ in it’s care.
We have has rehomed 65, This number would be much higher if we did not have to microchip and mark everything that comes through the door, finances just don’t allow us to do them as soon as we get them, it is illegal for horses not to be micro chipped and we will not rehome horses/ponies or donkeys without it.
Sadly in the year we have had to put to sleep 12 horses, ponies or donkeys all of whom had very serious health issues which they would have died a slow and painful death. We will not put a healthy horse to sleep.
We break and ride as many as possible in the year Dec 12 -Dec 13 we had 36 horses, ponies in training, many of whom have been rehomed.
On average the phone rings 100 times a week, each phone call is answered or returned. On average we get 25 emails a week looking for help, each one of these emails are answered.
From Jan 2013 to Dec 2013 the charity spent over €35,000 on the care of the horses, some of this money came from donations and the balance came out of the directors own pockets. Our biggest expense is hay and feed, we spend huge amounts, circa €15,000 a year on hay alone
Thank you so much for all your support it would not have been possible without all your help.
Today Hungryhorse Outside were alerted to 5 horses stuck in the river Shannon. What do you do? Do you let them die a cold, horrific death or do you get off your rear end, pull yourself away from the business of the yard and rush off to try and help. Luckily for these horses Hilary and Mick decided the former wasn’t an option.
It was freezing, Hilary and Mick are still cold to their very bones. The stormy weather wasn’t helping these horses and we feared they would just die on the Shannon, a death so terrible it does not bear thinking about.
After loads of toing and froing, we managed to get Leitrim Civil Defense to help us get these horses to safety. What a team of volunteers they are too. THESE HORSES WOULD NOT BE ALIVE TONIGHT IF IT WERE NOT FOR THEM. We had the vet on standby if it came to the point the horses needed to be put to sleep.
Civil Defense Spring into action
Glad to be on dry land
Safe at last
With the help of Joseph Delaney his daughter Tara and the Leitrim Civil Defense all of the horses were taken out of the Shannon just before dark. This would not have happened had we all not worked together.
I can report that all the horses are now safe and well and cannot thank you all enough for sharing our plea and trying to help us help them.
Please, please remember without these VOLUNTEERS our world would be a dark place. Leitrim Civil Defense give up their own time to help in emergencies as we do. You guys have our utmost respect and we will be forever grateful to you for risking the dangerous conditions to help these horses in need.
Thank you to all involved including Joseph and Tara who just happened to see our plea on facebook earlier today.
Today we learnt that land we had rented for eight of our rescues has been sold. In total the charity has lost 10 acres a huge blow to us and the horses.
Although we were aware that the land was coming up for sale we did not think it would sell so rapidly. The horses need to be moved off it by the first week of January, which means that the will have to be separated into the two yards we operate from. It is devastating and really is stretching our facilities, leaving it even more difficult to take in new rescues.
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.
Charlie and Duchess Living it up!
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.
Our small charity received a huge audience of 400,000 as we were Ear to the Ground’s feature charity during giving week, a promotion of the 1% Difference.
Thank you to everyone who telephoned, emailed, sent letters, Facebooks and Tweets with your messages of support.
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