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.