Horse Rescue

To say that I love animals is an understatement! From a very young age, I have always felt so connected to all animals and cannot imagine my life without having a menagerie of four legged friends in it. I have been involved with animal welfare for a long time, mainly through fostering and re-homing strays as well as fund raising for local animal rescue charities. However, it has always been my dream to have an animal rescue centre and finally, after all this time, myself and my husband now have our own fledgling horse sanctuary. In the space of a year since moving to France, we rescued ten equines, ranging from two foals to two veterans aged 30 and 32 years old. To think that these beautiful animals would have had to endure a horrendous 3 day journey to Italy without food or water and then to end their days at the Italian abattoir fills me with horror. To throw them on the scrapheap is in my mind wicked. Ours were lucky. They’re now safe and loved which gives us such joy. But there are so many more we can be saving. We are grateful for any donations to help us care for our rescues and to raise money to buy more land so that we can save many more of these wonderful creatures.

Amandine and Dolia were our first rescues. They had been riding school ponies their whole lives and when they became too old they were sold to the meat man. After years of loyal service they did not deserve to be thrown on the scrapheap!

Filou and Gaspard arrived a week later. Filou is the most beautiful French trotter who did not pass the test when being trained for racing and at three years old was sold to the meat man. Gaspard is a stunning poney francais de selle with a very impressive pedigree whose father was a brilliant show jumper. However when he went to the horse fair for sale, it was noted he had a white mark on one of his eyes so he was sent off for slaughter at 2 years old.

Chouchou was our next arrival who was in a terrible state and was living alone for months after her owner died. The family had neglected her and decided to sell her to the meat man. After a timid start, she is such a joy; adorable, cheeky, cuddly and stubborn in equal measure and very much adored.

Nina our ‘big beauty’ came next in the most appalling state. She was very wary of us and it was clear she hadn’t been shown any love. Her tail was so matted that even after many hours of painstakingly trying to comb it through, we eventually had to cut over half off as it was just one clumped mass which she couldn’t use to swish. She can still be shy but does enjoy a cuddle and a neck rub now.

Our mamas and babas were our latest arrivals. We took Aube and Daphne on as an emergency as they were due to foal within 2-3 months and we simply could not bear the thought of them being slaughtered.

Aube is heavily pregnant here and is enjoying some well deserved pampering and TLC before the new arrival.

Little Luna appeared first. Unfortunately she developed a nasty infection and she couldn’t stand up independently. We had to take turns to pick her up every 45 minutes including throughout the night so she could suckle. She eventually had to spend 9 days in hospital and had surgery to get rid of the infection. But she’s a fighter and is now a big strong filly.

Aube and her ‘mini me’ daughter, Luna.

Six weeks later Krystale arrived and thankfully everything went smoothly. Her mummy Daphne dotes on her gorgeous chestnut girl.

Luna and Krystale are good friends. They enjoy chasing each other and having a nice rest together afterwards.