Making new friends since 2008

OUR SANCTUARY & HOW WE STARTED

The Healing Horse Sanctuary is a registered charity that started in 2008 with our founder Susie and just 2 horses and a willingness to help horses and ponies that needed desperate help where there didn’t seem any help or hope at all.

Be that because the horses and ponies were injured, ill, deformed, about to be euthanised, abused, traumatised, homeless, discarded, unrideable, starving and other issues.

Over the years, we have helped many horses, ponies and in turn humans. At one point we had 35 beautiful horses and ponies at the sanctuary.

We currently have 12 horses and ponies, 4 rescued cats (they keep the mice away from the horses feed) and several rescued chickens, who not only provide us with eggs, but make us laugh every day.

We work brilliantly with our amazing vet, Gav at 608 Equine and our farrier James, to help our horses physically as well as using many holistic health methods to support our animals with their health, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

We work with many holistic practitioners and we have a large majority of our team who offer holistic health modalities too, from Reiki to Aromatherapy and Herbal medicine and more.

We allow our horses to live in family groups, forming deep bonds, that in itself is healing for them. They feel safe, secure and supported.

We NEVER use any force, harsh words, shout or use violence at all. We can’t condone that. Instead we use good leadership skills, positive body language, breath and intentional calming energy to create meaningful relationships with our animals. They then understand our requests and are willing to step back, move forward, follow us, etc so everything remains calm and coherent. This is just like a herd of horses would operate. We are an extension of their herd.

We always knew that once our horses and ponies recovered and healed from their suffering and the pain of their past, they would go on to not only live happy lives surrounded in love and celebration, but also to help people heal. We just knew it!

And now they are!

We have so many ways our horses and ponies touch people’s lives.

We have Open Days and other community events where children and adults can meet our animals.

It’s lovely to see!

And we also have much more intimate opportunities where we witness profound connections being made within our Therapy Sessions, and out Meet and Greet visits.

Children and adults leave our sanctuary lighter than when they arrived.

Their stress seems to have lessened or even disappeared!

They feel relaxed, hopeful, inspired and happier.

This makes us very happy and we know what we are doing is of such value for animals and people.

We also welcome new vets studying at university and young people who need an animal welfare based work experience to come and work with us to gain the necessary experience so they can move forward with their hopes and dreams for the future.

We also offer many fundraising events, (often involving food, friendship and fun) where people can come together and experience a happy and enriching time.

Everything we do is focused on bringing love, joy and happiness to animals and people, which is healing in itself.

We always love, celebrate and respect our animals from the moment they come to us. And we like to be with them when they leave this earthly plane too. We play them soft music, thank them for being in our lives and hold them lovingly as they take their last breath. We are now enriched to know 2 local small businesses who offer dignified Equine cremation service. So the last journey our horses and ponies take is filled with the love, compassion, respect and dignity they deserve.

We run the charity and sanctuary with a dedicated team of wonderful people. There is our dedicated founder Susie, our wonderful trustees, Kelly, Emelene, Anna and Angela and our lovely Manager, Rianne plus a beautiful team of volunteers. We all work in all weathers caring for our animals, fundraising and doing all the things behind the scenes that we need to do.

We are a brilliant team and are actually more like a family, supporting our animals and each other to fulfil our mission.

As we are a self funded charity, we need funds to help us continue our work. So thank you for visiting our website and taking an interest in what we do.

There are so many ways you can help us and you can find them all on this lovely website that our team have created.

YOU CAN:

Donate

Sponsor a resident

Book a Meet and Greet Experience

Book a Therapy Session

Have a Birthday party

Attend on our fundraising events

Volunteer

Fundraise for us

Give in Celebration

Leave a Legacy