BLUE ACRE HORSE RESCUE AND REHABILITATION CENTRE
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : s*****5@g***l.c*m
Mission Statement
The aim of our charity, first established as a rescue centre in 2002, is to care for and, where possible, rehabilitate and rehome, horses and ponies we rescue from having been abused, neglected or abandoned. Those which are not eligible for rehoming live out their days on the farm in our happy herd. Our team of volunteers (all unpaid) work to reinstate their trust in humans and ensure the best quality of life possible for each of them. We have a core team of 4 ,who form the trustees and committee members plus several dedicated local volunteers who help at weekends and in school holidays and we encourage team building days from local companies to help with fence mending, painting, weeding etc - these are usually really fun days. We currently care for 39 horses and ponies on a 40 acre site in Old Windsor, United Kingdom. We also have two rescue dogs; chickens; ducks and 2 goats. We are purely funded by public donations; fund raising events and through our horse and pony sponsorship programme.
About This Cause
AIMS The aim of Blue Acre Horse rescue is to rehabilitate and rehome as many of the horses and pones we rescue as possible. This can be a long process as we usually have no knowledge of their background or their experiences of people; whether they have been ridden; whether they are mentally scarred or what physical problems they may have had in the past. In many cases it's not possible to rehome them as being guaranteed safe and rideable, simply due to us being unable to find out the key to their issues. For some of these we can offer them as companions only. In all cases we go back to basics and ensure they learn to be caught from the field and lead politely; learn to stand and be groomed; have their feet trimmed - all the things that are crucial to their basic welfare and during this learning period we assess their potential. For every horse that his rehomed a contract is signed stating that if, at any time, the rehomer is unable to take care of them they revert back to Blue Acre Rescue - they are NEVER sold on from home to home. THE TEAM/VOLUNTEERS The roles of the core team cover areas such as animal husbandry; farm maintenance; rehoming; fund raising; accounting; raising awareness and involving the local community. We have two very dedicated,regular long term assistants on the autism and Aspergers spectrum who are invaluable and keep our chickens, ducks and goats in good health and well fed. We regularly support young people who are on the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and also have a wonderful group of young people who come at weekends and in school holidays to ride and to help care for the horses and learn all about horse management. They are all fabulous young people who could not afford to own a horse or have regular riding lessons - with us they learn about every aspect of animal management but we also see them gain a real sense of caring and of being responsible, not just for the horses but for each other. Our other more mature volunteers come to help fix fences (which all need replacing after 15 or so years); fix machinery; paint; groom our ponies; help with weeding - the list is endless - 40 acres takes a lot of maintaining. INITIATIVES We love to arrange team building days for local companies which are great fun and hugely beneficial to all parties and take the form of painting stables, mending fences etc. It's great to see people from large companies who may talk on the phone but never actually meet get to know each other. The feedback often comes through to say that communication between different departments improves significantly following these events. PROJECTS We have so many things that a) need doing and b) we dream of doing - a few are listed below: - build an additional covered area where we can bring more horses in to be groomed - this would enable us to encourage more young people to become involved and we would like to arrange "own a pony" days - replace our current fencing, a lot of which is currently held together by rope. If we could afford new fence posts we could offer this as a team building initiative - finish our training school - an all weather outdoor training area where we could safely assess the abilities and increase the fitness of potential riding ponies to increase their potential for rehoming. It would also give our volunteers a safe environment in which to increase their riding skills - create an enclosure where we can invite groups of children or adults to come and meet our "tiny" ponies who are excellent for creating calm and healing experiences - Build a new chicken and duck house - buy a new tractor FUND RAISING The funds we raise currently are used for necessities such as feed; hay; farriers; worming; veterinary costs; water bills; rent and insurance. We have some large projects which are becoming urgent so we are increasing our fund raising efforts. Some of the ways we do this are: - Attending local fetes and village fairs - our stall has a raffle, lucky dip and has information on our centre and our sponsorship programme - applying for grants from local authorities/companies and trusts offering funding - offering sponsorship of one of our horses or ponies for as little as £5 per month (details on our website) - selling donated items that we are unable to use (with the permission of the person donating) - annual dinner dance SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMME Any of our rescued horses and ponies can be sponsored for as little as £5 per month. These funds are spent 100% on the needs of our residents - things such as feed; hay; medical supplies; farrier costs; worming supplies and veterinary costs which can be very high, particularly for our more elderly horses. Please contact us via our facebook page or the website, details of which are shown below, to see which of our horses and ponies are available for sponsorship.