First Visit

My first visit was with the intentions of speaking to some of the staff their about the work that they do and how the centre runs as a whole. I firstly spoke to the manager who approached me and I explained that I was completing a research project for university. The staff at HAPPA were incredibly helpful and keen on educating me into what they do and how it impacts the horses and the public. 

Conversation with Nick Higham (Manager): Some people tend to think that as an organisation we operate as a sanctuary but our main aim really is to rescue and rehabilitate horses to their full potential to be able to rehome them. We have started to back and break in more horses so that more can be rehomed as rideable equines however we do also rehome some animals as companions. Horses like to live in a herd and love company so we often find that owners of retired racehorses rehome some of our equines too.

We have also just launched a new second chance sponsorship scheme where people can given one pound a week to sponsor an animal with the opportunity being that horses will be able to find there forever home as the majority of them do. (see another blog post about the second chance sponsorship)

Groom: (talking about cupid) she’s quite young and only four years old, it’s the fifth time we have been on her back properly and so she is quite nervous as she is only young. She already has a new home, they are just waiting for her to be fully rideable. We tend to start working with the horses at around 3 or 4 years old but we have worked and broken in older horses too. She also stated that they break the horses in steadily and that each individual is completely different to handle, I also witnessed her working one of the horses in on a lunge line which will then eventually be saddled. 

Grooms/care staff: I was given some leaflets and they stated that they gave some of these out at the loan fest and that they’re problems that they come across quite a lot within equines and it’s really worth people knowing about it. (sweet itch, care of older equines, laminitis, ragwort and feeding). They also stressed that the main cause for problems with horses is the lack of education and research that people so before owning their own, horses are complex animals to own and need not only money but time spent on them too. 

I also witnessed one of the horses being picked up to be rehomed, he was a little Shetland pony who they had said was found tethered with a dog lead, extremely underweight and suffering with mites and lice. It was wonderful to see him going to such lovely owners who had bought a new rug and travel boots for the trailer. The grooms also said that his personality has thrived as well as his physical health and he had only been at the centre 12 months which is an incredibly fast recovery and rehoming process.