Winter Feed Appeal to Help Save Horses Lives

Remus Horse Sanctuary, Ingatestone, Essex has launched a new winter feed appeal to help raise £2,500 to feed their veterans and permanent residents at the Sanctuary, and those neglected unloved, abandoned animals that are either tethered with no access to food or left wandering and unwanted with no food and no shelter.

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Donations can be made to the winter feed appeal  via the JustGiving appeal page online at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/rmhs/winterfeedappeal, via the Charity website at: http://www.remussanctuary.org/donate/ or by texting FEED36 £10 to 70070 to donate to Remus with JustTextGiving. Please note that text donations can only be for £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10. However, a donor can donate up to three times per day. £10 is the maximum donation amount for all mobile operators.

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At present, there is well in excess of 7,000 horses at risk in the UK and the welfare crisis in this country continues to escalate – when the mares foal, the problem doubles and so on each year.  Keeping an animal fed over winter will give it a chance to thrive into Spring.  Forage also helps a horse keep warm. Without the Sanctuary’s help, many animals will die a slow, painful and unnecessary death.

Sue Burton, Founder, says: “We need to get food and water out to abandoned horses quickly and, with over 40 veterans ourselves, we decided to step up and start a winter campaign early to help with the feeding bill. Every single donation no matter how large or small will be of huge benefit not only to them but to the starving animals that no-one cares for.”

The Sanctuary provides homes for over 200 animals and a veteran is an animal aged 20 years plus – like Malibu (pictured below). Remus Horse Sanctuary has been fortunate to home not one but two of the oldest horses in the world – Shane and Orchid. Sadly, these two gorgeous creatures eventually passed on, but Malibu is now its eldest veteran, now 39 years of age. “Malibu came to us from a riding school and very arthritic. She suffers from narcolepsy and has become good friends with Guinness our veteran shire of 28 years”, says Sue.

winter feed appeal

Keeping these animals safe, warm, well fed and with the special dietary care they need is at a considerable cost. Sue explains, “We believe that ‘old horse’ should not equal ‘thin horse’ and all of our horses are weighed on a weighbridge weekly to ensure that we can monitor their weight. They have high fibre and high caloric food, if we require them to gain weight and those with poor dentition have this in a sloppy porridge consistency.  Old age is not an illness and horses can cope very well with being old. It does take a lot of work to keep on top of the needs of the older horse and as they live longer the problems increase.”

Sue says the Sanctuary is full at present and cannot take in any more animals, “As we’re entirely self-funded, without the support of the public there is no way that we can continue. Everything costs money and the onset of the cold weather makes it even more tough as feed and heating bills increase.”

For further information, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191.