headerphoto

Print this page

WELCOME TO THE SWHP WEBSITE

 


Established 1973 - A charity dedicated to the care of sick, injured or abused horses and ponies
The Society for the Welfare of Horses and Ponies (SWHP) has been run as a horse hospital for more that 30 years, taking in sick, injured or abused animals and nursing them back to health.



Visit of HRH The Princess Royal - Coxstone January 2004

There are usually between 30 and 40 horses and ponies in care at the Horse Hospital at any one time and no animal ever leaves the Charity's ownership. When fully recovered they are not sold but enter our loan scheme and are found homes matched to their age, fitness and abilities.

Applejack when we rescued him

 Applejack fully recovered and in a new home




Adoption homes are checked regularly and the SWHP now owns more than 250 horses and ponies, ranging from former racehorses to Shires and Shetland ponies.

Kaiser our Shire with Sebastian our Shetland Mascot

The Horse Hospital is near Monmouth, with 37 acres of grazing, 18 individual stables and four large field shelters sited in stoned coralls. There is a fully equipped special care unit where animals which are too weak to get to their feet unaided can be cared for in slings.

 

 

 

The Society receives several reports each week of horses in distress, many of them in pathetic condition through neglect or abuse. Many of our cases are urgent and we aim to be able to react immediately. On one occasion we were called by the police at a quarter to three on a Saturday morning in mid-winter because a horse had been injured on the road. We were on site, 33 miles from here, within the hour and the mare was safe in our stables by six o'clock that morning.



Biscuit in 2002 and Biscuit at a fun ride in 2007

 

 

 

 

SWHP Chairman Jenny MacGregor has been presented with awards by the British Horse Society and the British Equine Veterinary Association, and has been awarded the MBE in recognition of the outstanding work of the Charity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLUE CROSS

One of the longstanding aims of the SWHP has been to work ever closer with other horse welfare charities and over the past five years this has increasingly become a reality.  The situation on many of the commons in the industrial part of South Wales has been enormously improved, almost entirely due to the intervention of Redwings Horse sanctuary, who came in to help the SWHP on a scale that was far beyond our capability.  Philip York was the driving force behind their involvement and now he is managing the Bransby horse welfare unit near Leominster from where he is able to keep in touch and encourange still further improvements.

For the past year we have been working very closely with the Blue Cross animal welfare charity.  They have, at their headquarters near Burford, a large equine unit where they have been helping us in a most practical way by taking on animals which belong to the SWHP and which, for whatever reason, have to be returned from their loan homes.  These animals have, in the past taken up space which we need for emergency cases.

The SWHP is now one of a number of small charities which work ' In Association with the Blue Cross'.  Under this scheme the Blue Cross will be providing financial assistance towards the cost of our yard manger while the SWHP, for its part, will be providing horse welfare in an area which is out of range for the Blue Cross.

The Blue Cross scheme has proved to be highly successful.  It provides financial help and other support for the small charity and it allows the Blue Cross to be involved in helping an increased number of animals without having to invest in the establishement of new welfare centres.

We are enormously grateful to both Redwings and Bransby for the tremendous support which they have given to the SWHP and we expect this cooperation to continue well into the future, Meanwhile our association with the Blue Cross brings benefits to both organisations.


^ Top


Next page: About SWHP