Welcome to The Horse Trust’s Media Centre where journalists can find contact details as well as our latest press releases and information about our charity.
For 137 years The Horse Trust’s Home of Rest for Horses has specialised in providing retirement and respite for working horses and ponies. These hard-working equine public servants have served our nation in the Police, the Army or with charities which use horses to help people. We also provide sanctuary to horses, ponies and donkeys who have suffered from cruelty or neglect and who are in desperate need of specialist treatment and care.
LATEST PRESS RELEASES
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Our Media & Marketing Team
Jessica Tallman, Fundraising and Marketing Team Manager
01494 540042 | jessica@horsetrust.org.uk
Alison Leech, Senior Marketing Executive
01494 540040 | Alison@horsetrust.org.uk
Joanne Dennis, Digital Marketing Executive
01494 540024 | Joanne@horsetrust.org.uk
Our media team are available Monday-Friday, 8.30am – 4.30pm, excluding public and bank holidays.
Charity Information
Upon founding in 1886, The Home of Rest was established to help the working horses of London. After 120 years the mission had expanded, prompting the Home to be renamed. The new name better reflected the breadth and depth of our activities to promote and enhance the welfare of horses. This encompassed our dedication to improving the welfare of every horse, through scientific research aimed at improving horse care and welfare, and by providing training and advice to horse owners and equine professionals.
Our Home of Rest for Horses in Buckinghamshire remains at the heart of our charity. It is here that The Horse Trust cares for over 100 retired and rescued horses. In addition to the home, there is a ‘centre of excellence in horse care’, where The Horse Trust can demonstrate and share best practice in horse care and welfare.
On 10 May 1886, Miss Ann Lindo founded The Home of Rest for Horses (now ‘The Horse Trust’). Inspired by Anna Sewell’s novel Black Beauty, a ground-breaking ‘autobiography’ told through the eyes of a working horse, Miss Lindo, from North London, founded a sanctuary for London’s working cab horses.
A working horse had no rest in those days – their owners depended on the horse to earn money so they could feed their families. Horses pulled taxi cabs and delivery wagons until they dropped. Miss Lindo’s idea was to provide a place where sick and exhausted horses could rest and recover – lending in their place healthy animals so the owners could still earn a living. Months later, the owner’s original horse would be returned to them, refreshed and ready to return to work. And so The Horse Trust was founded.
Our longest standing charitable aim has been to relieve working horses when they require respite, and this is what our founder Miss Ann Lindo did when she first set up The Home of Rest for Horses in 1886. Miss Lindo’s idea was to provide a place where sick and exhausted horses could rest and recover – lending in their place healthy animals so the owners could still earn a living. Months later, the owner’s original horse would be returned to them, refreshed and ready to return to work. We continue this work to this day, giving respite and retirement to the courageous and hard-working horses and ponies that have served our communities, letting them live out their days here on the rolling hills in Buckinghamshire with constant supervision from our onsite vet and dedicated team of grooms.
We work very closely with the RSPCA, Trading Standards and other animal welfare organisations to ensure we can help rescue horses, ponies and donkeys who have been the subject of neglect or abuse. The horses we take into our horse sanctuary are often the sickest and in urgent need of veterinary care. We are lucky to have our very own veterinary clinic that allows these animals the best chance at rehabilitation, with our vet onsite 24/7 so that when they are first admitted and in a critical condition, they can be monitored closely and receive treatment whenever necessary.
The Horse Trust has a grant-giving arm and is the second largest equine veterinary research funder in the UK. We fund ethically approved non-invasive research of the highest scientific standard that advances our knowledge of veterinary treatment, the optimal care of horses and the prevention of disease and suffering. Our focus is translating the outcomes of the research we have funded into real tools that the horse owner can use, which will impact not only welfare and treatment of equines in the UK, but worldwide. Some of the topics of research we have funded include managing horse worms in a sustainable way, equine weight management, improving biosecurity, surveillance of equine strangles and the Equine Veterinary Surveillance Network.
