Late Sir Peter’s generosity will help homeless horses for years to come

Homeless horses in Blue Cross care have been given a boost thanks to the wonderful generosity of the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust.

During the year, we received a £50,000 donation from the trust, as well as special funding which has enabled us to buy vital equipment for our horse unit in Burford, Oxfordshire, including 200m of round pen panels.

This much-needed apparatus was put to immediate use when a group of five native ponies called Kestrel, Swift, Kite, Puffin and Skylark arrived having suffered terrible neglect, which made the ‘bird ponies’ worried by humans.

Vicki Alford, Horse Unit Manager at our Burford rehoming centre, said: “Sadly the bird ponies had experienced a lot of negative contact with people in the past, which made them extremely wary of us; even more so than horses who had never been handled at all.

“Being able to set up a series of small round pen structures meant that we could create dedicated handling arenas, which allowed the team to interact slowly and gradually gain the ponies’ confidence in humans again.”

Round pens provide a fantastic environment where the ponies can be restricted without feeling trapped. They can also be either kept with, or close to, their herd which makes them much more relaxed and receptive to training.

Vicki added: “Each pony now comes to call in their pen and is happy to undertake basic handling such as having a head collar put on, being led, and having their feet picked out. They have also reached a level of training in that they now gladly approach their handlers in their pens!”

As a result of the fantastic progress these ponies have made, they are all now ready to find loving new homes.

We also gratefully received two mobile field shelters, thanks to the late Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s Charitable Trust. These essential structures are currently located in our new arrivals field, although their design means we can easily move them to areas where they are needed.

Sam Gargan, Trusts Manager at Blue Cross, said: “These fantastic structures really are an absolute necessity, providing shelter from the cold wind and rain during the winter, and shade to escape from the heat and flies in the summer months.

“Thanks to the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust providing these, we are able to keep our more hardy horses and ponies outside in all weathers, meaning we can accommodate even more homeless horses in our stables.”

One shelter is already being used by a group of young colts who were recently taken off Bodmin Moor to help alleviate overgrazing. Unlike the bird ponies, this group is very curious and interested in people, which will hopefully make them much more relaxed when we start to handle them and teach them basic responses and skills. In time, these boys will make lovely ponies and we hope they will be able to be ridden.

We’d like to say a huge thank you once again to the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust for funding these fantastic facilities.

And in recognition of the unfailing support of the late Sir Peter via his charitable trust since 1997, Blue Cross has commissioned a commemorative plaque which is on display at the entrance to the horse unit at Burford.

It was Sir Peter’s wish that his charitable work would continue after his death and we remain extremely grateful for all that the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust continues to do in support of animal welfare.