UNNA is one of the main sponsors of the HORSE Charity (The Humane Organisation for the Relief of Suffering Equines) which is now in its third year and is in the process of raising more funds with a recent fundraising gala dinner and a 70’s and 80’s HORSE event to be held on Sunday April 10th at Holders (details HERE).

Please have a look at this video about the work of and how to get involved with The HORSE Charity:

https://vimeo.com/160028376

The HORSE Charity on FACEBOOK

We are delighted to have received this wonderful summary of what HORSE has achieved so far:

2016 in review for The HORSE Charity

We continue to pursue our objectives and mandates as a charity. Our focus is on improving horse welfare on the island and this particularly relates to ex-racehorses. We have taken in many over the years (over 50) and have had a high success rate as far as rehabilitating most of them. As you know, these horse come to us in a skeletal state, with injuries and usually infested with ticks and worms. It is a long road to recovery for these loving and majestic animals.

The charity has been offering two programs for over 3 years now, in addition to the rehabilitation of our rescues. Both programs are offered to the participants at no charge and we currently handle the transport for the jockey/equestrian program.

The first program offers experience with our wonderful horses to special needs children. We have about 30 children at present that come to our sanctuary and interact with our horses as much as they are able or desire. The two schools we work with are the School House and the Learning Centre. This brings such pleasure to these children and young adults as they are able to share time with our gentle rescues. Some of the children have progressed to the point that they are able to ride unaided and trot! It has been an amazing journey so far.

The second program is an equestrian school and jockey training program. We have had about 50 children through this program. These children are disadvantaged and high risk children who may have dropped out of school or come from broken families and who would not otherwise get a chance to learn about horses at all and certainly not in a responsible manner. They are educated in correct horse care and welfare, and help look after the horses they are given to ride.

We have had 7 graduate the program and we have helped them to get their exercise licenses and two have gone on to get their apprentice licenses. Delano Lopez recently won his first race aboard Captain Sully at the Garrison! We are over the moon to see the results that the charity is achieving. The children and young adults in this program are also required to attend for a certain number of days, they follow a disciplined program and so also have some great life lessons taught while they are with us. We charge nothing to any of these children in either program and also assist with the transportation of them to and from the farm.

There are of course unhappy endings, where we are unable to save some of the horses that come to us. We have seen a decrease in the very severe cases since we started the charity. We carry out an outreach program where we currently monitor approximately 20 horses throughout the island. We try to educate and where needed provide water buckets, guidance, occasional hay and wormers. We feel this is very important as if we can help those out there learn to care for their horses, it is a good solution. The charity could not accommodate all horses that are given away off of the racetrack and end up in situations that we consider less than ideal. We feel this has been a highly effective program.

We hope you will be able to support us again in our efforts as the care for these horses must be constant and we feel very honored to be able to save them and nurture them back to good health. Some of the rescues cannot be used for these programs as they were injured and abused to a point that being ridden is not an option. These are given lots of love and care and are happily enjoying their well-earned retirement.

HORSE Charity events for 2016:

For this year we have decided to freshen things up a bit and what we have in store promises to be really exciting! We are taking a different approach as we also recognize the need to keep as much of the funds we raise to do the work of the charity and so we are also being conscious to keep out set up and infrastructural costs as low as possible without of course impacting the events. As such we will be doing two separate events.

GALA DINNER
held on Thursday March 24th:

We will host a dinner at Archer’s Hall’s new location in Millhouse. This will be an evening not to be missed and is by invitation only with priority being given to those who have supported us in the past. The response so far has been wonderful as the tickets sold out soon after being made available. The price per ticket is US$300 and this will include a sumptuous dinner by Open Kitchen and all of your drinks for the evening. We have a wonderful array of auction items and we will hold our live and silent auction during the evening.

70’s / 80’s HORSE EVENT
to be held on Sunday April 10th at Holders:

We will be hosting a fun filled afternoon that will take us into an after party sure to have you up and dancing with DJ Dusty! We focus more here on the family aspect and those who want to enjoy our equestrian exhibits including a feature polo match and a tattoo by the Royal Barbados Police Mounted branch. Chefette will be setting up their Kiddie’s Corral again this year so the little ones have a fun area to let off steam.

In the line-up of afternoon activities polo will close us out and right on its heels will be our karaoke competition with contestants performing their choice of song from the 70’s or 80’s. The contestant with the best performance will win to tickets to a USA destination. We will also give a prize donated by Archer’s Hall for best dressed man and best dressed gal. VIP tickets will be on sale which will be US$50 drinks free and general admission is $25 for those 13 and older.