She's completely blind. People have this.
Romantic idea of animal rescue, sanctuary life.
It's not like that at all. Lots of times I've ended up in
jail, physically attacked, throttled till I passed out.
You know her future. She's she's got a, she's got a
happy future. Every year thousands of horses
are dumped, neglected and abandoned for all sorts of
different reasons, financial difficulty, the cost of living
crisis and the throwaway culture of today's society.
But what does it take to run an equine rescue centre?
And what sort of toll does it take mentally, emotionally and
physically behind the gates? Well, let's find out.
We're off to the retreat to Animal Sanctuary.
We'll be meeting the founder, Billy Thompson, who quite
literally risks his own life to save the lives of horses.
Well, the sanctuary. Really began with life, really,
because you know from very, very, very.
Young I would have. Toys that were only animal toys
and I think I was about 6 and my dad said I'm at my farm set that
I kept getting every, you know, every birthday, Christmas, I'd
get another pack of animals. My dad said you know that lorry
is meant to take those animals out of here.
And I said. No, you know, it's only like
this big. I said no, my lorry is to go and
get animals, so the blueprint was always.
There I might have not known it. It was always there, but really
physically, it started really when I was about 14 and I'd
start bringing stray dogs home. There'd be horses at the livery
yard that were going to, you know, and I'd say.
No, I'll have them. So by the time I was, I must
have been like 16 and I already had eleven dogs and five ponies.
I think so, yeah. It's, it's always been mad.
There's, there's no, I can't look back and say there was a
time, you know, it was never deliberate.
I never thought for one minute called let's have an animal
sanctuary. It was just like, just give me
blood. You see the injustice done to
animals and you're like, you know, whether you know it or
not. But you're like, I've got to do
something about this. So every little worm you pick
out of the the the a bowl of water that's drowning or a
little fly stuck in the spiders web.
I know the spiders got to eat, but I've got to get that spider
out, you know, to everything. Little snow on the path.
I've got to pick him up. It's in you and it and it.
Grows and it grows and it grows and.
You know and. Physically those animals grow
and grow and grow till you're faced with cows and horses that
are massive and you're, you're, you're going to help them.
You know, I've done this across the world.
So I've helped, you know, massive animals, camels in Egypt
and, you know, it's just one, one everything I've helped.
So yeah, the great British weather.
Who's your gorgeous little Cobb that's that's laying down?
Oh, that's Amber. So Amber was dumped.
Actually, big, big family, big family of, of Cobbs.
She was a big rescue, big rescue, all emaciated, you know,
dead horses in the field. She's she's a lot of she'd
probably come and say hello actually.
Oh she's good. And then this special little
little runt over here. Andrew, my lovely boy.
Andrew is one of my hand rearers.
He was about 7 weeks when he arrived.
Hello, baby boy. What happened to Andrew?
He was literally dumped. He was dumped on a village
green. It was collapsed.
He was very, very sick. He had a couple of injuries, we
think potentially dog bites. Wonderful, wonderful thing
about. Andrew is the vet said if this
if this baby, you know, it's like the size of a border
collie. If this baby doesn't have a
bottle in the next 12 hours, he's a goner.
And this little villain waited right till the 12th hour to
start drinking his bottle. Tell you, my lovely boy, another
one who lived in the house, who slept on the lounge, slept on
the sofa in the lounge, didn't you?
Slept on the lounge? What am I talking about?
And what is overwhelming Billy, is that we come in here, the
horses are so calm. Yeah.
And what do you put that down to?
Well. It it can only be kindness
because you know, bad start for Andrew, very, very bad start,
bad start for Amber. There's numerous in this little
group, numerous of them in this little group that have all had a
bad. Start.
I'm looking at them. I'm thinking probably 80% of
these have had a bad start and. But what you're doing, you've
got itchy, itchy feet, my darling.
But what will happen is that they will learn slowly but
surely, that every human they make is kind and nice and
basically like their extended family.
All right? They won't see you as a horse.
We know that. It's like dogs don't accept you
as pack leader because you're not a dog, but they absolutely
see you as integral in their well-being.
It's sort of, you know, whether that be their emotional
well-being, physical well-being, but they absolutely.
Oh, she's a good girl. She.
What's it taken to get these two characters, Andrew and Amber, so
friendly, so calm and serene? Yeah.
Well, I mean, I would imagine again, it's just, it's just that
whole thing that we're just not, we're not pushy.
We're not going to push anything on them.
You know, no one's going to have a head collar and a lead rope
on. And if they don't want to refer,
we're. Going to do this.
All nice and slowly and just kindness.
And also I think they realise that we're not asking them to do
anything that's that a horse wouldn't do.
So you know, here this is, this is rehabilitation, this is them
with their new herd family, whatever you want to call it.
And we're not asking them to be, not be a horse.
We're just, we're just saying we're going to, we're going to
help you. And once they trust that makes
our life easier because everything we have to do with
them, teeth, feet, boundary work, everything we need to do
with them once they're once they've got faith in you, makes
our job 10 times easier. So it's, it's brilliant.
I'll take my gloves off and then.
She can handle this. And what for you, Billy, is so
special about seeing the transformation from when a horse
first comes to you in dire need to then months, weeks, years
later? Well, I suppose what's wonderful
about that is then you see they've got a future because
when they first arrive, you never really know.
You can't. You know, there are certain
animals, I could tell you when they arrive, you know, this is
not going to come. This is not going to work out,
this is going to be. But then those ones that I know
they're going to be all right. You never really know
temperament wise, do you? They could, they could remain
worried. I've got a, I've got a couple on
this yard who are, who are still at that point of, of worry.
So once like this, you know her future.
She's, she's got a, she's got a happy future.
She'd get adopted, she'd get a she'd get a wonderful home and
you know, for me, that's what it's all about, knowing that
their next stage of it. We can't do it all on our, you
know, on our own. We.
We need to. Partner with people and we need
to, we need to see them go off to wonderful individual homes.
And of course she's so wonderful.
She's such a good girl for her dad, aren't you?
But I've got nothing. Normally I've got a, a suite or
something, I've got nothing. I've got nothing.
Shall we say hello to someone else?
Shall we? Lots of times I've ended up in
jail in in other countries I've been been arrested for animal
rights issues. Saving animals in the UK the
same. I mean, if I'm honest, it's not
it's. It's no big deal.
You kind of know you're not going to be executed, you're not
going to be put in jail. So really it's just another,
it's just another obstacle in the way of saving animals.
But you get around it, you get arrested, put in jail, you,
you're in there and someone sorts it out.
You get that out, you just carry on doing stuff for animals.
I mean, nothing is going to stop me, you know, I've been, I've
had as I suppose, for feeding birds 2. 1001 Ken Livingstone
who was the then. Mayor of London stopped the seed
Cellars in Trafalgar Square. So there was about 7 1/2
thousand pigeons living in the square at the time.
They would have died. So every night for 16 years the
pigeons had to be fed 100 kilos, 150 kilos of corn every night
for 16 years. So of course the authorities
didn't like it. They did everything they could
to stop you feeding those birds. But the idea is to move those
birds out of Trafalgar Square. It took 16 years, but that's
what we did. We fed and fed and fed and.
Moved and moved and moved and then we.
Pick up the poorly ones. But of course, in the process
you'd be arrested, you'd be, you know, sent to court, you'd be
fined and as bows. But each time I'd be in court, I
would say, well, it's not going to stop me.
Even if you put me in prison, it's not going to stop me.
I'm going to come out. I'm going to still feed the
birds until they're moved out of the square and they're not
dying. How old is this mare so?
This is this is Pip. She's 37 now.
Now you have to point out I'm no Vidal Sassoon and I don't pull
mains. I cut them and people do not
like it. But I'm sorry, I'm not pulling
their mains. They've been free enough.
So I do cut their their hair. And I tell them I'm no Vidal
Sassoon. Don't I, darling?
She could go. Yeah, I think we're probably
we've got another year. Well, I think we've got. 37
Yeah, what an achievement. Yeah, absolutely.
She's a lovely, lovely girl. They're all lovely though.
Hi, everyone. You're all in the right place.
Look at this lot. Oh my goodness.
There's two very big cows in there.
They're at the back of the two black and whites, Sylvia and
Harrison at the back. I can just remember my heart
sinking when my sister was allowed a pony and I was not.
You know this is a girl's. Sport, right?
That's what my dad said. This is a girl's sport, so no
sign of mine there in a pony. So I was like the little unpaid
skivvy I used to muck out from my sister and.
Do all the. Grooming And then my first pony,
my very, very special changed my life was being given away in a
yard. And well, if he wasn't giving
away, he was going to be killed. And he's inspired me to do so
much for animals. I've got another foundation as
well as here, which is named after him, the Flair Foundation,
which is supporting travellers, animals living in traveller
sites. So that really I can trace that
back to then. But I can remember horses from
when I was six or seven, you know, we'd go and visit friends
or, or stop at a field and have a look and I can remember them.
So they're always in my heart. And over the years it just
grows, doesn't it? And so there's always another
horse that needs you. See your horse family grow and
grow and grow and grow and grow. I mean, I even had a phone.
Call. She we haven't got her anymore,
but. I had a phone call a.
Horse being sold in Asda car park for £15 and so I can't even
go to Asda without getting a horse.
Do you know what I mean? So we had her for seven years,
the most amazing horse ever. Very, very broken when we got
her, but yeah, it. Was in Arabella.
Yeah, incredible. So yeah, I think it's just
you're either that way, you don't.
Learn to be this way. Do you know what I mean?
You're either that way. You're either empathic about
those creatures and about nature and what's happening and, you
know, and I've got two hands and I was given these hands and for
a good reason. And that's to, to, to save
things. So.
Yeah. Piricis is completely blind.
Is it? Is it blind Winter yard?
This gate can stay open. Brilliant.
My old lad was great for five years.
She's still a bit broken if I want to steal a little bit, like
jury's still out on people for her.
She, I could cry every time I see her.
Yeah, she's just, she's in my heart, that horse.
And she breaks me. That she does.
Why has she broken Bonnie? Well, five years on the run.
And so we got her. After that, we, you know, a few
agencies were told about the rescue of this horse.
And when we got there, she had a, she had a foal and we had her
follow up until 2 two weeks ago and we went to have her follow
up to sleep. So we've had her, we've had them
seven years. So if I was only 7, we went to
have her put to sleep. So that's made it worse for her.
It's made it worse for us because you get to a point where
you sometimes think if you're going to lose, you normally lose
earlier than seven years. Do you know what I mean?
You've got, we've got a baby. She got to.
Seven years we. Went to have her put to her down
at 7:00 and it's it broke the team.
I'd probably say it was one of the worst days in in sanctuary,
definitely in the sanctuary history for coming to terms with
having to lose a baby. You know, there are those
things, there are those challenges.
Things spring to mind. I remember we had a nine year
old and I remember when we rescued her and I put her on the
lorry and I said I will get you out of pain, I will make sure
you there's no more pain. And we never could.
So we had to have a little 9 year old put to sleep, which was
heartbreaking. She'd cancelled the hoof and
that was the same with her daughter.
I mean you could say, all right, she had her mum for seven years
and her mum had her for seven years back.
You'd be wanting to have that horse for as long as you had
Pip, you know, into, but sometimes it doesn't work out
like that. Would you say some people assume
that owning an animal sanctuary is living that idyllic Yeah
life? But actually, it's not always a
happy ending. It can be a tragic ending.
You're right, people, people have this romantic idea of
animal rescue, sanctuary life. It's not like that at all.
There's, Yeah, I, I would probably say it's a case of 5050
if I'm honest. You know, there'd be the 'cause
that you get to that you could maybe stop what's going on.
There's you're legally obliged not to do anything.
And then you'll go to the ones that are so far gone that then,
you know, the police and the agencies support you to take
them and they die. So it is very, very difficult.
And if anything, you would have think we would have lost mum
first because she had a lot of health issues, taken us a long
time to get her to that. But we've lost, lost the baby.
And yes, you're absolutely right.
It's, it's, it's, it's a hard one because people think, oh, if
I won the lottery, I'd have an animal rescue centre.
And if I won the lottery, I'd be on a beach somewhere and let
someone else do my job because it is heartbreaking.
You know, there's those animals names, her daughter, one of them
that I can't say the name of, and I'll probably never be able
to say her daughter's name. So that's that's the thing.
You then have to work your way through life, don't you?
You have to kind of navigate through these ups and downs.
But then there's beautiful little horses like Apollo, that
is, Tyresius's guide looks after him because Tyresius is not only
blind, but he's quite hard to manage.
He's he's still not come round to the idea of humans.
You know, he's kind of like people have.
Been particularly cruel to him. The people who are being
horrible to animals, they're going to be horrible to you.
So if I'm going to go out and help animals who are not being
looked after, I'm going to expect to meet these people.
And yeah, I mean last year in April of of.
Physically attacked, throttled till I passed out the kidneys
bled for 3 1/2 week by someone who's like 26 stone.
So yeah, absolutely. And me just explaining to them
this horse is not dangerous. This horse is terrified.
This horse is terrified because you are being.
Cruel. And that was it.
It was like a trigger. Don't call me cruel.
And yeah, lunatic. Yeah.
And you know, I can think of, I can think of all sorts of old
ones. I, my vet at the time had his
nose broken because we, we do free neutering for animals.
And we were on a, on a big site of animals that weren't
particularly looked after, completely allowed to, you know,
the, the people that site it was, have given us permission to
castrate four horses, I think. And then someone turned up,
there's an altercation about a dog and everything.
And my vet was given some good advice and he got punched and
broken his nose. So yeah, I mean, there's yeah,
it's part and parcel of the job and as long as you.
You kind of have to. Look for the signs and know how
to defuse these things. And that's why I was surprised
when I got terribly attacked because normally I'm very good
at defusing these situations, you know, kind of like massaging
people's egos and stuff and, and bringing them away from being
aggressive and stuff. But this this came from nowhere.
Yeah, so Okie the big white girl, Okie, Octavia is
completely blind. And then, then we've got
Harryuzo Guide horse. It always takes your back,
doesn't it, seeing such a huge animal.
Slowly, darling, That's it. Slowly.
Oh, excuse me. Really.
That's a welcome noise. She says hello.
And Billy, do we have to behave differently being around the
horse without an eye? Definitely.
So you really you need to be. So she's blind in her eye that
she's got as well. So she's completely blind.
So although she's got one eye missing.
The other eye. Have to be taken out at some
point as well suffered from a condition called uveitis.
All right baby, go. So really what you want to, you
want to be aware of just for yourself is that you should
always be talking so that she knows where you are.
She can hear, I know she can smell and stuff.
So I try and always be like, oh, Rocky, my baby, where's my
Rocky? I talk to him.
And of course, if anything, so jump, she don't know you're
there. So you have to be a bit mindful
for yourself, a bit of a bit of health and safety there.
But actually she's a horse that's done incredibly
well-being blind don't suit every horse, but it was a
gradual thing, her condition. We got her too late because
we'd, you know, she'd wear the UV glasses and whatever, but we
got her, we got her too late. But actually she's a really nice
life. Gate opens into her paddock.
So when it's not flooded, I haven't got anything baby girl
for you She. Wary of strangers, can I
approach her? She loves people.
She's. I you know you can only.
See that she is very bonded to you and she she doesn't want to
say hello to me if she doesn't have to.
I think if you keep talking she she'll be like whatever, you
know, you can only assume so much about animals.
But I think that Octavia, she never had anyone who was, who
was cruel to her. I think she was, she was
neglected because she could have had something done about her
eyes sooner. But she, I don't think for one
minute someone was deliberately cruel to her because she's got a
different relationship with humans here that most of our
damaged animals have. Actually, her little boyfriend
there was found in a children's play park.
He was a full stallion. And we're not sure if he was
dumped in the play park or if he was in the park and someone
herded him in. But yeah, he's a second husband.
She did have a she did have another horse beforehand called
Billy, actually, didn't he? Girl?
Yes, yes, yes. She's my lovely girl.
She had to rescue him from the play park.
Yeah, he came for a play. I bet there was chaos, wasn't
there? In the local area of excitement.
Yeah, Pony that had derived. Have you been there a while as
well? Because people, you know, you
hear these things, you think, oh, it can't be true.
Like a horse being sold in Asda car park for 15, You think these
things can't be true. So, you know, it's quite often
there is a bit of time lapse. Octavia, when I got her the
first phone call to say there's a horse standing in the field, I
had exploded out of her head. You think, oh, you know, is this
going to be? And then when we turn up there,
yeah, that is the case. And.
You know she'd. Received no treatment, nothing
and then obviously people just gone left her so she.
Did you have to have the eye removed?
Yes, and then she gets gets surgery and stuff and she thinks
I've got treats. I've got nothing for you, my
darling. And did she adapt quite quickly
to losing her sight? Yeah.
Well, thankfully uveitis is generally a progressive thing,
so it kind of takes some time. So she for the first, we've had
her ten years now. For the first, I would say five
years, she was with the herd. So she was one eyed gone and
reduced vision in the other eye but she was with the herd so
we're all blind horses. You have to put in a lot of
work. So what we did on the whole of
the farm, we took every fence down so in all of the fields so
she didn't have to find a gateway.
And of course then eventually she needs her own paddock.
We have to put all the fences back up.
But she was worth it. You know everyone was cursing
when we had to re fence the fields because I'd said take
every fence post out so that she doesn't have to find a gate, she
can go find her mates wherever they are.
And how do you work with the horse like Octavia?
Do you work with her on the ground or is it just a case of
getting her through vet visits and farrier visits?
No, I mean really you, you want to be doing, you want to be
doing little things with her every day.
You want, you want it so that she knows, so that things don't
come out of the blue. So if a vet visit comes, it's
not like. Going to be the first day she's
got to have her head collar put on.
She should really be having that done every day and so she's my
baby. She's such a good.
Girl, she's peed off me because I've got nothing in my pockets
because normally she's like all over.
She's like, Dad, I love you and my little Haiti.
Look at his ears back. He's like, but yeah, so I think
I think she is like a real partnership with her.
She absolutely understands that, you know, we're here for her and
everything that happens. You know, you get those animals
at centres that are the most delicate.
And I would say if you've got blind animals, they're
definitely up there as as the main, the delicate ones.
So they're on your team's. Yeah.
Your decision making, forefront of your decision making
everyday, your delicate ones, you know, you got to know that
the the delicate ones, for instance, you know, if it was a
nice day and the big old yard missed out on going out, would
it be such a tragic? Yeah, it wouldn't be great.
But actually if she missed out on going out because she's down
a sense, isn't she? She's down all right.
So actually you always want to be like, oh, is today going to
be all right? Is that paddock?
All right, let's get her out. So they should always be at the
forefront of our decision making the the most delicates.
I'm sorry darling, I feel really bad I haven't got.
Do you? Feel a deeper connection because
you have to have that added trust with her because she can't
see and therefore she's got that reduced vision and may not be
able to see where you are and you have to be more instinctive
in your relationship with her. And.
I mean, generally I'm like, I, I say it all the time.
I'm like everyone's dad, whether it's human or animal.
I'm like, I want to look after, I'm the rescuer, I want to look
after anyone. So I think subconsciously you
put a little a bit more into this relationship because you
think actually she is down on something.
You know, I, I'm over that, closing my eyes and seeing what
she feels. You know, where is you do that a
lot At first you think right, OK, spatially.
Well, how does she feel about things?
I'm over that because she's not one to sit around and mote.
Lil tell us what it's like day-to-day caring for a
sanctuary of over 30 horses. Well as it's ups and it's downs,
isn't it? It's.
Very busy. You never know what the day's
going to bring you, you know, intakes, ones being rehomed.
Yeah, it's just on the go all the time.
And you're a trustee and you're part of the horse care team.
What does your job entail? I hear you're a woman of many
talents. Well, obviously the trustees is
making sure that everything's running right, looking for the
future of what's the next progression for the retreat and
stuff as well. What's working right?
What's working? What's not working?
And talk us through your rehabilitation process.
What sort of horsemanship do you bring?
Do you bring to your horse care? I'm a feeder so anything that
needs fattening up I kind of take on because all mine are a
bit weighty because I've got 3 permanents that I rescued and
that I took on from the retreat as well.
Mum and baby Shetlands and then a Frisian that was kind of due
to lose her leg, but kind of through the TLC and that
everyone kind of done in the early days of here.
Then coming to me. She's kind of absolutely
beautiful now. She's stunning.
Well, not so much this time of year, but in general she's
lovely. So yeah, it's just giving them
that attention that they need day-to-day care and feeding
them, Yeah, giving them all their treatments that they need
veterinary treatment. Do you find that whatever the
horse has been through, they always love a truth?
Yes, yeah, Takes a bit of time to get some because I recently
had Roxy who's got one one eye. So her kind of people's skills
was very limited. So it was just getting her used
to me, which took a bit of time. But yeah, treats work wonders.
How do you do that with horses that have been dumped or horses
that are feral? How do you build that trust?
It's just being in the field with them continuously and just
letting them come to you when they when as and when they want.
At mine, they all just have free roams that they've got their
stables open, they've got field shelters, they've got water
everywhere. So they can just do what they
want in their own time. And then I sort of introduce
myself to them on a daily basis. Poo picking.
That said, one of them come and see me.
They can do. What's been your most dramatic
transformation? Do you think it must be so hard
to rack through the hundreds of horses in your care?
For me I think it was it was mum and baby from there.
Oh, Gracie Libby, yes. Yeah, because just just an
outline to this. We got called like dead horses
on the field, an emaciated mum of a fold, no milk.
Left because she was literally starving.
She was eating. There was the remains of look.
Plastic bags that she was surviving and we thought she was
gone. We thought Fall was gone, but
they went to Lils. So you can.
Imagine. How did you bring them back from
the brink? What do you do when a horse is
starving to death? Well.
But in small doses, really, it's kind of planning it throughout
the day, not just giving them one big feed.
It's kind of breaking it up all throughout the day.
And thankfully they're at home with me, so I can go out there
as many times as I need to to be able to feed and check on them,
making sure they're getting all their vitamins in their in their
body and stuff as well. So you have to make sure they
don't just gobble everything. Yeah.
And then it takes, it takes time, Yeah.
And then worming and stuff. But that I think that was
horrible because of the dead horses in the field and she was
standing over a dead baby as well as when I was having
wonderful. She had her own default dead
with her and then the. The new There's nothing left of
her but she's like 17. Hands or something for baby and
she's just incredible. So yeah, I mean, that's just,
they're the ones where you think you're not going to get through
them, but send them to Leo's. How do you keep going knowing
that actually at any point you could get a call that is very
harrowing? You're going out to something
very troubling. We did, yeah.
We lost the horse, didn't we, Polo?
We lost her. There was the fall that we had
that we spent all night up at the vets with that was
continuously on a drip that didn't, didn't, sadly didn't
make it. Yeah, we had then another one
that had broke its neck and every time it come to its neck
just broke again, didn't it? Just kept coming back out of
place. So yeah, there's not always the
happy endings. How do you get through that
personally without being haunted by these experiences?
I mean, 'cause then you move on to the next one and and then
when you're having folds born at yours and it kind of takes, you
know, makes you think, well, what I'm doing, you know, is the
right thing. There's not always gonna be that
happy ending, unfortunately, because of what we have to deal
with. But it's nice when you get then
the foals and you see them like, you know, Spirit and that is
just brilliant. And then Roger and yeah, and
then Darcy was, my daughter has been out with both of them as
well, like the foals that I've had born.
So, you know, all that contact is, you know, is brilliant for
them and they've become them really friendly.
You want to sit on your lap and get on your back and stuff like
that. And you're like, no, you're
getting a bit too big now. I think Spirit tries that with
you don't she to get on your back.
Yeah, she's my baby. Literally tips off my coats
buttons. Yeah.
Yeah, and how much of your horsemanship comes from your
childhood with? All of it, yeah.
I think there's, yeah. Most of mine has just been
self-taught over the years with just having horses and growing
up with them. Did you see your life going in
this direction? I always wanted to have sort of
a house with land so I could have a horse in the background
so I could look out my kitchen and, you know, look out and see
the horses in the back garden. So it's always been a dream of
mine and yeah, it's just I'm living the dream.
It's just lovely. And do you still feel like
you're living the dream even during the tough times?
Yeah, yeah, it's just amazing. Yeah, I love it.
I wouldn't have it any other way, you know, Still go and do
my job up in London which pays for it all.
How do you find the time to juggle a career up in London and
a horse sanctuary I. Don't know how they just do it.
Just get up every morning and yeah, well, go and do it.
Plow on. Yeah, juggling feeding folds and
yeah. We sort of my daughter out doing
school runs, taking her, her cousins and her friends all to
school and first thing of a morning and yeah, then going
back, doing the horses, the dogs and just start sitting off to
London and then yeah, on the way home, yeah, go out and.
You know, I also said she has. My mum and dad live in there and
then. House.
So she's like their guardian. Then she's got her son and his
wife. Living in this.
House. Then.
The wife's got her two horses, then she's got 2 massive dogs.
I mean Leo is the ultimate in time management and juggling
things. She's, you know, she's one of
those people's got I'm not very good at that time management
rubbish. And what's it called when you
just put the plates on those things?
Spinning plates, yeah. Yeah, I was very good at that
because there's only a young daughter as well.
You've got a but. Oh.
And then keeping TikTok up to date as well with me, pictures
of me rescues and stuff. I need to follow you on TikTok.
There is no time in the day, is there for TikTok, and you do
that as well as everything else. Yeah, well that's when I'm
laying in the bath. TikTok quickly.
Do you fear Lil in these difficult times?
Do you fear for the future of the sanctuary in these difficult
Financial Times, in the current climate?
Yeah, you know, that's why we've just continuously got to be
doing things to, you know, to get people in as well.
And that's why, you know, the cafe is a good thing to bring in
people in all the shops as well. It just helps towards the the
running costs and stuff as well, which is just brilliant.
And the support we have for the the thrift shop is amazing, you
know, with the people bringing in donations.
Even though we're closed and I'm sorting, people are still
bringing in the donations. And yeah, we're very fortunate
with the thrift shop, aren't we? Which brings in good money.
It's money that we don't have to out like everyone that works in
there are volunteers. So we have a criteria and add
criteria is generally we do make some exceptions.
But that the. Horse must have no guardian.
So we always take dumped horses. So if there's a dumped horse,
we're out there, we do the four days legal noticing we do that
and then that the horse will be brought to the centre.
And we are quite active in taking horses from from round
ups and you know, the conservation grazers, New
Forest, Dartmoors, ex Moss and so on.
So because we know where they're going to end up.
So we're kind of like we're, that's what we want to help
with. But definitely most of horses
that we've got on site at the moment, yeah, about 80% will
have been dumped. I think the horses.
That we find now that are dumped are horses that were potentially
loved and looked after and people either not them
themselves have dumped them, but they couldn't keep them.
So they've passed them on and there's someone who's not as
attached to that horse, sees a Greenfield somewhere, out the
horse goes. And a horse that had.
On a microchip, she had 13 registered owners and no one was
interested. Contacting all the 13, No, no,
no one said, Oh well, I had her for two years, whatever.
Four years. No, no one was interested.
We had her for three years. Fanny the Wonder Horse.
Donkey school. So we had five donkeys.
Wow. All individually rescued and
then just back in the summer we did a big rescue and there was 5
donkeys, roppet, turkeys, goats. And so you've got that situation
where we've now got a family of five because they are, there's
mum, dad and they're falsies. So you've got even got to find a
home for five to go. Otherwise they have to stay with
her, right? Alice, be the girl.
And how does it compare keeping the donkeys to the horses?
Are they more sensitive souls? Well, emotionally I don't think
they are, but I mean they're they're not, they're not great
in the in the weather. So that's why it's great to have
the score and they've got way boppy.
Look at that. And they've got their they've
got their little luxury yard up here, which would go up to
afterwards. But I mean, they've got a lot of
grass if they want to go out, but they generally don't want to
go out. And it's my little Joey.
Look at him, just abandoned him is.
He a miniature donkey, Yeah. So why is there a miniature in
with your donkey herd? Good.
Good question. So she came on the rescue where,
where was the five donkeys? So she's she thinks her family
is five of these donkeys. She was happy living with them.
Is she? Is she the leader of the herd?
Yeah, I mean, they've all got such respect for her.
Normally we have a horse in here who's called Tori, who's just
just over in the field just there because Tori, we're not
sure of her story, but we think she must have thrown a mule at
some stage in her life. She's very maternal over
donkeys, but would you believe it, the harmony of what we've
got at the moment? When Tory's about 15 hands was
in here, she would not tolerate little Boppet and Boppet would
not tolerate her. So we're like, well, these are
really Boppet's family. So Boppet's got a win.
So Tory's moved just over the fence.
Mind. That laughing because Boppet is
going mad pulling some serious shapes.
In the arena. And it's interesting that the
donkeys are but having a play, but they're not all galloping
with her at speed. Yeah, you're right.
Are they a steadier nature? Your donkeys, Billy.
Yeah, definitely, definitely more laid back.
I mean, it's quite unusual. That's Peter.
It's quite unusual to see Peter play.
And Pat's really his brother. They came together, so we call
them brothers. Do you see the same amount of
donkeys being dumped as you do horses?
Is there a big problem? Yeah, not so much in the South
of England donkeys, it's it's more of a northern thing and and
Ireland is obviously a massive problem for donkeys too.
But the slight advantage with donkeys is there's more of a
market for rehoming donkeys than there are horses.
Generally people who want a horse have this criteria, 20
points. And to hone the horse you've got
to get 20 points. Generally people just want 2
donkeys. So it's a lot easier to hone
donkeys than it it's a lot easier to hone donkeys than it
is to hone horses. And where have your heard of
donkeys come from, Billy? What are their stories?
So Pat and Peter came together up there.
So they were round UPS in Romania as little very young
foals and sold to a seaside town to be broken.
The seaside donkeys, believe it or not, they look like the
loveliest boys and they are so table and wonderful.
But actually when they arrived they were the most Fair Work
one. I never come across.
They were like they were extremely naughty.
So that's where they've come from.
That's why they've been they've been here 11 years now.
So they will stay. There's there's no doubts about
it. Joey abandoned so that that was
a call out. Otto came only middle of last
year. There's also got some terrible
feet problems. So he's having corrective foot
treatment at the moment. So he came and apparently didn't
like mare donkeys. So at the time we had five
geldings. We have got 3 mares now, or
Janice as you want to call them. My special boy.
My special boy and. He's a classic looking donkey,
isn't he? Yeah, and I love him very much.
Where does he all come from? He.
All actually had a very, very strange rescue.
We we said yes to a horse that some people couldn't keep for
one reason. I think someone had died in the
family. And when the lorry arrived with
horse on, who's called tizer when horse arrived you're.
Getting horse off and. Horse was going.
Mad at the horse lorry. So he said well what's he going
mad? They said ah, his companions on
the lorry. So I said what do you mean his
companions on the lorry? Where have his?
Companion. Oh no, he's he's a donkey and
he's from. Another centre and they want him
back and I said of course they. Don't want him back if they
could see how bonded they are, which is unusual donkeys and
horses to bond like that. But actually as soon as he or so
we took ER and as soon as he all met our other donkeys, he
divorced Tizer. He didn't want to know.
So actually it's worked out best for Tizer and and Deos.
Let's see. And then this little family.
Krakal, Alice. Milo, Paddy and so these were
just of one rescue with Bopip. They all came together.
Terribly sad situation were loved the health.
Issues in the. Family with a lot of animals and
just could not get to the point where they could, could look
after them and so, but they couldn't find somewhere they
could find a sanctuary are a rescue to take them, but they
would be they would not give any guarantees.
They wouldn't split them up. And they are a very bonded hello
bird. They are a very, very bonded.
I was going to say very bonded group.
They all came together with poppet and some goats and some
turkeys and some ducks. Yeah.
And for you, Billy, it's important not only to get them
out of a situation where they'll be come to to live a life where
they'll be physically looked after, but mental health is
really important for you and and emotional health too of the
animal. Yeah.
I mean, you just, you just want to get it right, don't you?
You want to get it right for them.
So I look at what they need. It's no good looking at, you
know what, what we need. I look at what they need.
And quite often, if a pair bond is very, very strong, I'm not.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to break it, you know, I'm not
going to break it. And then it does get difficult
if you've got a quad or if you've got five that have pair
bonded. But I suppose we're still lucky
as a, as a centre. We're still small enough that we
could do it. You know, I suppose if you're
the donkey sank, you've got 10,000 donkeys comes difficult,
doesn't it? But we're still small enough we
can do it. I said recently in a, in a
meeting, in a horse meeting, team meeting, I said it'd be
nice to find all telling them home together with Boffett
thrown in. And you know, it's like everyone
then says, oh, well, that's unrealistic now, you know, So we
have to stick with thinking, well, if they're pair bonded,
they're going to stay together. I think it's only fair to them,
you know? The biggest healer is time.
There's no doubt about it. So there's, there's, there's no,
there's no code of practice. So what I say to everybody is,
you know, we ignore them. You know, we're going to feed
them, they're going to be clean and they're going to get water.
Ignore them. And when you see them start to
fry, they learn from the other horses.
You know, all animals learn from the others.
So you've got a bunch of trusting horses that have all
been broken. You're going to learn from that.
So therefore, slowly but surely. You know when you get that?
Makes your heart go when they sniff.
Your pocket for the first time and you think, there we go.
And then you take something out of your pocket and they take it
from your hand for the first time.
Then that leads to you touching the neck for the first time and
that little brush and or just the cleaning of the aisle or
something. And it, and it's remarkable
because it's, it's as important for you as it is for them.
You know, there is, there is something very special about
making something whole again. You know, there are definitely
those animals and we don't achieve this with which is
heartbreaking, it's soul shattering.
But the majority of them we win. And that's something great for
you as well. Do you know what I mean?
It's not for and actually it builds something with you
because you're ready. You're ready for the next one
and you're ready for the next one.
If it was all terrible, if it was all we couldn't, you know,
one after an hour, we couldn't say you'd be broken.
But actually, So really, that's why we concentrate as a team on
our horses. And yeah, and I think then also
when an adoption comes, you know, the exact right home for
those horses, don't you? Like some people will say to me,
it's like getting blood out of stone, getting a horse off of
you or getting a dog off you. And I think that's right because
not every animal is suitable for every person.
It's a match, you know, and I've got to know I, I aim for zero
returns when my animals go out, I don't want them to come back.
Animal rescue, sanctions, whatever is a compromise.
It's not like a loving, loving home, an individual loving home.
It's, it's compromising, you know, not not enough funds, not
enough hours in the day, not enough team, not enough
everything. When they go to that home, you
want them to be in that forever. So for me to stay focused on 0
returns so that we match them perfectly.
So that's why it's like getting blood out of stone if I haven't.
Got something that I think is suitable for you?
Then you're not just going to take anything, you know, So the
the centre is completely free for people to come in.
It's only open Thursday to Sunday, but absolutely anybody
can visit the centre for free. And I'm a real stickler for this
because I want to give everyone the opportunity to come and see
what we're doing, but also to come and meet animals, not just
horses. We've got everything that you
can think of and they're telling their survivor stories.
They're telling, they're telling a story to people.
Even things like when I tell people, oh, this horse is here
because people could not afford her.
Something may not have terrible happened to her, but let's the
penny drop for people to think before they go out and get an
animal. Actually, can I actually afford
this? So actually we want to showcase
what we're doing. We don't want anyone to have to
pay. There are shops and there's and
there's a cafe on site and there's ways that you can pay
into the pot if you want to. But if you who don't want to is
free of charge to come in, have a great afternoon, meet some
wonderful animals and listen to their stories and hopefully.
Because that's what we're all. We're all hoping that the next
generations do exactly what you and I are doing.