World Horse Welfare opens new facilities at rescue centre
The charity has seen a 43 per cent increase in welfare enquires since the start of 2024.
The charity World Horse Welfare has celebrated the opening of new state-of-the-art facilities that will help it care for horses brought to its Norfolk Rescue and Rehoming Centre.
The new admission facilities at Hall Farm, Snetterton, were officially opened by Lord-Lieutenant for Norfolk, The Lady Dannatt, at a ceremony on Tuesday, 9 April.
The opening comes at a crucial time for the charity, which has seen welfare enquires increase by 43 per cent since the beginning of the year. Its four rescue centres are close to reaching capacity.
The redevelopment began in October 2022 and received a grant of £90,000 from Pets Foundation. Old farm buildings have been replaced with new purpose-built facilities that are designed to make it easier to maintain good hygiene and reduce the stress of the horses when they arrive. The space is adaptable to allow horses to be kept either in groups or separately depending on the situation.
During her speech at the opening ceremony, The Lady Dannatt said: “Having last visited in 2021 with the charity’s president, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, it’s truly remarkable to witness the continuous efforts to improve equine welfare for all horses. These new admission facilities will be transformative to World Horse Welfare’s work.”
Sue Hodgkins, farm manager at Hall Farm, added: “We are witnessing an increase in the number of large groups of horses coming into our centre. All new admissions have to be quarantined as part of our biosecurity procedures and given a thorough check over and treatment by our team of vets, farriers and other equine professionals. Large groups of unhandled horses make this extremely challenging.
"We can’t wait to start using them, having watched the site develop for over a year.”
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With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
