Two equine charities face financial crises

Two well-known equine charities are facing disruption due to funding crises.

The Racehorse Sanctuary in West Sussex has been forced to look for a new home, while HorseWorld in Bristol might have to shut its visitor centre and make redundancies as part of “urgent cost-cutting measures”.

The Racehorse Sanctuary’s current site — Bridge Hill Farm, Coolham — has been put

up for sale.

The charity — which won a Countryside Alliance Rural Hero award in 2011 — says it is now in a “real race against time” to find the money to buy another yard, or find somewhere to rent to home its 30 ex-racehorses, who have a home for life with the charity.

Trustee Graham Oldfield said: “We are having to sell as a supporter, who helped us buy the farm in the first place, asked for their money back sooner than expected. It was a total shock.”

HorseWorld was refused planning permission to build a new visitor centre by Bath and North East Somerset Council at the end of last month, and the charity says it is not “financially sustainable” to keep its “outdated” centre open.

Should the visitor centre be closed, all animals kept there would be moved to the main welfare yard, but 28 jobs could be lost.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (6 February, 2014)

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