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Racehorse Sanctuary News
17th July 2007 |
Support Group Open Day 20th May
It rained on 18th, 19th and 21st of My but on 20th the sun shone brightly all day for our support group members and invited guests open day.
We decided not to start the day until 1.30pm in order to give those who had a long journey time to battle their way through traffic on the motorways and to have lunch prior to arrival. I must say that we were very disappointed with the number of visitors; we were lead to believe that there could be as many as 150 – 200 coming along but on the day just under than 60 actually attended.
This didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm and we started the day with a short display by Julia Nicholls on Wavertree Dream who was the first horse to be successfully re-homed from the Sanctuary. Dream looked in super condition and behaved himself impeccably in walk, trot and canter and was in no way overawed by either the crowd or the loudspeaker system which can so often upset a horse.
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Wavertree Dream was then followed by a parade of some of the horses currently here at the Sanctuary, all behaved extremely well even Wavertree Boy who kept us all well and truly on tenderhooks as far as what his reaction might be.
We then followed this up with a short demonstration on just how an ex-racehorse can make the change to a riding horse in a relatively short time carried out by Beccy Green on Another General. |
Wavertree Dream (Scooby) and Julia
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Beccy acquired General from Richard Philips when due to finishing his last couple of races distressed it was decided to retire him having had a successful racing career. Having turned him way for six months he was brought back into work and what was seen this day was after just six months training. We were treated to witnessing a very relaxed horse showing three well balanced and correct paces and I must say how both horse and rider were turned out immaculately.
We had then planned on taking Moorcroft Boy himself into the school but unfortunately he decided differently and refused point blank to allow us to put his bridle on. One could say that we shouldn’t allow him to get away with this type of behaviour but knowing how he suffers from stress for several days when put under this sort of pressure we feel it is better left alone.
Having left the confines of the ménage all filed back into the yard for refreshments and the chance for all present to have a chat with the horses, which after all is what everyone came for.
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Several fund raising things took place in the yard which included the sale of a magnificent array of home made cakes all of which were supplied by our members, so a big thank you to you all. A raffle that started off with 10 prizes and by the time it had finished had just short of thirty and an auction of some wonderful items which included a week in Turkey, some super prints and several other items. |
Another General and Beccy
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Even though we were below our expectations on numbers, the day was a huge success and raised just over £2,500 for the centre.
I must thank all those who worked so hard on the build up to this event and on the day, after all at present we cannot afford any staff and to be honest without the help of our supporters and trustees this event could never have taken place.
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