Badminton raises £30,000 for Sense
This year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials raised £30,000 for Sense, the charity that supports deafblind children and adults.
Olympic event rider Nicola Wilson was on the Sense stand at Badminton in her role an ambassador for the friends of Sense Stables.
Other equestrians lending their support at Badminton included trainer Christopher Bartle, former international showjumper Dame Emma Jane Brown, blind showjumper Karen Law and paralympian Natasha Baker.
“Badminton has been a unique opportunity for us to spead the word about our work and raise money for deafblind children and adults,” said Sense deputy CEO, Richard Kramer.
“We are very happy that the 2015 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials helped promote Sense and all the great work they do for the deafblind community. We hope that the donations keep coming in for a good while,” said Badminton event director, Hugh Thomas.
For more information visit www.sense.org.uk
BEVA Trust supports charity projects
The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Trust has joined forces with the British Horse Society (BHS) and SPANA this month to run equine castration clinic in the UK and help SPANA’s vets in Morocco.
Established 50 years ago the BEVA Trust is the philanthropic arm of the British Veterinary Association.
The seven volunteer vets gelded 28 colts and stallions and microchipped and issued passports for 45 horses identified by BHS welfare officer during the trial day in Hampshire earlier this month.
The initiative was a trial run for further castration clinics planned by the BHS in each of its region’s over the next year.
Clinics cost an average of £1,000 to run and the BHS has launched an appeal to raise funds.
To donate visit www.justgiving.com/BHScastration
“Thanks to BEVA Trust vets our castration and microchipping project is set to make a real difference to Britain’s equine over-population problem, which is the root cause of the majority of the welfare problems we encounter,” said the BHS’s Lee Hackett.
The second BEVA Trust project enabled two vets, Chris Pearce and Caroline George fly out to Casablanca in Morocco to lecture at SPANA’s annual congress.
Chris Pearce, who runs the equine dental clinic in Dorset, lectured on dentistry and Caroline George of Lambourn Equine Vets taught wound management.
“We met vets from Mauritania, Ethiopia, Mali, Tunisia, Jordon, Zimbabwe and Morocco all trying to help the working equids of Africa. Thanks to SPANA and BEVA Trust for their initiative and invitation – I wish I could have stayed longer.”
Over 40 vets volunteered their services for the limited places on the two pilot projects.
“We are encouraged by the very positive response by BEVA members to the call for volunteers,” said Julian Samuelson, chairman of the BEVA Trust committee.
He said BEVA “will review the success of these pilot projects and consider expanding its support of this type of pro bono initiative.”
AP McCoy joins O’Sullevan Trust
Recently retired former champion jockey AP McCoy has been appointed a trustee of the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust.
The Trust, now in its 19th year, has raised over £4m for animal welfare charities.
“I’m delighted to help promote Sir Peter’s Trust and I hope to make as good use of my retirement years as Sir Peter has of his,” said AP McCoy.
“AP’s commitment is a notable honour for the Trust which has benefited enormously from the support of his long time boss and friend, J P McManus, since its establishment in 1997,” said Sir Peter.
Gallery supports horse sanctuary
The Surrey-based horse sanctuary Mane Chance, set up by actress Jenny Seagrove will receive a percentage of sales from a new exhibition of equine images.
The exhibition, Horsepower, opens at the New Ashgate gallery in Waggon Yard in Farnham, Surrey on 3 July (until 15 August).
Equine photography, sculpture, linocut and screen prints will be on show from the five participating artists: Caroline Jackman, Lisa Mardell, Alessia Mestrone, Carol Orwin and Fleur Robertson.
“We are giving 10% of sales to Mane Chance which works hard to look after rescued horses and raise awareness of equine welfare,” said Caroline Jackman, the gallery’s director.
There will be 30-40 works on show with prices ranging from £50 to £500.
For more information visit: www.newwashgate.org.uk
