Summer months, multiple rescues and fundraising milestones...
While much of Spain enjoys their summer holiday break (which means our charity shops get very quiet), little has slowed down here at our rescue centre.
Over the past two months we have rescued four new ponies and one donkey – more on that below. We also had mundane but significantly inconvenient incidents like our stable fridge breaking down. And despite the peculiar weather and our lack of a mini digger, our new boundary fence has continued to take shape as we finally, finally, reached our €20,000 fundraising target.
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Our secure boundary fence fundraiser was our biggest fundraiser to date, and we can't thank you all enough for supporting it. All up, more than 200 donors contributed to the campaign, with donations coming from as far away as America, Canada, Thailand and Singapore. That included one very kind donor, who wished to remain anonymous, who this month donated the final €800 needed to hit the overall fundraising target.
This month we also launched our euro drive, to help us raise much needed funds as profits from our charity stores slowed down. We were overwhelmed to have received an incredible 74 donations in one day from you, our supporters.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Upcoming events
Sunday, September 2: Free open day from 1pm to 4pm
Tour the rescue centre, meet our animals and hear their incredible survival stories, then stop for a snack or drink in our cafe afterwards. Our new fan extractor will be working overtime in the kitchen to help keep our volunteers cool.
Don't forget to use the hashtag #easyhorsecare on social media so we can see all of your beautiful photos!
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Our latest rescues
This July and August have been some of our busiest months of rescues ever, with four new ponies and a donkey joining our Easy Horse Care family.
Here are their stories...
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Eeyore
Found wandering along a road on July 7, it's clear Eeyore suffered a terrible fate at the hands of his former owner. He has bad scars across his nose and a broken tail but, despite all the abuse, remains an incredibly friendly and inquisitive donkey.
Read his full rescue story here.
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Marco
Found lying in the streets on July 17 without any kind of identification, Marco bore the terrible scars of an ill-fitting harness. He also shockingly passed an entire plastic bag shortly after arriving at our rescue centre. He is so very lucky to be alive.
Read his full rescue story here.
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Pee-Wee
Tied to a tree and abandoned, Pee-wee was in a truly awful state when rescued on July 27. We rushed him to the Alicante horse hospital this month, after finding him in a pool of blood in his stable. Thankfully, Pee-wee now appears to be on the mend.
Read his full rescue story here.
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Sebastian
Abandoned in a rubbish-filled enclosure for weeks, Sebastian bears the scars of years of neglect – the enamel on his teeth is completely eroded due to being fed so poorly. Luckily, this kind-hearted pony (rescued on August 5) is safe with us now.
Read his full rescue story here.
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Prince
Found wandering the streets by Almoradí police on August 19, Prince has previously suffered a severe blow to his eye. He also can't lock his "knees" (stifles) in the usual way, so they are slowly breaking down. With time, we hope he will learn to trust again.
Read his full rescue story here.
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Lately, nearly all our rescues are miniature horses or donkeys. When we first moved to Spain, miniature horses became very fashionable and everybody wanted them. We even saw them for sale in cages at pet shops. They bred and bred these little horses and now it seems nobody wants them. We think that’s why we’re now seeing them dumped everywhere. How very sad.
Very few of these new rescues have sponsors yet. If you would like to help cover the costs of their recovery, please click here to become a monthly sponsor for as little as €5 a month.
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Available for adoption
Two of our lovely ponies have been added to our rehoming list over the past two months...
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Conker
Tied up beside a bustling motorway and abandoned, Conker was very head shy when he arrived at our centre, evidence he’d been bashed in the past. A bright and affectionate yet headstrong pony, Conker would suit an experienced – and short! – adult rider.
Read his full story here.
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Solo
Found abandoned on a piece of wasteland in Cartagena, beautiful Solo is almost blind in one eye due to an untreated previous infection. But he's a very happy miniature pony, with a lovely temperament. He'd make a wonderful companion pony for a family.
Read his full story here.
Interested in giving one of these guys their forever home? Just hit the button below to learn more about our adoption program and begin your application.
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In loving memory
We were devastated with the passing of both Hurricane and Crystal this summer. Two of our most beloved horses.
Hurricane made it to the ripe old age of 30 before being struck down with colic. Our vet Dorothea quickly determined he had a twisted gut. Considering his age, and the poor condition of his legs, we made the difficult decision to put him down instead of putting him through the stress of a hospital trip.
Crystal hadn't been well for some days and our equine veterinarian Dorothea had been keeping a close eye on her. As Crystal's condition rapidly declined, Dorothea began to suspect she may have a rare case of Equine Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Before we could take Crystal to the hospital, she deteriorated so quickly we had to make the decision to end her suffering. Lab tests later confirmed the MND diagnosis.
Rest in peace Hurricane and Crystal. You won't be forgotten.
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Our working holiday heroes
In happier news, we've been lucky to have two new working holidayers here. Spain’s Cristina López González worked with us from July 18 to 28 and now Hungary’s Levente Hallak will be working with us from August 8 until October 7.
Levente actually first volunteered with us for a few weeks back in 2011 and loved the experience so much that he always wished he'd stayed longer. So he jumped at the chance to come back when we launched our new working holiday program earlier this year.
Thanks to both Cristina and Levente for being some of our #easyhorsecareheroes.
To apply for our working holiday program click here.
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Meet our volunteer groomer, Cha...
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Our wonderful volunteer groomer, Cha, has begun posting some adorable insights into our centre on Facebook.
When she's not busy with the horses she finds time to snap some cute photos of our residents for you all to see. Like this, this and this.
We hope you've enjoyed them as much as we have. Thank you, Cha!
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Shannon Kelly, one of our Canadian Easy Horse Care heroes.
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The Gilly family with their heartfelt donation.
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Easy Horse Care heroes
We've been blessed with so many acts of kindness and donations from our Easy Horse Care heroes that it's hard to know where to begin telling you all about them.
Let's start with Gillian Hughes, who sold a saddle that she hadn't used for five years - and kindly donated the entire €400 to our centre! Says Gillian: "I admire Sue and Rod's work and think Easy Horse Care deserves my support in recognition of all their hard work and significant contribution to horse welfare in Spain." Thank you Gillian!
One of our Canadian supporters, Shannon Kelly, recently graduated from a Performance Horse Handler course. This talented lady won an award for academic proficiency, coming in second place for the highest marks, and decided to donate her $250 prize money to our rescue centre. That's enough to cover the alfalfa hay costs of one of our horses for five entire months! What a champion!
Rachel, the wonderful lady who does the 7am feeds six days a week for us has now also volunteered in our little merchandise stall during our monthly open days. At our last open day she managed to raise an astonishing €400
We must thank Lawana Higgins from Georgia, too, who cobbled together a huge stack of horse plush toys and then donated the lot to us. They've been selling like hotcakes, which is wonderful to see.
We also have a very, very special donation story. We were recently visited by the husband and family of Gilly Forsythe, who sadly passed away recently. Gilly lived here on the Costa Blanca and was an avid horse lover, so her husband Tom and her friends came up with a beautiful memorial act – they collected money at Gilly's funeral and donated it all to us on her behalf. How very touching.
This wonderful group stopped by last week to personally hand over the €255 collected at Gilly's funeral. What's more, Andy and Sue kindly donated a further €100, while Bob and Maggie from the Walking Wanderers gave another €85. Collectively, these donations will cover the entire feeding and veterinary costs of one rescued horse for two whole months. Amazing!
Thank you all, you are definitely #easyhorsecareheroes. 
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Our mini digger fundraiser
By now you've probably all heard about the dramas of our broken mini digger, which was kindly donated secondhand almost a decade ago and has since been used almost every day since.
We're really lost without it, as it truly is the most important piece of equipment at our centre, used for everything from moving hay bales and piling manure to helping with major facility upgrades. Without it, Rod has been digging the knee-deep trenches for our boundary wall by hand! We hope to buy a second-hand replacement for €12,000.
So we are over-the-moon excited to share the news that Fundación Juan Perán-Pikolinos has very kindly made a MAJOR donation towards our new (well, second-hand) mini digger fund!
For years, this Elche-based foundation has done incredible work supporting charities right across the Alicante region – and we're proud to say we're the very first animal welfare group included on their annual grant list. Thank you so much, Isabel and Fundación Juan Perán – Pikolinos! This is the very first grant we have ever received and we are so very honoured and grateful to receive your support.
We've also begun selling our 2018 calendar to help raise funds for our digger purchase. Our beautiful colour calendar opens to A3 in size and includes date boxes to write all your important events and reminders. At only €15 we also think it's pretty well priced. Our calendar has been printed in a limited run, so get in quick to order one now before they're all gone!
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Happy birthday, Sue!
It was Sue's birthday in early August, and our volunteer media and communications expert, Koren, spilled the beans on Facebook so that we could all send her our well wishes.
We hope you found time in your day for a small celebration, Sue. Thank you for all that you do, from all of your supporters.
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As always, thank you.
To all our wonderful supporters here in Spain and across the world, thank you. With your help and support, we are making huge steps forward for animal welfare in Spain.
With best wishes,
Sue and Rod Weeding,
Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre co-founders
(This newsletter was kindly compiled by volunteers Nicole Lutze and Koren Helbig.)
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