We asked Jo Hockenhull one of our dedicated trustees, to visit us in Swansea. This is what Jo had to say about her visit:

"I became one of the trustees for Communities For Horses earlier this year having been inspired by hearing Lisa talk about the work they do. But I am ashamed to say that I had never actually been to Swansea. On August Bank Holiday weekend, I finally did something about that. Lisa invited me to spend the day with her, putting places to names and learning more about why Communities For Horses is so important to the horses and people in this area.
Our first stop was at the marshes, where herds of ponies can be found grazing. These ponies are owned by people, rather than being wild (as is often assumed to be the case) and have the right to graze this area. The difficulties come when the ponies seek high ground to avoid rising tides which can leave them either stranded or forced into ‘human territory’, in car parks and alongside main roads. This area is popular with dog walkers and as it turns out, they do not always welcome the presence of these ponies. I saw first-hand how frustrating some people find the presence of the ponies when we spoke to one local dog walker. She told us (quite angrily!) about incidents between dogs and ponies on the marsh, as well as complaining about the mess the ponies leave behind when they move to higher ground. Lisa spoke diplomatically to the dog walker about the situation, listening to her views and addressing some of the issues she raised. By the end of the conversation, I felt that Lisa had swung the discussion in the ponies’ favour, while leaving the dog walker with the satisfaction of having her views heard. Certainly, the conversation became much more chatty after the initial high emotions! On top of this, Lisa gave guidance of how and where she could seek help for problems she was having with her accommodation. Lisa, it seems is a font of all knowledge!

Our next stop was to see the free ranging ponies on the common. These ponies were grazing alongside the road and a number of cars had pulled over to allow people to have a closer look. Most people had left their cars and were approaching groups of ponies trying to touch them, with some trying to lure them with food in their hands. You can see how this could easily cause problems for both humans and ponies with both parties at risk of injury – humans from bites and kicks and ponies from cars or being fed inappropriate food.

From the open spaces of the marsh and common we moved on to visit some urban horse owners. Here we came across a couple of owners, one with their pony tethered on a green space in a housing estate. Lisa knew these owners by name and entered into friendly chat with them, asking how frequently the pony was being moved to new grass and given water, which they took in good spirit. We spent a while talking to the owners, Lisa catching up on local news and me spending most of the time trying to understand what was being said – I definitely need practice with the accent! While we had a captive audience, we asked them to fill out our survey. These surveys help us to understand what is important to horse owners in the area so that Communities For Horses can best support them going forwards.

From there we moved on to two other locations where horses were being grazed in urban areas, Lisa’s local knowledge guiding us down narrow paths between houses which unexpectedly came out into green spaces with horses. Here we spoke to another local owner who told Lisa about a horse tethered nearby with no shade or water. After our initial attempts to find the horse failed, Lisa followed up on this concern and has been keeping her eye on the horse involved.

Our last stop of the day was to see Daisy. It was lovely to meet her after following her story via Facebook for so long. I have no idea why this wonderful mare is still looking for her forever home. She is a total softie and has come a long way since she first came to Lisa." 

There has been a great deal of interest in Daisy – but no one yet has come forward with an offer for a forever home.  This may be due to her young age, but she is still with us. She really is a cracking character.  We do have a robust rehoming policy which is in line with the majority of responsible Equine Welfare Charities.  Although CFH has successfully rehomed 6 horses this year, she looks set to be with us for another Christmas.  Your continued support enables us to keep all our horses and ponies safe.  If you could offer Daisy a home, please contact us and we can provide you with the information required. 
 

After receiving 40 applications for Milo, which is just wonderful, he finally really landed on all four hooves at an amazing home across the border. This was only be achievable with the assistance of other trusted equine welfare organisations who performed the home check for us, given it was some distance from Wales. We are extremely grateful to be working in collaboration to support and rehome horses across the UK.  

Special thanks, as always, to team member Bethan for putting in lots of hard work with Milo.  We wish Jan, Nicola and Evie a wonderful future with Milo.