The amazing Horse Trust in Buckinghamshire look after horses who have retired from the police and military, and ex-therapy ponies.   Commando worked for the Household Cavalry, for instance, whilst Darwen had his career with the Lancashire Constabulary.  Sydney spent most of his working life with the Royal Mews and Trojan worked for the Thames Valley Police.

Rubin came from the South Wales Police, and he likes bananas!
You can sponsor Rubin from £3 a month.
Find out more about Rubin here.

The Trust also take in severe welfare cases, and examples include Star who came from Spindles Farm and Bear  and Shetlands Fidget and Widget who were found in a field with only a puddle to drink from and no grass to eat.

Fidget and Widget are two very cheeky Shetlands.  
They love running circles around the grooms!
You can find out more about them and sponsor them here.

You can sponsor these horses and ponies to help the Horse Trust care for them.   Visit their Sponsor A Resident page here.

You can help these horses by sponsoring a horse such as William
who worked as an Officers' Charger with The King's Troop Royal Horse Artilliary
Image ©Amanda Jane Smith Photography

The Horse Trust have a Spring Appeal 

Please donate here if you can
to help them give these ponies the best care possible.

And please visit if you can - the times and open days are here.  The Trust is in Buckinghamshire.  It's an incredible place to visit - full of love, goodwill and kindness.  (I find the most difficult bit is not to try to smuggle any four footed friends into the car and take them home, but I know they receive the best care possible at the Trust, so I drive away without b

ut with happy memories of a lovely visit.)  Find out more about visiting the Trust here.

Our thanks to everyone looking after these wonderful horses, ponies and donkeys, and thank you too to the animals themselves for their service and love.  

Images ©The Horse Trust

Hot on the heels of Ben Fogle’s:  New lives in the Wild programme from Sri Lanka, when he visited the inspiring Dr Janey Lowe (Channel 5, 2 April 2024) comes World Stray Animals Day.

The day was founded by a group of over 100 Dutch organisations  which met at the Dutch National Stray Animals Conference back in 2010.  

If, like me, you wish to win the lottery in a very major way, and help every stray cat and dog I the world, we all know that such a win is extremely unlikely and in any case, with about 600 million stray cats and dogs in the world, even if you won the Euromillions when it was about £180 for the first prize, that wouldn’t go very far.

So what can we do on World Stray Animals Day to make a difference and help?

There are a number of organisations which are working to neuter strays and you can find them here. 

• Donate to help them with their work
• Volunteer – a number of them have volunteer opportunities for vets and veterinary nurses
• Sponsor a dog
• Spread the word
• Spread the Adopt, don’t shop, message, although I’m suspect most animal lovers are already doing this. 

Cats Protection once worked out that one female can be responsible for 5,000 offspring over a five year period, which just shows how not neutering can lead to a deluge of kittens.