New Beginnings, a charity that retrains and rehomes former racehorses, has received a £10,000 grant from Petplan Charitable Trust.

The fund have been put towards the construction of an 18-metre enclosed field pen.

“This will allow us to work horses all year whatever the weather throws at us,” explains Kevin Atkinson at New Beginnings. “It will also give us a safe environment for patients from the secure facilities to interact with our horses all year round.”

There are around 14,000 racehorses in training in Great Britain with approximately four to five thousand leaving the sport each year. Some of the successful ones go to stud to breed the next generation of racehorses, some go racing abroad, but due to the fantastic versatility of the thoroughbred, many go on to be successfully retrained to go into eventing, dressage, showing, polo or to be a hunter or a hack.

But what happens to the ones that are quirky or difficult, or fall on hard times later in life? This is where New Beginnings steps in.

New Beginnings cares for the most vulnerable horses

The charity brings in horses straight from racing or, more often, from private post racing homes where for whatever reason the owner can no longer look after them. At New Beginnings they also assist the RoR (Retraining of Racehorses) through their ‘Vulnerable Horse Scheme’ to provide care, compassion and stability for the most vulnerable former racehorses that need that extra help and understanding.

Atkinson explains that the charity never sells their horses:  “Once they are ready to be re-homed we look for a forever loan home. This enables us to guarantee security for the rest of the horse’s natural life. We offer a safe and secure ‘Life Past the Post’.”

New Beginnings also works with hospitals and hospices providing equine therapy.

“We work with a medium secure hospital, they bring patients to us to interact with our horses and we have taken them into the hospital so that the patients who are not able to leave the hospital can also have the same experience,” says Atkinson. “We have also taken them to old people’s homes and a local hospice. Our horses also go back to local racecourses to allow the racing public to get up close and touch a horses, often for the first time.

“We are truly grateful to Petplan Charitable Trust for giving us the opportunity to go forward with our all-weather pen project.”

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