Badminton's nominated charity rasies £30,000

By Justine Thompson

Event diary

10 May 2010 11:35

International equine charity World Horse Welfare raised over £30,000 at Badminton Horse Trials earlier this month.

As Badminton’s nominated charity for 2010, WHW organised bucket collections, prize draws and merchandise at the event, including sales of the new limited edition ‘Hands on against horse cruelty’ t-shirt.

WHW President HRH The Princess Royal also visited its stand and fence – the World Horse Welfare quarry – along with other notable visitors including Pippa Funnell, Alex Hua Tian, William Fox Pitt and Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks.

Some of World Horse Welfare’s equine friends also got their chance to shine as they performed in a special display in the main ring on Sunday morning.

They included Penny, a bay mare rehabilitated at the charity’s Blackpool centre and now on loan with the King’s Troop, and six Shetland ponies who really got the crowd going as they raced each other over a series of mini jumps and obstacles.

World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers praised the army of volunteers and Badminton Horse Trials for their support:

“We are enormously grateful to Hugh Thomas and his team for giving World Horse Welfare this extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “Badminton was a huge success for the charity but critical to that success was a fabulous team of 250 volunteers who rattled buckets, sold prize draw tickets and promoted our work.”

To find out how you can get ‘Hands On’ by donating, rehoming a horse or buying a limited edition t-shirt, please visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org