Working animal charity Brooke partnered with Redwings Horse Sanctuary to share compassionate animal handling practices at a recent event in Norfolk.
Redwings hosted vets from Brooke’s country programmes as well as UK animal welfare experts at their headquarters in Hapton for the week-long event which included a tour of Redwings’ facilities, demos, workshops and theory sessions.
Staff from Brooke shared their Compassionate Handling Mentoring Framework, which has been developed to help support handlers with the skills they need to work compassionately and effectively with horses, donkeys and mules, during a workshop.
“We’re so grateful to Redwings for allowing us to spend time with their in-house vets and behaviour experts, as well as their horses and donkeys,” said Jen Wathan, global animal welfare advisor at Brooke.
“It was brilliant to see how they [Redwings] work with their equines, many of whom have had experiences that have significantly affected their behaviours, and learn how they manage these with compassion.
“It’s an experience our staff will take back to our country programmes, influencing animal health workers and owners and ultimately working animals across the world.”
“We hope they got as much out of having us as we got out of visiting them…and (using) their facilities as the backdrop for our Compassionate Handling International workshop.”
Redwings is home to over 2,000 rescued horses, ponies, donkeys and mules across the UK. Their staff are experienced in working with equines with challenging behaviours because of their often-traumatic histories.
“By the end of day one, we had already learned how similar some of the challenges are for equines who suffer from poor mental health wherever they are in the world, and that by understanding their behaviour we can give them a better life,” said Nic de Brauwere, head of welfare and behaviour at Redwings.
“We have learnt so much by treating and training our rescued horses, and we’re very happy to be sharing our experience to help more, in this case those who are working in some of the most challenging parts of the world.
“Brooke has led the way on influencing human behaviour change to improve life for horses and donkeys, and this week has been a brilliant opportunity for us to learn more about that from them, so that we might take that into our work here in the UK.”
