Meet the needy horses at Horse Sense Wirral

It’s not only humans who have been affected by debt during the pandemic, it’s our 4-legged friends as well.

Horse Sense Wirral, an animal charity based next door to our new offices in Thornton Hough, helps rescue ponies and horses by giving them a place to stay and recover. It desperately needs donors to gallop to its rescue and safeguard the future of dozens of horses and ponies.

It costs £15,000 a month to keep the registered charity going on their 28 acre site, but as a result of the pandemic the usual grants it receives have now dried up.

Debts have been spiralling and Amy Pirie, who set up the charity in 2013, said in the local newspaper the Wirral Globe: “We are really in crisis and are appealing to all animal lovers to throw us a lifeline”.

So animal-lover Bill Ward and our team have stepped up, and Milestone is now fostering some of the horses every month.

Meet Alice, Annie, Cecelia and Mandy!

The horses would like to tell you a bit about themselves,  so here goes…

Meet Alice

”My name is Alice, I am a 15 year old Carneddau Mountain Pony. I came to live here with Annie in January, after we were spotted barely alive, in chest high snow, just skin and bones. The farmers worked quickly to make a plan to bring us down to be collected by Mummy Amy and Daddy Shaun, so we could get here and receive all the care we need. It’s been a struggle for me and another pony called Valerie, who came here a few weeks later, we have both really struggled to gain weight, but our human mom Amy found a new feed about 4 weeks ago, that we both love and have both really bloomed on it, we are nearly at a fully healthy weight now. Love from Alice x”

Meet Annie

”My name is Annie, I am a 15 year old Carneddau Mountain Pony. I came to live here with Alice in January, after we were spotted barely alive, in chest high snow, just skin and bones. The farmers worked quickly to make a plan to bring us down to be collected by our human mom Amy and daddy Shaun, so we could get here and receive all the care we need. I had a rough start to recovery due to a high worm burden, no matter how careful mum and the vets where medicating me, I spent several weeks of suffering colic most days, I ended up on high doses of steroids and pain relief to settle the inflammation in my gut. Eventually everything settled and I loved the new food I was receiving, so quite quickly gained weight. Love from Annie x”

Meet Cecelia

”My name is Cecelia, I am a 4 year old, Carneddau Mountain Pony. I came to live in this wonderful place in Novemeber, with my baby girl, Sadie. In Carneddau we all live wild and are just gathered once a year in November for health checks, this is where Mummy Amy saved me, as I was so fluffy the vets didn’t notice that I was just skin and bone underneath, it was Mummy Amy who stopped them letting me back on to the mountains and quietly put her hands on my bones, telling the vets to feel. Myself and Sadie were immediately taken to the horse box to come to this amazing place. Mummy Amy knew that there must be a reason for me to be so thin at such and young age and she spent that first night watching me very closely, which is when is became brutally obvious that I literally couldn’t eat. The following morning she had my Uncle Luke, the vet come and look in my mouth, where he found my teeth all wonky, very sharp and cut right in to my inner cheeks. He filed down everything causing me trouble and it felt amazing, I started eating straight away and didn’t stop for days. I am now fully recovered and looking forward to a long and happy life. Love from Cecelia x”

Meet Mandy

”My name is Mandy, I am the oldest resident here, at 51 years old. I was the second ever arrival at Horse Sense Wirral, when based in Irby, back in 2008. I have seen so many horses and ponies arrive at deaths door, or completely shut down, due to abuse, go on to be healthy, happy and move on to their very own families, except the oldies like me, they stay here with us for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, 3 weeks ago, I injured my eye. Due to cataracts I couldn’t really see out of this eye anyway and it was so painful and ready to burst, so the vets decided to remove it. It’s been 2 weeks today and healing very well, I’m not even missing it. Love from Mandy x”

We’ll keep you posted with news over the coming months, but in the meantime if you would like more information on the charity, please visit their website.