About Us
What We Do
At Spirit of the Herd, we help ponies and the ponies help people. We rescue and rehabilitate horses and ponies, then use them to provide playful human-horse interactions through a range of activities and equine assisted therapy, with the aim of improving mental health in the community across Cheshire, Merseyside and further afield.
Spirit of the Herd is reliant on donations from our generous supporters, as well as grants that we have been able to secure. Every penny we receive is spent on caring for and rehabilitating our rescue ponies. Make a donation.
Our Herds
We keep our horses in herds that meet both their social requirements and their dietary and veterinary needs. Our horses live as naturally as possible, living out barefoot with natural and manmade shelters. During the winter, we provide rugs for our elderly residents and those with certain conditions.
We have a herd of therapy ponies that have been rehabilitated to work with people in the community. We also have two retirement herds of older ponies that require special veterinary care and feeding, as well as a few younger ponies who we are actively rehabilitating. Meet our ponies.
How We Care For Our Ponies
We are run solely by volunteers and have no paid employees. However, we are lucky to have some very experienced people on our team who are responsible for our welfare practices. Our principles are based on The Five Freedoms:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst – by ready access to water and a diet to maintain health and vigour.
- Freedom from discomfort – by providing an appropriate environment.
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease – by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
- Freedom to express normal behaviour – by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and appropriate company of the animal’s own kind.
- Freedom from fear and distress – by ensuring conditions and treatment that avoid mental suffering.
We believe that all equines should have the five freedoms as a basic requirement and we strive to offer the best care possible in the environment we have available.
What Our Clients Say...
“We have just celebrated my daughter’s 3rd birthday here and it was absolutely fantastic. Everyone had the best time! Thank you so much to AJ and the team for making the day so special. Highly recommend!!!”
“My daughter Harriet had a fabulous experience today for a pamper/therapy session. We were made to feel very welcome by Chloe who went out of her way to make sure Harriet was happy. She was given a horse to groom that was a bit too big so she kindly swapped to a pony so that Harriet could have the best possible experiences. We will definitely visit again and are already planning our next session.”
“We had a beautiful morning here for our 3 year old’s birthday! The staff are so friendly and kind. We will 100% be back and help support such a great charity.”
“We attended SOTH today with our two year old for a 1-1 pony pamper session and we had the best time! Huge thank you to the team who were fantastic with my little one who is quite reserved. We will most definitely be back and will highly recommend the sanctuary to all our friends and family.”