Aussie Helps Out Horses After WEG

The 2018 World Equestrian Games saw a wonderful range of horses, riders and behind-the-scenes-crew putting in some amazing hours and effort to make sure the games happened, because as you may recall, it was all taking place amidst a hurricane, aptly named Flo!

With the coast of North Carolina having been hit by a terrible storm in the week prior to WEG, there was a great deal of flooding, which saw many horses affected. But when the competitions were over, and all the Australian horse and rider teams went home, lots of North Carolina horses were left happier too.

'Waste not, want not', is a phrase we're all familiar with, usually spoken by a firm motherly-type at dinner time. So with that in mind, the enormous effort that initially went into seeing that our own equine team was fed and well-cared for prior-to and during the games, continued to leave an impact when it was all over.

WEG wrapped up, and team Australia member Kirsty Pasto got in touch with a local equine rescue charity, Hope for Horses. As none of the supplies could be brought back, she arranged for all of Australia’s left-over buckets, horse feed, wheelbarrows and other gear to be donated and put to good use, instead of being thrown out.

It took two days for the Hope for Horses volunteers to collect all the goods, by means of four pick-up trucks, a huge rental truck and then, on the last day, two tractor-trailers to pick up all the grain. The charity was incredibly grateful for “the insanely generous donation”.

In a letter of thanks, Whitney Wright, Director of Hope for Horses said:

“Thank you so very much for making the effort to share your stuff with Hope for Horses. We have been doing the vast majority of equine rescue in Western North Carolina for almost 20 years now and it is entirely because of generous and thoughtful people like yourself and your teammates. I swear, it was like Christmas when we opened that door. We can't thank you enough.”

The left-over horse food was shipped directly to flood victims on the coast of North Carolina, to help those in immediate need after the storm, while the wheelbarrows, buckets, etc went to the new Hope for Horses facility.

Check out all the amazing work this dedicated charity does to help horses by visiting https://www.hopeforhorses.org/

Article courtesy of Equestrian Australia