For over 70 years, HorseWorld has been dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming horses, donkeys, and mules in need. Since 2007, our award-winning Discovery Programme has been changing lives by offering Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) to young people who struggle to thrive in mainstream education.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for our services, with more young people than ever requiring alternative support and more equines needing safe sanctuary. In response, HorseWorld launched a bold five-year strategy in 2023 to expand our positive impact - both by improving the welfare of vulnerable equines and by delivering life-changing learning opportunities through our Discovery Programme.
It is our goal to develop HorseWorld expertise to become a centre of excellence. We aim to scale up our impact by sharing our knowledge with the wider equine sector across equine welfare and equine assisted services through collaboration and outreach.
At the heart of everything we do is the belief in lifelong learning and growth - for both horses and people. By rescuing and rehabilitating equines, empowering young people through EAL, and sharing our knowledge with the wider community, we create a ripple effect of positive change that lasts a lifetime.
Over the next few years as we implement our 5-year strategy, we will report more details of our impact, to enable our supporters to better understand the true value of our life changing work.
We work alongside the police, fire and rescue services, local authorities, vets and other charities to rescue horses, ponies and donkeys across the South West of England.
Horses that come into HorseWorld's care often need emergency care and we have vets on call 24 hours a day to assist with rescues. Our dedicated equine team work around the clock to save the lives of horses.
Once we rescue a horse and it has been nursed back to health, we can begin rehabilitation work. Our expert training team take a gentle, patient approach, helping each horse—often with an unknown or traumatic history—rebuild trust, confidence, and security. While some horses go on to enjoy new ridden careers, others with long-term psychological or physical challenges are given a quiet life as much-loved companion ponies.
All the horses here have a unique story to tell. No matter how long they stay with us, one thing is certain - every horse, pony, and donkey that comes into HorseWorld’s care will know what it feels like to be truly loved and safe.