18 December 2020

#CoronaChronicles: Keeping up with Covid

With the promising news of vaccines and the joys of Christmas around the corner, there appears to be a chink of light at the end of the tunnel of what has been an incredibly challenging year for everyone.

Even with this new hope on the horizon, there is still plenty of work to do to make sure we all continue to remain safe, and at Redwings we’re not taking our foot off the pedal!

Yesterday, the current tier system in England was re-evaluated and we wanted to update you on what that means for our operations and our sites across the country, especially our visitor centres.

For now our rescue operations continue as they have been throughout this year with a focus on the most urgent cases. Even with the challenges presented by the pandemic, we’ve been able to bring almost 180 horses and donkeys into the safety of the Sanctuary – one of our largest intakes in recent years!

Our Guardianship Scheme will also continue with its new virtual application process. While we had to press pause on our scheme for two months due to the first national lockdown, we’ve still been able to rehome more horses and ponies this year than ever! Over 60 so far this year! You can read more about how our rehoming team has risen to the challenges of 2020 and meet some of the beautiful rescued horses who’ve found loving new homes by clicking here.

Redwings Mocha was rehomed to Guardian Debbie in September

As for our visitor centres, with parts of Essex now placed in Tier 3 that means our Ada Cole visitor centre, just outside Harlow, has been moved into the strictest level of restrictions. Currently, we are just offering private visits to this centre on Fridays and Mondays and this will not be affected by this change. As for our other visitor centres, the alert levels in their local areas have remained unchanged.

In particular, if you’d like to meet some of our rescued horses and donkeys this weekend, tickets are still available to visit Redwings Aylsham and Redwings Caldecott, both in Norfolk, and Redwings Oxhill in Warwickshire, on Saturday 19^th and Sunday 20^th December.

This will be the last weekend the three centres will be opening before Christmas and then, depending on Government guidelines at the time, we intend to reopen them on 9^th January.

We appreciate that as we navigate our way through the complex and changing coronavirus guidance, so is everyone else! That’s why we remain incredibly grateful and touched by our supporters who continue to think of us at this trying time.

A wonderful donation received by Redwings Mountains

Just this week, our Mountains visitor centre in Angus, Scotland, received a surprise donation of feed and carrots from two lovely supporters, Dianne and Carol, who decided to use the money they would have spent on Christmas cards to help our rescued residents.

The local business they bought the feed from, Conchie Saddlery, who also collects funds for us through a donation box, gave them a discount as a goodwill gesture and even threw in a bag of grooming brushes! Thank you so much #RedwingsAngels.

Check back next week for our final #CoronaChronicles of 2020 when we’ll be looking back over the year and letting you know what will be happening at the Sanctuary over the Christmas and New Year period. Please be advised that we will not be processing any orders after 23^rd December via our gift shop until our offices reopen in the New Year.