Our charity

We’ve come a long way. Redwings began 40 years ago with the rescue of a single pony.

Although our headquarters are still based in our home county of Norfolk, we are now a national animal welfare charity, with centres in Norfolk, Essex, Warwickshire, Monmouthshire and Scotland. We are registered with the Charity Commission, we have a Board of Trustees who oversee the organisation and more than 300 staff caring for our resident residents every day.

We are members of the National Equine Welfare Council and regularly consult on horse welfare issues across the industry and at government level.

In 2022 we were voted Charity of the Year at the Equestrian Business Awards and were placed 21st in the 100 Most Loved Charities report from Savanta.

That same year we also took on stewardship of historic Anna Sewell House, the birthplace of the Black Beauty author, in Great Yarmouth, which has proved a wonderful way to continue this incredible lady’s legacy for horse welfare.

Our work is entirely funded through the generosity of the public, and we have visitors centres around the UK where you can come to meet our rescued horses and ponies and see first-hand how your donations are used.

We also get out and about a fair bit. In recent years you may have spotted us on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh and Escape to the Farm with Kate Humble - and we have a few other special friends of the charity, including Stephen Fry, Suzie Fletcher, Dame Joanna Lumley, Dame Jacqueline Wilson and Elly Griffiths, all of whom we are very grateful for!

In 2023 we even had a visit from Her Majesty Queen Camilla to Anna Sewell House in Great Yarmouth, and it was a huge honour to welcome her to Redwings.

Phoenix’s story

In 2021 we rescued an incredible pony called Phoenix who was the victim of a cruel arson attack. Although his time with us was short, he left hoofprints on all our hearts and his story reverberated around the world.

Sponsorship scheme

We are also known for our innovative horse sponsorship scheme, believed to be one of the first of its kind, where you can ‘adopt’ one of our horses and get to know them both through their written updates (yes really!) and through meeting them in ‘person’ at our visitor centres.

It’s a wonderful way to support the charity and we often have people tell us they’ve been adopting a horse for many years or even that they remember the first Adoption Stars we ever had – Rusty, Tufty, Jessie and Bonnie to name just four. Muffin the mule lived at our Caldecott Visitor Centre until he sadly passed away at the age of 36 in 2023 - he had been part of the adoption scheme since 1987 and still had so many loyal supporters all this time later.