What's happening

20 March 2018

Red's Shed: Horses love toys!

Hello, Red here, Redwings Horsey Mascot!
 
Have you ever noticed that in some of the fields at Redwings you might see my horsey pals with a log, ball or even a welly or two?! Slightly strange you might think!
 
Well… horses are actually naturally very curious and love to play! The wonderful staff at Redwings know how much we enjoy having ‘toys’ to amuse ourselves. By providing us with strange items such as wellies, balls and logs they stops us getting bored and, best of all, allow us to behave like we would do in the wild.  
 
Toys are not only fun - they have health benefits as well! By giving us something to kick around, push with our heads or pick up with our mouths, they gets us moving, stretching and strengthening our muscles. Other toys challenge us to use our brains, encouraging my pals to use their amazing senses to solve a problem or investigate something new.
 
Even though we love to play, we can get bored of the same old toys. Our carers know that it’s really important to keep things new and exciting so they only give us a toy for a short amount of time and try to always give us something different. Sometimes they even use their amazing recycling skills to create homemade toys from string, cardboard boxes and milk bottles!
 
Toys are especially important if my horsey friends are poorly and need to spend some time in the Horse Hospital. When they get bored or upset, all horses can pick up bad habits like chewing their stable or standing and rocking their heads back and forth. To make a stay as relaxing as possible, the lovely Redwings vets are always coming up with new ways to challenge us – they even think of new ways to give us our dinner! I mean, bowls are boring when your food can come hidden in a box or an odd shaped ball!
 
It’s important to remember that toys are never as good as having another four legged friend to play with or lots of cuddles and tickles from our two legged carers and visitors!

 

26 February 2018

Have you seen the new editions of Young Reds and Mini Reds?

Hello, Red here!

BRRRRR! It’s been so cold and wet recently it’s hard to believe that spring is just around the corner! To brighten up your week, the lovely team at Redwings has been working hard on the latest editions of Young Reds and Mini Reds, and from the sneak peek I’ve had they’re brilliant! Keep an eye out as they should be arriving on your doorstep any day!

For my younger pals, aged three to seven, the Mini Reds activity book is packed full of fun facts, horsey games and lovely stories. In this edition, meet our horse and donkey superheroes and have a go at making your own stand-up horse!

Young Reds magazine is for those of you who are eight years and older. It has all the latest news from the Sanctuary plus quizzes, collectible fact files, Tucker’s diary and loads more. The latest issue is a ‘Rescue special’, find out what it’s like to be part of the Redwings transport team and why adorable donkey Martha is the recipient of our ‘bravest resident’ award. Plus make your own Redwings coin collector and be inspired to fundraise to help your favourite Redwings residents!

If you don’t already receive Mini Reds or Young Reds, click on the 'Join up' link at the top right of this page and fill in your details to get your FREE copy!

 

20 February 2018

Red’s Shed: shhhhh! What you need to know about horses and sleep

Hi, Red here! It’s time to learn a little bit about how we four-legged friends get our sleep. Shhhh, we don’t want to wake anyone up!

Horses, ponies and donkeys are a lot different to humans in the way that we sleep. Whilst you go to bed in the evening, sleep through the night, and wake up in the morning, we don’t sleep that way at all.

In fact, adult horses sleep for less time overall (about three hours – can you imagine?!) and in much shorter bursts throughout the day. So horses tend to drift off quite a lot, but they don’t stay asleep for very long – maybe even just a few minutes at a time!

When you come to see us at Redwings, have you ever noticed that you rarely see us lying down? That sometimes does happen when we’re very relaxed, and some of us do this more than others, but normally we stand up all the time – and that includes when we are asleep!

That’s actually impossible for a human to do, but we have special locking knees that stop us from falling over when we’re having a snooze. We do this because we have pretty straight backs and we can't get up quickly, so we were designed to sleep standing up just in case a predator came along and we need to leave in a hurry!

Luckily, we haven’t got to worry about that here at Redwings, as the lovely people who work here all really care about us and make sure we are safe. Snuffles and his friends certainly look relaxed whilst having a sleep here!

So the next time that you come and see us, have a close look to see what we are doing. If we are standing still and not moving much, you might have caught us having a sneaky nap!

 

30 January 2018

Thanks Izabella!

We’d like to say a massive thank you to Izabella, who’s just turned 10 years-old and who has been busy raising money for Redwings. 
 
Izabella is such a huge fan of our four-legged friends – especially Zippy, who lives at Redwings Ada Cole – that rather than getting presents for her birthday earlier in January, she asked for donations to Redwings instead! How amazing is that?!
 
Izabella raised the grand total of £165, which is enough money to fill 16 of our vet unit stables with cosy shavings for poorly horses. Zippy and his pals are really pleased and feel very lucky to have friends like Izabella! 
 
From everyone at Redwings, with four legs and two – thank you Izabella for thinking of us and for raising money in such a brilliant way. 

Have you raised money for Redwings? We’d love to hear about it! If you’ve been a fab fundraiser, write to us at Young Reds, Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Hapton, Norwich, NR15 1SP or email [email protected]