Ever Wondered Why We Roadschool? Here’s a Great Example at Bransby Horses in Lincoln
Ever so often on our European Roadschooling Adventure, you find something that really hits the bullseye! And Bransby Horses certainly did that today! An animal welfare charity close to the beautiful, historic city of Lincoln… the perfect way to spend a day educating the girls… This time on just how charities work, are created and need our support to succeed in the future.
So who wouldn’t want to support a charity that rescued over 120+ horses in 2016 and are now caring for over 400 horses as they seek to re-home / care for those in their care. So what better opportunity for two horse-loving girls, than a chance to get a behind the scenes tour!! There’s even a chance to support yourself by adopting a horse (but more of that later on!)
But perhaps the best way to tell you the story of our day is through this short video above!
Bransby Horses is one of the largest equine welfare charities in the UK, with a Visitor & Education Centre to inspire! Education is clearly high on their agenda as they hope it will help see an end to abandonment, cruelty and neglect… so there’s plenty of opportunities for local school children to visit and engage in their educational opportunities. So we seized the opportunity to spend some time with Penny Waite (Bransby’s Education Officer) to interview her on just how charities are set up and run.
If you missed the girl’s last chance to interview (this time with a Norwegian Tourist Board in Visit Flam with Betina Hansen) you can catch it here
There’s plenty to do on each visit including ‘hands on’ learning experiences about animal welfare and on-going care… Understand more on grooming and what it takes to care for horses. Interactive demonstrations on handling and behavioural training or even chances to look into careers that link to Bransby such as farriers, veterinary or dentistry!
All of which are great experiences that are exactly what we’ve hoped to achieve as we’ve toured Europe. Attempting to discover a variety of opportunities to give our girls the chance to learn about subjects at first-hand, inspiring them to ask questions and form their own opinions but most importantly to gain the confidence to express them to others. Find out more about our ‘Top 10 European Roadschooling Experiences‘ below
Both girls spent the entire day with a permanent grin on their faces, as they grasped new opportunities…. seeing horses being handled and taught…. or catching up with two new friends in horses Tizzy & Munchkin… But perhaps the biggest learning curve was seeing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of just how poor a state each horse was before entering the quiet sanctuary of Bransby. But for both Catherine and myself, we felt the best aspects was the enthusiasm from the staff… not just paid staff but also volunteers (there’s always help needed!!!)
The girls learnt so much on the wanders through the various paddocks and across the day from each member of staff. It really was a fantastic opportunity that saw us easily pass an entire morning in the blink of an eye! But thankfully the superb cafe onsite offered some delicious light lunches and tasty homemade cakes that were ravenously gobbled up by our girls, before they set off again for more chances to meet new horses or staff.
Sadly time got the better of us, so we soon had to find the girls and make plans to leave. But the cheeky little things had hatched a plan to use some of their ‘savings’ to offer to support Bransby…. so before we knew what we were doing, we’d signed up and are now proud to have helped by adopting ‘Tizzy & Munchkin’! Although we were pleased to see the girl’s growing social conscience developing, we couldn’t let them spend their hard earned pennies… so we dipped into our pockets, but it was worth it for those smiles on their faces… wasn’t it!?!
barnsby horses
Our Newsletter
Sweet website , super pattern, really clean and utilize pleasant.
I gotta favorite this website it seems handy invaluable