A stellar crowd enjoyed a fabulous HEROS National Racehorse Week Open Day



Once again, we opened our doors at HEROS for National Racehorse Week, a week that celebrates the racehorse and highlights the care, attention and welfare of horses whilst in racing and after racing.

A bumper crowd turned up at our North Farm Stud base with just shy of 100 registering to attend and a few more faces showing up on the day, with some travelling over 100 miles.

The day started with refreshments served from Sarah’s Grill as visitors mingled and chatted in the gorgeous September sunshine. Local artist and long-time supporter of HEROS Liz Armstrong showcased her art in amongst where people congregated, giving visitors the opportunity to see and purchase her amazing creations from paintings to greetings cards.

Grace Muir, HEROS CEO and Founder opened the morning with a presentation and discussion in the HEROS Education Hub. Visitors were invited to ask questions, and Grace provided an engaging and insightful talk on thoroughbred aftercare and the work of HEROS, including retraining and rehoming former racehorses and the HEROS Education programme.

Splitting into two teams the guided tours started, the tours gave visitors the opportunity to experience our beautiful and calm setting, meet, give treats and hear the amazing stories of our wonderful horses. The horses loved and enjoyed all the fuss, attention and of course the carrots and apples! The other animals who call HEROS their home, made appearances and visitors especially loved seeing our tribe of cheeky goats.

There was a farrier demonstration from Chapple Forge farriers, an in-depth and extremely inciteful demonstration from Mctimoney chiropractor, Nicole Rossa and a talk from HEROS feed and nutrition partners Connolly’s Red Mills. At every point, visitors were encouraged to ask questions, when we welcome people to HEROS we want them to get as much out of their visit as possible, so to us there are never too many questions.

The two teams then came together to watch a riding demonstration in the indoor school. Visitors were treated to seeing Shipping Forecast, Jolly and Typography being put through their paces and demonstrating how versatile thoroughbreds are and how they can really thrive and enjoy a new life after racing.

During the riding demonstrations, Grace welcomed Instagram sensation and vlogger Footluce Eventing (Lucy Robinson), to tell everyone about her retraining journey, with her ex-racehorse Ember. Lucy covered the day on her vlogging channel – you can view this here.

Goliath, HEROS resident shire horse is always a firm favourite with visitors and the team decided to have a bit of fun asking visitors to guess the weight of both Goliath and one of our thoroughbred’s Johnny Reb. The winner was Amaryllis Goshen who guessed 880kg and then some of the HEROS team and visitors all spurred on by Footluce Eventing decided to see how many people combined weigh as much as Goliath and the result was it is quite a few with 13 people combined weighing just over our giant Goliath’s weight.

Thanks to Connolly’s Red Mills, Valley Equine Hospital, Nicole Rossa and Chapple Forge Farriers for supporting what was thoroughly enjoyable day. And of course, thank you to everyone who came. We love welcoming people to HEROS to show the work we are doing, so if you want to visit, watch out for next year’s Open Day or pick up the phone to come and see us.

Here is what some of this year’s Open Day visitors thought:

‘Just a quick note from my wife and I to say an enormous thanks for your team’s hospitality on Friday. We were both very impressed with your, and your staffs, knowledge and the whole approach to looking after the horses and improving your students’ lives in any way you can. The whole set-up was excellent, and we hope you have many more successful years enriching peoples, and horses, lives.’

Kevin and Karen

Thank you so much for a really lovely informative day. We have been to several racing stables in the past which are all so well run with some of the best horses in the country but to see what you do at Heros with the retraining, feeding and one to one care after their career was a revelation. We see your point ‘ Happy people ,Happy horses’ and both looked happy to us.

James, Pat and Richard

We came to your open day and I just wanted to send a message to thank you all for such a wonderful day. Me and my mum were so touched by the beautiful ways in which you encourage, rehabilitate, educate both the beautiful horses and the beautiful students. I was particularly touched by Grace’s talks as her passion and love for the horses just shines through- a true horse woman who you can see absolutely thrives in what she does. You are an incredible organisation and we will definitely be back.

Thanks so much for reading, and thank you for the lovely day, and thank you so so so much for what you do!

Maddie

Our valued supporters

We could not continue our valuable work without the support of our many friends and donors, including corporate sponsors. Without their support many HEROS Charity fundraising events would not be possible; we are grateful to our sponsors for the opportunity their support provides in enabling us to take our fundraising activities to a wider audience.