Why are so many of our horses rehomed as non-ridden companions?

Our four rescue and rehoming centres across Britain care for more than 300 horses, ponies and donkeys at any one time. Here, horses in need receive urgent and specialist care alongside tailor-made rehabilitation programmes. Once they have completed their rehabilitation, and as we do not operate as a sanctuary, we aim to find every single horse a safe, loving new home through our rehoming scheme – the largest of its kind in the UK. Today, over 2,200 of our rehomed horses are enjoying a second chance in life as valuable companions, competition horses, and everything in-between. 

We often get asked why so many of the horses in our care are rehomed as non-ridden companions, so we spent time with our Head of UK Support, Sam Chubbock, to find out more. 

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What factors do you consider when deciding what role a horse may be suited to when they are ready for rehoming? 

We take the welfare of all horses in our care very seriously and each horse is fully assessed by an experienced, qualified team including, amongst others, a veterinary surgeon, a physiotherapist and a farrier. In cases where the horse displays particularly poor conformation or other physical or behavioural considerations, the outcome of assessment may be that they will not be suitable to be a ridden equine and will be rehomed as a companion, which is in itself a very valuable job. Sadly, sometimes horses come into our care and despite our best efforts, we are not able to rehabilitate them to the point where they are safe and comfortable to be rehomed, even as a companion. In these situations, we would consider this to be a compromise to their welfare and would think about euthanasia to prevent suffering. This is never a decision we take lightly and is always done in the best interests of the individual horse. 

Why might a horse be rehomed as a non-ridden companion? 

Many of the horses and ponies who come into our care have conformational issues which make them unable to withstand the demands of ridden work, however gentle or considered. Such conformation may be the consequence of a variety of factors but is often characteristic of indiscriminate and/or irresponsible breeding or may result from inadequate care and attention in the horse’s formative years. This may include inappropriate nutrition or lack of appropriate footcare. Increasingly, we have horses come into our care from large, unhandled groups who have had no human contact and although many of these horses can learn to trust people, sometimes expecting them to cope with the additional stresses of ridden or driven work would be asking too much. Although we appreciate that many people want to rehome a ridden horse from us and therefore may find the number of companions available to be disappointing or frustrating, our priority is always to do what is right for that individual horse. We would far rather take a few extra weeks to find a companion home than to rehome a horse for ridden work which we know they will find uncomfortable or painful, or which we know will aggravate an underlying weakness. 

What proportion of our horses are rehomed as non-ridden companions at the moment? 
 
Around 65% to 70% of equines rehomed in recent years have gone out as companions, with the remaining 30% to 35% going out either in work or with the potential to be brought into work by an experienced rehomer.  

What roles do some horses ready for rehoming fulfill?  

Every year we rehome horses for a variety of roles, including ridden and driven horses, youngsters and project horses which can be brought into work by someone with the right experience, and non-ridden companions. Our priority is to make the best decision for each horse depending on their individual needs, and we will not allow a horse to be ridden if doing so would compromise their wellbeing. Although those rehomed as companions must not be ridden, many can still participate in other activities, such as horse agility. They are also generally very happy enjoying life simply being horses! 

Why are companion horses so important? 

Owners who keep their horses privately rather than on a livery yard often wish to have a companion so their horse isn’t living alone. We are therefore able to rehome many horses as companions, and they perform a vital role by providing all-important social contact for another horse. Many people, our teams included, gain an enormous amount of enjoyment from spending time with horses without riding them. 

Some of our horses are rehomed with the potential to be worked in the future, can you tell us a bit about how this works? 

We have several rehoming categories such as Youngsters or Prospects which allow currently non-ridden horses and ponies to be rehomed to a suitably experienced home with the aim of bringing them into work in the future. We continue to work with horses until they have found a home, so some may begin ridden work in one of our centres, although most are snapped up before then. Many of our rehomed horses and ponies who go on to be successful ridden horses have been rehomed as youngsters, companions with potential, or project horses/ponies to experienced, dedicated rehomers who are able to put in the time and appropriate work for that particular horse. If someone is interested in rehoming a horse with the potential to be brought into work but they personally lack the relevant experience, we would still consider an application from someone with an appropriately experienced support network. 

Our Horse of the Week posts on our website are very popular, how do you choose which horse to shine a light on? 

Horse of the Week is a way for us to promote those horses which need a bit of extra help to find the right home. Any horses we have which are ridden or have the potential to be ridden in the future tend to be hugely popular and receive many applications. They rarely feature on our social media accounts because they are not in need of the extra promotion that some of our companions benefit from. Our Horse of the Week post only features one horse each week, but there are many more horses and ponies on our farms looking for new homes. 

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We are enormously grateful to everyone who chooses to rehome horses of all types from us. To take a look at the horses and ponies who are currently looking for new homes, please visit our rehoming pages.

We recently caught up with first-time rehomer Lucy to hear all about her experience of rehoming with us and her journey with skewbald cob Cadbury. Read Lucy’s story today.