Staff from international working animal charity Brooke spent a week at Redwings Horse Sanctuary, sharing handling practices that put equines’ experiences first.
On 18-22 August 2025, vets from Brooke’s country programmes including Pakistan, Ethiopia and Latin America and the Caribbean, and three of their UK animal welfare experts, were hosted at Redwings’ headquarters near Norwich, Norfolk.
The week involved a tour of Redwings’ facilities, including the charity’s Horse Hospital and Behaviour Centre, demos, workshops and theory sessions.
Brooke helps ensure working horses, donkeys and mules are handled with care, working with animal health workers and owners across three continents.
There are over 100 million working animals globally which 600 million people rely on for their livelihoods. Compassionate handling is critical in giving these animals a life free from suffering and worth living.
Brooke has developed a Compassionate Handling Mentoring Framework, to help support handlers with the skills they need to work compassionately and effectively with horses, donkeys and mules.
Redwings is currently responsible for over 2,000 rescued horses, ponies, donkeys and mules across the UK and staff have become experienced in working with equines with challenging behaviours because of their often-traumatic histories.
Jen Wathan, Global Animal Welfare Advisor at Brooke, said: “We’re so grateful to Redwings for allowing us to spend time with their in-house vets and behaviour experts, as well as their horses and donkeys, and use their facilities as the backdrop for our Compassionate Handling International Workshop.
“It was brilliant to see how they work with their equines, many of whom have had experiences that have significantly affected their behaviours, and learn how they manage these with compassion.
“It’s an experience our staff will take back to our country programmes, influencing animal health workers and owners and ultimately working animals across the world.”
Jen added: “We hope they got as much out of having us as we got out of visiting them.”
Nic de Brauwere, Head of Welfare and Behaviour at Redwings, said: “By the end of day one we had already learned how similar some of the challenges are for equines who suffer from poor mental health wherever they are in the world, and that by understanding their behaviour we can give them a better life.
“We have learnt so much by treating and training our rescued horses, and we’re very happy to be sharing our experience to help more, in this case those who are working in some of the most challenging parts of the world.
“Brooke have led the way on influencing human behaviour change to improve life for horses and donkeys, and this week has been a brilliant opportunity for us to learn more about that from them, so that we might take that into our work here in the UK.”
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