Woodfield Animal Sanctuary. 

Founding an animal sanctuary was not part our retirement plan, when my husband and I moved to Gower in 2013 with our own horses. One night that all changed when we received a call from someone who had seen a group of emaciated ponies on a local common. They were in an awful state and some could barely stand, but we could see that there was still fight and life in their eyes, and without hesitation we stepped in. After a series of conversations with the Council, and then gaining the Chairman of the Commoners permission, we were able to take all six emaciated ponies off the common and into the safety of our care, but before long word spread to the local community and injured, emaciated and sick ponies were turning up from all over South Wales! In the space of one night 20 ponies were abandoned on our property, whoever abandoned them had taken one of our gates off its hinges, and let them loose up our driveway from the road. 

While most sanctuaries have “cut off numbers” we have never turned any animal away that needed our help. If we take in ponies who are bonded, we always take them in together, and they are never re-homed apart. We soon realised the urgent need to create a sanctuary for these desperate creatures as more and more ponies found their way to our door. The local ponies grazing the hillsides are not owned by anyone, and many are just abandoned out onto the commons. With no owners, the colts are not taken in to be castrated, so numbers are out of control, leading to many becoming emaciated and some injured in car accidents. 

With support from the Chairman of the Commoners and help and advice from our vet over the years, we have been able to take in ponies in the very worst condition, who have needed immediate attention. Despite putting up notices on gates and awareness within the local community no one comes forward to claim the ponies, in 8 years we have rescued over 300 ponies from South Wales. This Autumn (2022) we are hoping to work with the Chairman of the Commoners to catch any of the stallions that we can, and get them Castrated. This will be paid for by Woodfield Animal Sanctuary. In December 2020 we received charity status as “Woodfield Animal Sanctuary” and we were absolutely delighted! 

Three years ago, we saved a large group of mares, all heavily pregnant, from a slaughterhouse in England. They all gave birth here with us and are still all here today. They are the most loving family grazing with their noses touching! 

Another big rescue here in Gower, involved local ponies. They had been grazing on the marshes in and around Crofty, and Gowerton. On high tides these ponies were very often swept away. The RSPCA together with some locals, had run a campaign to try to stop this, and at long last enforced a change in the law, only allowing owners to graze the marshes when the tide was low, never on a full moon when the tides were at their highest. On hearing this, the very angry local owners of these ponies, (whom protested that their families had grazed their pones on these Marshes for hundreds of years) booked all their ponies into the market for sale. All of our staff and volunteers who had got to know these ponies over many years, watched the foals play and grow together, and cried when the young foals had been swept out to sea, although delighted at the change in the grazing law, they were then traumatised to see these same-coloured Gypsy cob ponies in a catalogue at a well-known market selling colts and others off for meat. So, it goes without saying, we bought the entire herd! We have a good working relationship with Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk, and they took in the entire herd, we paid for their transport up to Hillside, Wendy like ourselves does not split up any families! We see their photos grazing happily side by side, when one of our staff who has known and watched this family over many years, still goes every year up to Wendy at Hillside to see them all enjoying their lives, never having to worry about high tides, or to see their foals, disappearing under the waves. 

A few years ago, a local pony breeder decided to take all her ponies off the hills in our area, once she had decided which ones to keep, she rang us to ask if we would take 70 ponies, that she considered were not suitable or good enough to use for breeding at her Welsh Pony Stud, she had asked if we could house them, we could not but The Hillside Animal Sanctuary came to our rescue yet again and took all 70 in. However, we paid for their transport from here to Norfolk, at a tremendous cost of £12,000. 

Every Autumn, colts find their way into our sanctuary often in twos and threes, our yearly average for these “unwanted Colts” is between 6-25. We keep them until they are strong enough to be castrated, and then we try to re-home ponies where possible, but we do not break up friendships, or families. The bonds that tie horses are strong and critical to their psychological wellbeing. It’s as important to us to ensure our rescues are rehabilitated with sound minds as well as sound bodies, and that’s our overriding principle when thinking about where a horse should live out its days. We both work tirelessly along with a small cohort of volunteers and three part-time paid staff and a handyman. 

Woodfield Animal Sanctuary Today

Robbie and David have made provisions for Woodfield Animal Sanctuary to remain running as a Sanctuary after they are no longer able to manage it themselves, both for the animals who will live out their days here, but also for the many Volunteers who dedicate so much of their time to the animals in the care at Woodfield. 

Woodfield is now recognised as a Sanctuary who will rescue animals 24/7 – 365. Very often being called out by the local police attending road accidents involving ponies loose on roads, sometimes very late at night, and on busy main roads, in these cases we bring they ponies back to the Sanctuary, and call out the vet if necessary. As most of these ponies that escape onto roads are often owned by travellers, no one ever comes forward to claim them! Woodfield currently have 75 ponies permanently in care, they are kept for a number of reasons. Many of the animals are on costly medication for the rest of their lives. The sanctuary also has over 40 cats, dogs, sheep and various other animals all are recovering with us before new homes can be found. This is extremely costly and Woodfield only survives from the donations of the generally public and the help of the amazing volunteers it has.

If you can help or donate to the amazing work that Woodfield does, please donate via the link below, or if you can’t donate at this time, please follow us on social media and help spread the news on the amazing work that Woodfield does.