Welcome to Moorcroft Equine Rehabilitation Centre
We are a registered charity and our mission is to re-school and rehabilitate former racehorses that can then have a real chance at a second career. We also help with short-term schooling and rehabilitation for all horses, so if you need help with equine rehabilitation then please do contact Mary on 07929 666408 for a chat about your requirements.
How We Can Help
We are here to help all ex-racehorses. If you have obtained one and are struggling with issues of any kind, please give us a call as we have much experience at finding solutions to these all too common problems. For a much reduced fee your ex-racehorse can come and stay with us for a while and we can work through the problems with you and with him or her until they are resolved. Please ring Mary for more info and to discuss your requirements. 07929 666408
At the Centre in Slinfold, West Sussex, we are passionate about achieving a sound, comfortable and pain-free horse to ride and enjoy. Every thing we do is about enhancing the rider's and the horse's confidence and understanding in order to achieve that goal.
So much is NOT understood and horses suffer, and riders lose confidence - neither of these is a good thing.
We have over 14 years experience at rehabilitating damaged ex-racehorses and we are now delighted to be able to help all breeds who need help moving forward with a better, more sound and more thriving life.
We can help with the following:
- Backing your young horse with respect
and care (not 'breaking' it!)
- Re-backing your young or older horse
- Getting your horse back to work after surgery, time off or a bout of lameness
- Assessing lameness and discomfort from the rider's point of view
- Improving rider's confidence in themselves and their riding
- Any help with schooling to enhance strength and soundness
- Development of your horse's muscles and back
Dedicated Specialist Staff
At the Moorcroft Equine Rehabilitation Centre, horses come to us from racing and elsewhere, for example, after a dressage or eventing career in order to have some rehabilitation time, some important veterinary intervention and help, and much needed and valuable physiotherapy care.
The centre has a small team of dedicated staff who have specialised in rehabilitation and have worked at, and developed, the centre over the past 12 years. Therefore, much improvement and sustained results occur here. For the horses, Moorcroft employs a full-time physiotherapist who is hands on every day. With the 26 horses in the current care at Moorcroft, Kate Akers MVETPHYS, RAMP, NAVP, is kept very busy.
Kate says she is pleased to have this position and finds it very rewarding and because she also long-reins and rides these horses, she can really learn what helps them long-term and keeps very much in touch with their muscular ailments etc. No stone is left unturned at the Centre to ensure that these horses get the very best so that they can truly move on to a better life.
The team at Moorcroft work hard to get to the bottom of any physical issues which are usually at the heart of training and temperament problems, and once solved, horses really thrive. Much time and care is spent on building the confidence of the horse and the rider which is often shattered or dented a bit if both have been through an uncomfortable or confusing time in their training.
Before and After Example
Here is one example of a horse has thrived.
This lovely 7 year old bay gelding arrived in need of some help and re-training. He was lame and stressed. Firstly, his lameness was diagnosed and treated and much muscle building, but gentle long-reining, began to restore this. He had right hock pain and sacroiliac pain which significantly worried him. These ailments were treated by a good orthopaedic vet and then subsequent physiotherapy followed, which is important - as important as all the work that the horse then commences.
Gentle long-reining at walk starts, but it is vital that the quality of the work is top class. Short sessions at walk on more straight lines than circles in a safe calm place where concentration can occur. this work must start to experience a pain-free work session which may not have been his experience for some time. This is when the temperament starts to change and you end up with a happy giving non-resistant horse, as opposed to the resistant and unhappy one that the rider may have been riding beforehand, which is a negative experience for all.
9 months later and after much consistent careful confidence giving help, this lovely gelding is enjoying life much more and is loving his work.
