Will you send us away when we can no longer work?

Who Owns the charity horses?

Ownership & Control. Charities are not owned by anybody. The charity is controlled and its assets held in trust by a board of trustees. Trustees are responsible in law for ensuring that charities are well run to deliver their charitable purposes for the public benefit as set out in their constitution.

As the founder of The Epona Trust, I took the decision in 1997 to give up ownership of the 25 ponies I had saved from slaughter. The motivation behind this was, if anything happened to me or I crashed financially, the ponies would be counted as my assets and could be sold to the highest bidder, possibly the meat man. The Charity and association was set up to protect the animals by appointing a board of trustees who are ultimately responsible for the assets.

Over the past few years, some of the Trustees have retired and others have sadly died, so If you are interested in becoming a trustee you can apply at the general meeting in January.

Our farm in Normandy is home to more than 60 ponies, horses, donkeys and mules, we provide emergency cover as well as permanent lifelong care for them, and only with your support can the refuge continue into the future.

      Our role has changed dramatically in the 16 years we have been in Normandy. Many of the equine who arrive at our gate are damaged or elderly and that makes it difficult for us to find foster homes for them. Others animals are here because their owners have died, or have fallen ill and the family, respecting the wishes of the owner, tries to find a new home for their much loved pets. this year we have given protection to  

      Peter's Plea


      My name is Peter, I am a cob Breton and I weigh around 1000 kilos I live at a refuge in France and Iove eating. 


      This my friend Domino, he doesn’t eat much, but he is very good at destroying fences and breaking into the food store. Along with our other 70 rescue equine companions, we are eating our refuge out of house and home. The owner of the refuge knows we understand what she says, and she has given us an ultimatum, diet or work. For us equine the idea of diet puts shivers down our withers and we really don’t want to go out to work. So I have taken it upon myself to contact you. With the help of Spenser, our computer savvy  rescue cats who hangs out on the computer all day  we hope to interest you in helping us pay a bill or two. Our vets bill (over 2000€) is still outstanding and we will need to keep our vet happy, so he will come to help us when we need him.


      Can you help us fundraise Please? You can make a donation via pay pal on our donations page or transfer into our bank account (contact us for details) forward this ask to all your animal loving friends, run a fundraising event for us or anything else you can think of that may help us

      We love it here and we would like our refuge to continue helping other equine without the worry of financial hardship. You can visit the refuge at any time during summer, rent our holiday home. Or see us on the internet.


      We thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you enjoy your visit.


      We are all here because nobody wanted to take us on with our host of issues, Harry (thorouhbred racehorse) who broke his hip, Deceado, (Andalusian) with a broken neck, Archie (Anglo Arab) with a broken stifle, Speedy (Selle Francais) with woblers syndrome, a herd of OAPs, and  lamanitic ponies, to mention just a few. 


      As for me, I have always had bad feet, I have tried shoes and  boots of many different designs but they never really work  so I am able to plod the fields with a rider time to time as long as my farrier says so.


      Some of us go to foster homes as companions, but most of us cant find foster homes so we will stay at the refuge for life.