Banbury mental health charity enjoys trip to farm for retired racehorses

During a visit to the Homing Ex-Racehorses Organisation Scheme (HEROS) farm last year, members of Banbury’s Restore charity discovered their love and admiration for horses.

Last week’s trip was blessed with great weather and shining sun for the visitors, who started their visit to North Farm Stud with a welcome talk by Grace Muir, the chief executive and founder of the charity.

Grace talked the Banbury group through the history of HEROS, which has been in operation since 2006 with a primary focus on ex-racehorse re-training and re-homing.

However, in addition to a wide range of work associated with horses and the "cradle to grave" programme, which looks at the mistreatment of racehorses, the farm now also provides a range of education and training courses for young people, including an alternative to school placements for students from 11 to 16 years old and courses for post-16-year-old learning.

The charity based in Wantage specialises in engaging SEN students and those who are struggling in mainstream education, enabling young people to progress towards the workplace after discovering their abilities at HEROS.

With the two charities sharing ethics, the visiting Restore group really engaged with everything and everyone they were introduced to, including Goliath, a huge 20-hand Shire horse, retired racehorses, a posse of very sociable goats, and an injured peacock recovering in the farm’s rehabilitation ward.

For more information on the HEROS farm visit, https://heroscharity.org/ for more information on Restore Banbury visit https://www.restore.org.uk/restore/north-oxfordshire-recovery-group