Horses to Houses

Fresh from the Game Fair where we met Fiona and Jonathan Waterer, we spent a wonderful weekend at the Heavy Horses at Work Show they hosted on their farm on Exmoor.

Their farm is worked sustainably, using traditional methods and they offer a range of courses, B&B and wagon rides as well as providing driving horses for various high profile events. You can find out more on their website.

The horses were amazing – we had a great weekend watching and learning about ploughing, driving and working with these beautiful creatures.

What a view!

 

And that wasn’t the only ass on the farm… check out this traditional cider press, complete with hard working donkey…

horses noses are sooooo soft

As well as a couple of brilliant days out, it was also all for a great cause, raising money for the Addington Fund.

The Addington Fund was started back in March 2001 on behalf of a plea from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the churches response to the foot and mouth outbreak. Since then, the Addington Fund has helped 24,500 farming families with grants totalling £11.2 million and over £8 million in housing for rural and farming workers.

The fund also aims to address the needs of tenant farmers when they are no longer able to continue farming. As tenant farmers don’t own the house/land they farm, once they leave, they often have nowhere to go and no retirement fund on which they can rely. Addington supports these farmers and their families or widows through their strategic rural housing scheme. Their is no age limit on applications and they also offer help with affordable rural housing. More information on this is available here.

We are pleased to announce that we’ll be fundraising for Addington Fund at Widecombe Fair this year, with a donation from twool sales made on the day.