Equine welfare charities share compassionate handling practices
Brooke staff with horse at Redwings Horse Sanctuary in Norfolk (credit: Redwings).
Brooke staff spent a week at Redwings Horse Sanctuary, sharing handling practices that put horses, donkeys and mules' experiences first.
On 18-22 August 2025, vets from Brooke’s country programmes and UK animal welfare experts were hosted at Redwings’ headquarters in Norfolk.
The week involved a tour of Redwings’ facilities, including the charity’s Horse Hospital and Behaviour Centre, demos, workshops and theory sessions.
Brooke helps ensure working animals are handled with care, working with animal health workers and owners across three continents.
Brooke has developed a framework to help support handlers with the skills they need to work compassionately (credit: Redwings).
There are over 100 million working animals globally which 600 million people rely on for their livelihoods. Compassionate handling is critical in giving these animals a life free from suffering and worth living.
Brooke has developed a Compassionate Handling Mentoring Framework, to help support handlers with the skills they need to work compassionately and effectively with horses, donkeys and mules.
Redwings is currently responsible for over 2,000 rescued horses, ponies, donkeys and mules across the UK. Their staff are experienced in working with equines with challenging behaviours because of their often-traumatic histories.
We’re so grateful to Redwings for allowing us to spend time with their in-house vets and behaviour experts, as well as their horses and donkeys.
Jen Wathan, Global Animal Welfare Advisor at Brooke, said: “It was brilliant to see how they (Redwings) work with their equines, many of whom have had experiences that have significantly affected their behaviours, and learn how they manage these with compassion.
“It’s an experience our staff will take back to our country programmes, influencing animal health workers and owners and ultimately working animals across the world.
“We hope they got as much out of having us as we got out of visiting them...and (using) their facilities as the backdrop for our Compassionate Handling International Workshop."
Brooke experts were impressed to see Redwing's work with equines, whose behaviours and experiences can parallel with working animals worldwide (credit: Redwings).
By the end of day one, we had already learnt how similar some of the challenges are for equines who suffer... wherever they are in the world.
Nic de Brauwere, Head of Welfare and Behaviour at Redwings, said: "We have learnt so much by treating and training our rescued horses...by understanding their behaviour we can give them a better life.
"We're very happy to be sharing our experience to help more, in this case those who are working in some of the most challenging parts of the world.
“Brooke has led the way on influencing human behaviour change to improve life for horses and donkeys, and this week has been a brilliant opportunity for us to learn more about that from them, so that we might take that into our work here in the UK."