Why We Believe Charity Begins at Home

Only hours away from her next destination - the abattoir - Beauty's future made an about turn when a lady felt compelled to visit her local UK auction that day.

Caroline saw a horse tied to a truck - thin, covered in open sores and looking for all the world like she was on her last legs - all those who saw her muttered at her pitiful condition before walking away. Luckily for Beauty, Caroline was adamant that she couldn't walk away as all the others had done and despite the fact that she already had another two horses at home, managed to negotiate a price for her with the owner. The timely appearance of two RSPCA inspectors ensured that the owner closed the deal quickly and with no further haggling.

Shortly after Beauty's arrival, Caroline managed to track down one of Beauty's previous owners, a polo player, who gave Caroline the mare's life history...

Beauty had been born in Argentina, arriving in the UK as a 7 year old and played polo at the "highest level" and was “a phenomenal polo pony”. The sad irony here is that Caroline actually paid less money to secure Beauty than the price players paid to ride her in one 'chukka' (7 minutes) - £350!

At the age of 15 Beauty was passed onto a polo club where one of their younger players fell in love with her and bought her for polo and Pony Club events. After her owner's parents divorced, she was sold as a brood mare and from there the trail sadly goes cold - until that fateful day at the beginning of September this year when luckily for Beauty, Caroline listened to and acted on the gut instinct that she had to visit that sale on that particular day.

You can read their story and the progress they have made together here -

http://beautythehorse.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/3/