About Springwood Sanctuary
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The sanctuary is a unique haven of peace and tranquility. It is our privilege and honour to facilitate and care for this sanctuary.
We offer exceptional care and a loving forever home to twenty-three equines. The 16 rescued and rehabilitated horses, ponies and donkeys along with the 7 horses and ponies who have joined us as retirement liveries, all now live freely in their bonded herds as it is our ethos not to re-home them or to use them in any way. They live in two peaceful mixed herds where they have freedom and understanding of their diverse needs. This has enabled incredible bonds and deeply trusting relationships to be developed with each other and with their human guardians. For most here, this is the first time this has happened in their lives.
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The horses, ponies and donkeys we have rescued have sadly experienced extreme past trauma - many of them were due to be put to sleep because they were unable to be rehabilitated in conventional ways after they had been deemed to no longer 'serve their purpose' in the racing, polo, petting farm and riding school industries. Our many years of holistic equine experience, combining animal healing and communication, self selection of herbs, behaviour and relationship healing, bodywork and Mindfulness, have enabled a unique and incredibly effective way of complete rehabilitation for even the most troubled souls, so that the herd now live peacefully and thrive in both mind, body and spirit.
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Our experience and passion for holistic land management, biodiversity and conservation of the natural world, also enables the native wildlife to live in harmony with us.
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We are not open to the public, however we do recognise that everyone who visits benefits greatly from this healing sanctuary. We therefore enjoy sharing this with our sponsors and volunteers who are welcome to visit by prior arrangement. This enables the sanctuary to continue to be a peaceful haven at all times.
Our Mission
The sanctuary's mission is to inspire a shift in awareness and consciousness away from the “use” and "management" of horses, donkeys, all animals and nature. We support others with a model for change so that this can be replicated around the world.
Our Ethos
Springwood is a vegan sanctuary and our ethos is to recognise that we can all only really thrive when nature, humans and other beings live in balance with each other. Therefore our three guiding principles are to mindfully combine animal welfare, nurture of the land and holistic wellbeing for humans.
History
In 2012, Jacqui founded the horse rescue sanctuary as a personally funded initiative to care for unwanted, previously abused and retired equines. In 2017 Jacqui and her partner David moved to Springwood Farm in Sussex and the sanctuary was given the name Springwood Sanctuary. In 2020 they moved their home and the herd from Sussex to Wales in order to give the animals safety, security and a more expansive, enriched landscape. Once in Wales they were joined by Charlie, Bill and Lorian. Together they all love creating a wildlife sanctuary, increasing the biodiversity on the land and lovingly caring for all the animals here on a voluntary basis. All of the volunteers and sponsors who support Springwood are a vital part of the sanctuary and we greatly appreciate everyone who enables this beautiful place and the animals here to thrive.
The Sanctuary
The undulating landscape at Springwood Sanctuary is expansive, with a mixture of native meadow grazing, woodland, a natural spring, bordering the River Teifi and offers many natural and man made areas for the herd to shelter from adverse weather. The herd are always free to roam this diverse landscape.
Jacqui Howe
Jacqui is the sanctuary's founder. She has had a passion for being in wild nature and connecting sensitively with animals since an early age. She is an experienced holistic practitioner - her interests include Reiki healing, LomiLomi massage, Mindfulness, inter-species communication, bodywork, self selection and foraging of herbs and medicinal plants, immersion in nature and sound healing. She brings all these varied modalities together, combining them with her lifetime experience with horses and dogs, to offer a sensitive and very effective way of enabling both people and animals to release past trauma, connect with their intuitive knowing, trust and heal.