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Christmas fun at Hapton and Ada ColeHundreds of visitors have braved the weather this month to attend our special Christmas weekends at Hapton in Norfolk and Redwings Ada Cole in Essex.More than seven hundred people came along over the two days to look around our Hapton estate and support our work and we would like to thank everyone who battled the elements to be there with us for this special event. Carriage rides round the site, tours of our Horse Hospital and the re-homing demonstrations proved very popular as always and the marquée was full to bursting with people enjoying cakes and tea and children lining up to meet a very festive Red and Wings!
All the horses and ponies were on their best behaviour too...with one notable exception. Naughty Muffin the mule disgraced the adoption herd by galloping about and trashing his field within just a few hours, turning it into a mud bath and covering himself in mud in the process, yuck! Little Ben was the real star though, as when he was brought out of his stable for a few hours he set about running around like a two-year-old, rolling in the mud and generally showing off to anyone who cared to watch - perhaps someone should tell him he's supposed to be retired and taking it easy?!
Over the Hapton weekend three of our ponies came down with mild colic and we believe this was brought on because they were fed treats by well-meaning visitors. The ponies are all fine now but it highlights why we must ask people who visit our centres not to feed the horses and ponies please. As much as the ponies love treats, too much of a good thing can make them very ill and could potentially be fatal. We don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment, but the welfare of our equines must always come first. Meanwhile, nearly 1000 people over two days came along to the Redwings Ada Cole Rescue Centre in Essex for its special Christmas weekend. The weather was cold but mainly dry and with riding, grooming and harnessing demos going on, plus donkey talks and another appearance by Red and Wings in their stable grotto, there was something for everyone!
A big thank you to everyone who came along to these events and to all the staff who worked hard to make them such a success. If you were not able to come along this time, please don't worry, we will be holding another Open weekend in July 2007 at Hapton - details can be found in the Visit Us section of this site. The Redwings Ada Cole Rescue Centre is open daily throughout the year and it's free to visit. Find out more by telephoning 0870 040 0033 or going to the Visit Us pages. Please note, our visitor centre in Warwickshire is also open every day but our Norfolk and Suffolk centres are currently closed and will reopen on April 1, 2007. Thanks for all your support!
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