26 September 2025

Not just a horse sanctuary!

Three photos of hedgehogs, two small ones on the left and right, and an adult in the middle.

Over the past few months, we have enjoyed witnessing Redwings Hapton HQ become a sanctuary to a different species – much smaller and much pricklier than our usual residents!

One sunny evening in June, I (Jude, Redwings Communications Manager) was heading home at the end of the day, when I stood chatting with Nic, our Head of Welfare, in the car park. Office dog Affi suddenly pricked her ears at something under a small bunch of trees, we looked over and saw a hedgehog!

Nic and I watched for a minute, concerned to see one out in the daytime, before Nic carefully took a closer look. The hedgehog made no attempt to curl up, or get away from Nic, and we were worried that it looked sluggish. Although he is an excellent horse vet, Nic would be the first to admit he ‘doesn’t really do hedgehogs’ so we sought some expert advice.

On the left a photo of a hedgehog being held, on the right a photo of a hedgehog in a box.

Jude and Nic carefully picked up the hedgehog to transport her for a health check.

Thankfully this wasn’t my first experience happening upon a hedgehog in need of help, and I had the number for Tracey, from The Hog House: Hedgehog Help, saved on my phone. Tracey took my call straight away and asked if I could bring the hedgehog to her.

Thankfully she only lives about 10 minutes from Redwings HQ, so armed with a box and some towels from Nic’s car we carefully bundled the hedgehog up and set off. Tracey kindly gave the hedgehog the once over and could immediately tell that our hedgehog was a female, and in fact heavily pregnant. She explained to me that pregnant hedgehogs can be seen out in the day for last minute nesting. After asking me questions about where we had found her, she asked if I would take her back, thinking that Redwings HQ, which is away from busy roads and very peaceful, would be the best place for her and her babies.

I admit at this point I felt pretty embarrassed, and sorry for ‘kidnapping’ (albeit with good intentions!) our mum-to-be. Tracey reassured me I’d done the right thing, as with the hot weather she had received so many reports of poorly hedgehogs struggling with the heat and dehydration. She gave me some kitten food, and asked if I would leave some out, with some water, for our pregnant mum.

Back at Redwings HQ, she was gently placed back where she was found, and I left her with food and water. I then asked my colleague Liz to send a note out to our teams to ask them to drive carefully in the car park, and, remembering what Tracey had said about the warm weather, to please consider leaving out shallow bowls of water for the wildlife across our sites.

Photo of a hedgehog house with a crow stood beside it

A crow stood by the hedgehog house looking for the hedgehog food!

Over the next couple of days Nic and I checked the dishes, pleased to see the food was being gobbled up. Nic brought in his wildlife camera from home, hoping to monitor the mum-to-be. But, in fact we discovered that the food was actually being eaten by crows.

Undeterred, I then brought in a hedgehog house (built by my Dad from pieces of his old shed!) from home. The food and water were installed inside, protected from the pesky crows, and we set up the camera to see if we got any visitors.

Since then, we have been utterly charmed by our hedgehog houseguests! The camera collected a wonderful variety of clips of our visitors. We have observed youngsters (who needed a little step constructed to help them reach the door!) as well as some pretty ‘chonky’ adults who are all enjoying the food we’re leaving out for them.

A small hedgehog outside the hedgehog house at night

One of several small hedgehogs that have frequented the hedgehog house!

By now, I think I have told everyone at Redwings, and at home too, all about ‘my’ hedgehogs, and showed them plenty of clips from ‘HedgeHouse Cam’. My enthusiasm must be rubbing off as since then I have had several colleagues tell me they have hedgehogs at home too, and they are now leaving out food and water as well.

We also updated Tracey, who was grateful to hear that, thanks to her help, we are helping out our prickly friends!

Now, at this point, I couldn’t blame you for thinking, but isn’t Redwings a horse sanctuary, not a hedgehog one? You would of course be correct, but our sites are home to many more creatures than just horses. Hedgehogs are now listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list after a decline in numbers of at least 30% over the past decade. So, our Redwings HQ HedgeHouse is just us doing our small bit to help our native wildlife and look after our land for everyone who calls it home - and we’re proud to be #NotJustAHorseSanctuary.