MY Lovely Horse Rescue Cork recently took delivery of a new horse van thanks to a generous donor and has already used it to rescue and rehome several equines.

Volunteer Kelly Mellerick said she was ‘over the moon’ with the vital piece of equipment. “About three years ago Elaine Galvin adopted a cob from us as a companion to her older mare and she got a keen interest and has been involved with My Lovely Horse Rescue as a volunteer ever since.

“Justin (her dad and managing director of car dealership Finbarr Galvin Ltd) then, from listening to Elaine, knew that we’ve had no proper transport in Cork for the past couple of years. We’ve been paying €100 a day to hire a jeep or we’d have to pay a professional transporter, and that could be up to €400. We would also beg anybody willing to do spins for us.

“When the van came available for sale we had started to fundraise for it and Justin then just said ‘Finbarr Galvin are going to buy that for you’. It was absolutely amazing. We had taken in some donations and that was enough to cover the insurance.”

Kelly continued: “Over the past month and a half we’ve taken three severely injured equines from night-time calls and we’ve had to get our Kildare crew to come down, it meant endless driving for them. Now we can act, we can do it ourselves down here. Its first week with us we’ve had two rescue runs and we got five horses out to homes that were just waiting for transport.”

Relentless

With 30 equines in their care, Mellerick said the pressure was on: “It’s relentless. There is never, ever a quiet day. And we are finding a lot of the animals are injured. Two mares we took in recently had severe leg injuries and they had to go to the vet hospital at UCD. Another challenge is while we can act under the Animal Health and Welfare Act, when you’re taking horses and ponies out on the roads, then you’re looking at the Control of Horses Act, which is very separate and we can’t really act but unfortunately people in general just don’t seem to know what’s the right avenue.”

Facilities, or lack thereof, is another challenge. “We do have foster fields dotted around and a stable for emergencies but we are appealing to see if there’s a better yard or facility out there that’s for rent, something with a place that had a hay store would be vital as we are spending above and beyond for the small wrapped haylage, simply because it’s all we can store.

“We’re always up against that and battling and juggling the balls of what we can do and what we can possibly do for the next one that’s coming in. We are all volunteers and our dedication is to the animals but if we just had better facilities we know we can do better.”

The charity has appealed for anyone who may have interest or the capacity to offer land to get in touch via info@mylovelyhorserescue.com.