EQUINE charity World Horse Welfare is urging those looking for a new equine companion to consider re-homing a rescue horse or pony.

This month is the charity’s annual Re-home a Horse month. To mark the occasion, World Horse Welfare has launched a new re-homing website and is celebrating past re-homers. Last year, World Horse Welfare celebrated a 10-year record with 300 horses re-homed.

The charity can have up to 100 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules at any one time across their four centres. Re-homing allows space to be freed-up for more equines to be taken into their care.

The re-homing scheme groups horses into categories dependant on age, experience and suitability for different activities and covers everything from non-ridden companions to those with potential to make competition horses.

World Horse Welfare has recently reviewed their re-homing scheme and website to make it more straightforward and easier for people to apply.

One of the newly-introduced categories of horse or pony such as Project Horse or Pony, which allows the charity to find experienced homes for their horses sooner so they can continue their education with a re-homer.

Under normal circumstances when buying a horse, they are bought and sold privately through many different channels, which unfortunately leaves you open to the risk of unscrupulous sellers.

It’s very rare to know the horse’s full history and if the partnership doesn’t work out then your options are very limited, so going through the World Horse Welfare gives you the peace of mind in that each horse re-homed from World Horse Welfare comes with a health check, passport, microchip and honest explanation of their character and quirks and if the horse is not right or your circumstances change, you can return it at any time safe in the knowledge that World Horse Welfare will find it the ideal new home.

The other factors of re-homing are it is a rewarding experience. You have the feeling of knowing you are giving the horse a much better life than before he was rescued before the World Horse Welfare, and by re-homing you will be leaving a space for another horse waiting to be taken in.

The World Horse Welfare has a dedicated team of field officers who investigate and resolve thousands of reports of horses in distress. They are also the UK’s largest horse rescue and re-homing charity with four centres around the UK where horses can receive urgent and specialist care.

There are many other ways that the public can help the World Horse Welfare improve the lives of the horses in the UK and around the world, by either joining their membership scheme, adopting a horse, volunteering, campaigning or becoming involved in their campaigns and fund raisers.

For more information go to worldhorsewelfare.org