Expat-run Horse Rescue Centre In Spain Now Dried Out But Running Short Of Feed

The expat-run Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre based in Rojales is now dry, but is facing a chronic shortage of feed for 140 horses, ponies and other rescued livestock

.During the bibilical floods caused by the gota fria weather phenomenon, the centre escaped the worst of the waters although the struggle to deal with the torrential rainfall went on for days. Expats and locals feared the worst when the Segura River overflowed its banks but, by a miracle, it didn’t flood the centre. Hundreds of animals including horses, donkeys, ponies, dogs and cats died during the deluge, but the centre remained a safe, if very wet, haven

.Pumping out the seemingly unending rainfall took three full days, centred on the feed room, and keeping the animals calm during the seemingly unending thunder and lightning was tough. All the centre’s animals survived, and now the local authority has called to request a new home for a stranded donkey. The centre’s expat and Spanish staff are expecting this to be the first of many calls, but the appalling weather is about to set off onother crisis – that of feeding 120 rescued animals after floods took out the available 22 per cent of forage kept for local consumption rather than being exported to China and the Middle East.

One concerned Norwegian expatriate is now working with German farmers to import donated lorry-loads of forage, with the first shipment arriving next week. Rune Knutsen drove hundreds of kilometers from Norway, seeking out farmers willing to donate forage to feed horses, donkeys and other animals in the flood-hit areas. Some 90 per cent of Spain’s entire alfafa stock was lost during the gota fria, and bales in strorage are now rotten due to the floods. Knutsen has experience with similar crises in Croatia and Bosnia and is searching Europe for huge quantites of donated feed.

Co-owner of the shelter Susan Weeding told the Olive Press there’s just enough forage to feed all the rescued horses and other animals for six weeks, after which she will need to rely on donated feed. She’s equally concerned over privately owned horses, ponies and donkeys, whose owners can’t access feed in the usual manner. However, one owner of a feed supply company believes it should be possible to source the necessary alfafa from Albacete and has already received a quote from a supplier.