Reminds me of an article I read this weekend in "bygone kent" that a lady who was ahead of her time in 1936, Miss Enid Briggs, along with her mother and sister bought some land in Broadstairs and called it "The Ranch" they offered a comfortable retirement to seaside donkeys and working horses. At that time, they were usually sold to the knackers yard when when were too ill & tired to work but she went all over pleading to buy the horses - some of them had known nothing other than pulling a milk-float all day and had never seen a field in their life. The first thing she did was have a blacksmith remove their shoes and promised they would never be bridled again and they would know nothing but good food, peace and relaxation for the rest of their lives. At that time people thought all a horse needed was some grass but she had 8 spacious paddocks carpeted with straw, a meal of crushed oats and bran twice a day and a block of salt available. She also had a pet goat to provide milk for sick donkeys. The blue cross helped her get retired milk-float horses from London to Broadstairs. She went to docks to rescue animals that were about to go onto ships to be slaughtered abroad. She did this until the 1960's until she had to retire. The land is now a housing estate.
"We had one old carthorse which, finding there was nobody to lead him and no cart to pull, just leaped into the air, taking all four feet off the ground. Then, not sure whether he had done right looked around and realised he wasn't going to be scolded - did it again!"
It's bad now but I would imagine in those days, people thought she was batty but she was probably one of the first to fight for the animals
