The rain did little to dampen spirits at this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials as nominated charity World Horse Welfare welcomed its President HRH The Princess Royal and showcased its work to thousands of visitors.

The leading international horse charity raised more than £30,000 over the three day event through bucket collections and sales of prize draw tickets and merchandise, including the new limited edition ‘Hands On against horse cruelty’ t-shirt, H&C is pleased to learn.

HRH The Princess Royal joined World Horse Welfare on Friday at a special supporters’ lunch, after which she visited the charity’s trade stand and fence; the World Horse Welfare Quarry. Other notable visitors to the stand included World Horse Welfare trustee Pippa Funnell, Alex Hua Tian, William Fox Pitt and Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks, who were amongst the 1,000 people who came and got ‘Hands On against horse cruelty’ by leaving a ‘sticky hand’ pledge on the charity’s wall.

Visitors on Sunday were treated to a special display in the main ring prior to the start of the cross country competition as a team of rescued horses and ponies from World Horse Welfare strutted their stuff. They included Penny, a bay mare rehabilitated at the charity’s Blackpool centre and now on loan with the King’s Troop and six Shetland ponies who really got the crowd going as they raced each other over a series of mini jumps and obstacles.

World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers praised the army of volunteers and Badminton Horse Trials for their support: “We are enormously grateful to Hugh Thomas and his team for giving World Horse Welfare this extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “Badminton was a huge success for the charity but critical to that success was a fabulous team of 250 volunteers who rattled buckets, sold prize draw tickets and promoted our work.

“This is the start of a new chapter for the charity. We launched our new ‘Hands On’ campaign at Badminton to highlight the fact that horse cruelty is still shockingly common in the UK. Over 1,000 pledged their support but this is just the first step. Anyone who is passionate about horses needs to get ‘Hands On’ now so we can stamp out cruelty once and for all.”

To find out how you can get ‘Hands On’ by donating, rehoming a horse or buying a limited edition t-shirt, please visit the weblink below.

STOP PRESS! You can enjoy our Badminton 2010 extravaganza on H&C TV Sky 280 on Saturday 8 May between noon and 9pm.