# **Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary Annual Report 2024** ## **Reference and Administration Details** |Charity name|**Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary**| |---|---| |Registered Charity Number|**1122891**| |Charity’s principal address|**Buckley Hill Lane**| ||**Liverpool**| ||**Merseyside**| |Postcode|**L29 1YB**| |**Trustee Name**|**Ofce (if any)**|**Dates acted (if not for whole year)**| |---|---|---| |Bernadete Langfeld|Chair|| |Eric Langfeld||| |Michelle Irving||| |Patricia Sheridan||| |Kellie O’Shea||| |Elouise Jones||| |Nanete Cox||| |||| |||| ## **Structure, Governance and Management** ## **Description of the Charity’s Trusts** _Type of governing document:_ **Trust Deed** _How the Charity is constituted:_ **Trust** _Trustee selection methods:_ **Appointed by The Board of Trustees** the charity operates with a Child and Vulnerable Adults Protection Policy and Trustees, staff and adult volunteers are DBS (CRB) checked every three years. The Charity works closely with Carla Lane’s Animals In Need, military veteran charity Tom Harrison House and local education providers The trustees recognize that public interest in the riding establishment activities and the plans for nature trails, wellbeing zones and easier access are key to improving the future sustainability of this charity to support the equine rescue work at its heart. The future sustainability will be dependant upon improvements to the infrastructure. As a result of us engaging property specialist solicitor Stephen Breen in September 2022 as outlined in our report for the financial year ending 31st March 2023 agreement with the land owner Sefton Council. The lease was completed on 28th March 2024. This provided the security required to complete the site upgrades we have long had in our plans. Deepest thanks to Stephen Breen and Ken Unsworth for all the work they did on our behalf ## **Objectives and Activities** FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC TO RELIEVE THE SUFFERING OF ANIMALS (IN PARTICULAR EQUINES) IN NEED OF CARE AND ATTENTION AND TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN RESCUE HOMES OR OTHER FACILITIES FOR THE RECEPTION, CARE AND TREATMENT OF SUCH ANIMALS. TO PROMOTE HUMANE BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ANIMALS BY PROVIDING APPROPRIATE CARE, PROTECTION, TREATMENT AND SECURITY FOR ANIMALS WHICH ARE IN NEED OF CARE AND ATTENTION BY REASON OF SICKNESS, MALTREATMENT, POOR CIRCUMSTANCES OR ILL USAGE. TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC IN MATTERS PERTAINING TO ANIMAL WELFARE IN GENERAL AND THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY AND SUFFERING AMONG ANIMALS. TO PROVIDE OPEN SPACE FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND ABILITIES TO ENJOY AND RESPECT NATURE AND WILDLIFE. TO PROVIDE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE WITH THE USE OF HOLISTIC THERAPIES. TO PROVIDE INCLUSIVE AND AFFORDABLE ETHICAL EQUESTRIAN RECREATIONAL AND LEISURE PURSUITS FOR THE COMMUNITY. ## _**Whilst organising and arranging activities and events the trustees had regard for the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on Public Benefit.**_ - We were able to host nine open days in this financial year—there are usually 7 annually but this financial year had an additional Halloween event over two evenings when we had the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and lantyern lit skeleton horse rides utilising luminous paint to create illusion. All of open days were all well supported with the music festival event in July being most lucrative for fundraising - We are very grateful to all our dedicated staff and volunteers who ensure that the charity remains healthy and operates in accordance with the ethics and mission we strive to achieve. We also thank the following people and organisations for their contributions in supporting and funding this charity Without their help we would not survive. Monty Roberts Kelly Marks Roger Lyon Mike Badger Joyce Lund Trust Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust Sefton MBC Discretionary LCR Cares Petplan Charitable Trust Royal Sun Alliance Ravensdale Trust Sylvia Waddilove Trust Marchig Animal Welfare Trust Marchig Foundation CAF Resilience Fund Hilda Holmes Charitable Trust Elise Pilkington Charitable Trust The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Sefton CVS Community Foundation for Merseyside Blue Sky Foundation Crosby Rotary Club Hemby Charitable Trust Liverpool One Foundation Pets At Home Foundation Merseyside Police Commissioner Youth Diversion Fund ## **Activities relating to aims and objectives** Horses and ponies come to Shy Lowen for a number of reasons: owner's redundancy or other economic problems; illness of owners; animal behavioural problems or animal age or infirmity; abandoned animals etc with re-homed horses who are in new homes with permanent loan adoption contracts remaining the property of Shy Lowen as they have been guaranteed a home for life. New homes are inspected prior to placement and these are subject to contracts requiring specific care standards including agreement not to sell or pass the animal on to others. Those who re-home an animal must donate a minimum of £10.00 a month as a Friend of Shy Lowen. Successful re-homing is due, in large part, to the work undertaken by volunteers. Horses who are not rehomeable and those who are retained for working within the ‘No Kicks, No Sticks’ horse riding offering become permanent residents who be sponsored for as little as £10.00 a year and regular supporters come from far and wide to visit their adoptees. Shy Lowen is sited on the edge of an urban area surrounded on three sides by social housing estates scoring highly for indices of deprivation. Volunteers come mainly from the local area and have few other opportunities to interact and care for horses and ponies. These people are able to enjoy open space, nature and be introduced to equestrianism. Our volunteers range in age from 3 years old to over 80 years old. They are involved in all aspects of running the organisation from caring and training the resident animals, book-keeping, building and land management, fund-raising, machinery maintenance and any other ad hoc tasks. The rehoming of equines remains slow as the economic crisis continues to bite. We have also seen a marked increase in the requests to take in horses from owners who are not able to support their animals any longer. This has led to us offering ‘in home’ support by providing basic care needs items such as food and bedding so horses can remain in their home. ## **Social media** Shy Lowen makes active use of social media through its webpage htp://www.shylowen.com/ ## Facebook - - - - htps://www.facebook.com/pages/Shy Lowen Horse Pony Sanctuary/105853832819403 And X (formerly known as Twitter) htps://twiter.com/shylowen Social Media remains the most effective way to inform and educate the public about the Sanctuary and equine-related issues and advertise horses and ponies suitable for re-homing. This provides free of charge or low cost advertising which reaches the followers who are in excess of 12000 people. It is also the medium preferred by most young people and we feel that with a major focus being on younger people through Care Committee it is important to adapt to their communication style when working and educating young people. The funding stream through Facebook has continued to be popular but has changed structure and so donations are routed through PayPal which incurs costs being taken from the donations before release to the charity. We utilize these platforms to keep people up to date with the animals at Shy Lowen by showing regular videos and photographs of the activities and are exploring how we can make further use of them in the future. This leads to more donations being made as we are able to appeal for support. Some rehoming applications have failed because the applicant has not been truthful about their knowledge and experience. We introduced a requirement for video footage being provided showing the level of expertise the applicant has. This has reduced the number of ‘time wasters’ and failed appointments as we can assess in advance the suitability and match applicants to animals seeking homes accordingly. ## **Achievements and Performance** We were honoured Shy Lowen Horse & Pony Sanctuary was awarded the prestigious Charity Of The Year by the Equine Business Awards Rehoming of horses and ponies has remained very slow this year as the effects of lockdown furlough bite people’s finances. ## Donations have remained steady . We have continued to receive significant grant funding which has allowed the charity to survive. Security of tenure was achieved which has been a huge relief. The site at Buckley Hill Lane has also been added to the register of community assets which affords further protection for the site. ## **Financial Review** We have had a goal for the past 3 years to achieve a minimum of 6 weeks and an ideal of 3 months of financial reserves and, pre covid, we were making inroads into doing this but the deficits and income challenges over those years meant that we used the funds we had managed to accumulate and we are currently operating very much on a ‘hand to mouth’ basis which is extremely challenging. No funds are in deficit. ## **Declaration** **The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees Report above.** ## **Signed on behalf of the charity’s Trustees.** ## _**Signature(s)**_ _**Full Name(s)**_ Bernadette Langfield _**Position**_ Trustee _**Date**_ 28/1/2025 ## **RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31 MARCH 2024** |**Receipts**
loan horses
fundraising
sponsor horses
gift aid
friends of Shy Lowen
donations
grants
silent whispers training courses
tack sales
loanfrom clain
legacy donation
**Total Receipts**|**2024**
**unrestricted**
8320
37711
9327
12918
6400
90426
40570
23600
1830
0
15000
246102|**restricted**
3600
3600|**2023**
**unrestricted**
**restricted**
7581
14169
7680
7276
7884
77581
42865
32060
1770
7000
205866| |---|---|---|---| |**Payments**
wages
capital equipment
hard feed
hay
bedding
farrier
rent
electric
manure
transport
tack
water
generator petrol
insurance
tools
skip hire
cleaning
fundraising
vet
repairs
road tax
bank
stationery
website
reward and recognition
vehicle fuel
vehicle repairs and MOT
ICO fee
Licensing
SAGE Payroll
passports
loan repayment CLAIN
**Total Payments**
**Net receipts (payments)**
**Cash balances as at 1/4/23**
**Cash balances as at 31/3/23**|112412
8700
15620
32760
3900
6150
1388
789
4420
0
853
1609
60
6186
2510
1250
5322
2946
13956
9628
709
974
258
135
95
2080
975
40
816
274
0
7000
243815
**2024**
**Unrestricted**
2287
425
2712|3600
3600
**Restricted**
0
0
0|89996
9840
15559
30940
4250
5375
1395
353
5200
340
72
3726
1820
11838
1987
1250
4183
2204
9525
7272
704
660
193
65
70
2269
372
35
664
202
45
212404
**2023**
**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
-6538
0
6963
0
425
0| |---|---|---|---| 2gfvvvvvvv```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` ````````````````333333333eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ## **Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary – Charity number 1122891** I report on the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31 March 2024, which are set out on pages 01 to 02. ## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner** The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 43(2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the 1993 Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to: - examine the accounts under section 43 of the 1993 Act; - to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 43(7)(b) of the 1993 Act; and - to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. ## **Basis of independent examiner’s report** My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. ## **Independent examiner’s statement** In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: - (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: - to keep accounting records in accordance with section 41 of the 1993 Act; and - to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 1993 Act have not been met; or - (2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signature Name: Kari Hansen Address: Newstead Farm Quarry Street Liverpool L25 6DY Date: 28101125