We Mark 10 Year Anniversary of Opening Our Purpose Built Visitor’s Centre

Today we are celebrating 10 years since taking the brave step to open a dedicated space for people to find out more about the work of our charity.

Since the purpose-built Visitor’s Centre was opened at the heart of our 300 acre site just north of Lincoln, it has provided free entry and the chance to find out more about equine welfare for over 50,000 visitors a year from all over the UK.

Executive Director of Engagement and Income Generation Sally Crawford said: “Our vision was to improve people’s understanding of the issues we tackle. To this day we continue to improve and raise awareness of our work and people’s general understanding of horses, ponies, mules and donkeys.
“We’ve also become a popular tourist destination as we have a wonderful café, play area and miles of pushchair and wheelchair accessible walkways around our paddocks.”

This year we were one of just 97 attractions out of potentially thousands across the UK, to gain a Gold Visitor Attraction award from VisitEngland.

Mrs Crawford added: “Each year since the Visitor Centre opened we have received the Rose award (Recognition Of Service Excellence), but the Gold had always alluded us.
“This award celebrates the hard work and high levels of attention to detail our team here have shown – it is the highest accolade that can be awarded to visitor attraction by VisitEngland Assessment Services so we are extremely honoured to be receiving it.”

Individual Paralympic Gold Medallist Dressage Rider Sophie Wells OBE officially opened the centre over a decade ago.