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• December 2009 We have added an extra page to the home page called very unimaginably, 'Page 2'. On here you can find little bits of extra info that didn't warrant being on the home page

• December 2009 Due to the heavy rain and mud this winter, we have had to close the central walkway which leads up to the top field where the horses can be viewed better. This is only short term until we get a hard surface down. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

• November 2009  We have added a new section to the 'Meet the residents' page called 'Wildlife' . We are nestled between Weetwood Lane and the busy Ring Road, and yet we still provide a home to quite a diverse selection of wildlife, so we thought they too should get a mention!

• November 2009 We have released the dates for our events for next year. Please have a look here and give us your support whenever you can

• 21st October 2009 We are sad to announce that we lost Molly recently due to a tragic accident whilst in the field. Learn more about Molly here

• 28th September 2009 We received a letter from Redwings Horse Sanctuary telling us of the sad loss of one of our former residents, Hilton. Read the letter and learn more about Hilton here

• September 2009 In February this year 'little' George was re homed. At first all seemed to go well, then after an altercation with a pet sheep it was decided it was better if he came back to Hope Pastures. We have been looking to re home him ever since but during a 'routine' visit from the vet and farrier everything turned very nasty and George lashed out hurting himself, the vet and the farrier. The vet and farrier both agreed he was too dangerous to handle and be put down. This is not what we do. Sophie, our yard manager started to ask around for help with George and soon a reply came back from Julie at Positive Equine Partnerships in Cheshire who agreed to try rehabilitated George with her friend, The Donkey Sanctuary's behaviorist, Ben Hart. They have made great strides already with George and you can follow his progress through a blog on their site .http://www.quarrystables.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rehabilitation

• Sept 2009 Flossie and Gypsy went for a ride out to the Sunningdale Nursing Home, Leeds to try and give a bit of pleasure to its residents. Julie Boucher, Activities CoOrdinator at the home says ' Thank you so much for taking the time to bring your wonderful ponies to see us at the Nursing Home. Gypsy and Flossie are so adorable.
  As you can see by the attached photos you brought so much pleasure to the Residents and created beautiful memories that will stay with us all.
  I will do all I can to promote the great work that you do and support your much needed fundraising.
  You are all such warm, caring people and it shines out from you the love and dedication you have for the well being of the horses and ponies in your trust.
  It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and I hope it will not be long before I see you again.
  My love and thanks always
  Julie Boucher'

• Aug 2009 Every Wednesday at 11am, one of our volunteers will be giving guided tours of Hope Pastures and will be able to tell you more about the animals and the work we are doing. This is a free service, so if you're available just pop down! If you have a group or party that would like to visit please would you email us first so we can ensure you get the most out of your visit or to perhaps arrange a time or day to better suit you. Don't forget we are open every day between 10am and 3pm for you to visit and look around at your leisure.

• ITV Calendar very kindly agreed to run a news piece on what we have achieved at the sanctuary in the last 5 years. Zak was the undoubted star of the moment and loved all the fuss and attention he was getting. It has been good to see that all the fame hasn't gone to his head, he is still the same old loveable Zak. Calendar also agreed to let us use the video they took that day. It can be found on You Tube if you search for Hope pastures, or alternatively, click on the image.

• May 2009 We kindly request that you do not feed the animals as this causes fighting and unnecessary stress within the herd. You are more than welcome to bring food for the animals and leave it in the box provided and we will ensure that it is given at feeding times. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

• 5 at 5 appeal launched Hope Pastures is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year and has launched its 5 at 5 appeal to raise £5,000 a month through standing orders. See how you could help

• 19th May 2009 Sparky is a beautiful Palomino pony who was recently rescued from a horse market after the Meat Man had reserved him.He is the most sweet mannered, adorable little pony and he is so clearly grateful for all the love and care from all of us at Hope Pastures.

• 17th May 2009 The annual prize draw for the Hope Pastures raffle took place today and the winning numbers can be found here.

• 13th April 2009 Work is now fully underway with phase 1 of our renovation plans - The training ring is nearly finished and work has started on erecting the new stables. New trees, hedging and shrubs have been planted with money donated from the friends and family of Dominique Heneghan-Powell who died on the 3rd July 2008, age 41, after a long fight against cancer.

• March 2009 The concrete bases for the new stables start to be laid this month. We are all very excited about this. Construction of the training ring will also get underway.

• March 2009 'Little' George has been re-homed as a companion pony and has settled down very well in his new surroundings.
  

• 16th January 2009 After over a year of waiting, we have finally been granted full planning permission! This means we can now get on and get the new stables built along with all the other changes we plan to make to the sanctuary. Have a look at the projects page to see what we have planned.

• 1st December 2008 'Big' George arrived at Hope Pastures. See his story here

• 28th October 2008. New dates released for next year's events at Hope Pastures

• 18th October 2008. On line adoption page had a makeover. You can now adopt multiple horses and / or make a donation

• 24th September 2008. Hilton went to his new home at Redwings Horse Sanctuary and has settled in very well. Read his full report.

• August 2008 Prince and Bronte arrived at Hope Pastures. More details on their pages.

• Pepper arrived at Hope Pastures (More details to follow )

• 5th July 2008. Toddy came back to the sanctuary as he did not fit in very well with the other horses in his new home.

• 17th June 2008. Hope Bluebell was born, our first foal to be born at Hope Pastures and the last foal to be born on the site for 27 years. We are very proud to have her at the sanctuary.

• 11th May 2008. The Hope Pastures Spring Draw took place today. If you want to see if you are a winner, follow this link. All winners will be notified in due course.

• 13th April 2008. Toddy has gone to live in a lovely new home close to Hope Pastures, where he will be ridden now and again and also used as a companion.
  The home is with two other horses, one of whom gets extremely distressed when the other horse would leave to go out on a ride.

• 4th March 2008. Planning permission was finally granted to enable us to put up new stables and convert one of our buildings to an educational centre. Unfortunately there are a list of conditions as long as your arm, but I'm sure we will overcome these.

• 4th March 2008 was one of those days that no-one likes. News came through form one of our adoption homes that Chieftain had had a heart attack during the night and died. More of this news to follow

• 16th January 2008. You may have read that we want to develop Hope Pastures, to provide more stables etc (see Projects). Today we heard that our planning application had been passed through to the planners, so keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well. We have been told that we should have a decision around the 4th March 2008

• 1st January 2008 marks the start of another year. 2007 had been quite a good year for the sanctuary except for the loss of three of our beloved animals. We have made a start on our redevelopment and received excellent feedback from our Pony Days. None of what we have achieved would be possible without your continued support. We would like to say thank you for your support in 2007 and ask that you continue to support us in 2008. A full list of all our events can be found on our 'Forthcoming Events' page and we hope you will be able to join us at our table top sales and open days this year. Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2008.

• 14th December 2007 Land Securities, along with a number of their contractors, volunteered their time and resources to Hope Pastures to complete a number of projects. They included fencing and painting a new paddock that will be used for a training area, re-roofing Paddy and Tina's stone built stables that were desperately in need of repair and re-flooring Shazeke's and Trigger's stables. We would like to say a big Thank You to all concerned. Your contribution is very much appreciated.
  See 'Projects'

• 10th December 2007 Sophie, our yard manager, was selected by the THE BRITISH EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION as one of seven finalists in the 'Groom of the year' competition. Everyone was very pleased Sophie has been recognised for the work that she has done over the years. She deserves to be nominated for such a prestigious award in recognition of her dedication and commitment to animal welfare. Sophie said " the part of the job I love most is seeing the horses get back to their full health". Well done Sophie!!

• 27th November 2007 and 29th November 2007 were not good days for Hope Pastures. Then again, no day is a good day when we lose a resident, so to lose two animals in three days was heartbreaking. We have sadly had to say goodbye to pretty little Jasmine and poor old Napoleon.

• 21st October 2007 Our Open Day was yet another success, in fact it was our best yet. Thank you to everyone who contributed by helping out on the stalls and by attending the event. We raised £2356.07.

• 16th October 2007 We were invited to go down to London to collect an award from the House of Lords, from IFAW. We had been nominated for and won the 'Animal Carers Award 2007 '. We were presented with the award by Baroness Gale and Robbie Marsland of IFAW and we were also lucky enough to be joined by the MP for our constituency Greg Mulholland.

• 16th September 2007 Little Red was moved to a new foster home back with his old friend Pearl. It was good to see the two back together.

• 13th September 2007 We invested in our largest project to date and had lots of new fencing installed. Firstly, we have added another fence along the Ring Road boundary to the land to give us a double fence in which we hope to 'plant' a hedgerow in the future to not only give us greater safety, but would also make the sanctuary more nature friendly. The second batch of fencing has enabled us to split our big field into three, which now means we can enroll in some 'pasture management', -something that has never been done in the last 30 years. The splitting has also given us a pathway up the middle to enable visitors to have a better view of the horses.
  
  
• 14th August 2007 Flossie, a little red Shetland arrived at Hope Pastures. More details here
  
  
• 12th August 2007 We held our second 'Summer time Special' charity fundraising evening at Weetwood Hall. We were a little unsure if the night was going to be that successful as ticket sales had been a little slow, but then at the last minute all the tickets went and we had a full house. Apart from being a little windy, it turned out to be great summer's evening with everyone enjoying themselves and also thanks to their generosity we not only matched last year's money from the event, but went on to nearly doubling it. We would like to say a big thank you to Martin, Maureen and all the staff at Weetwood Hall for their generosity and help making the night run so smoothly. We would also like to thank Gavin Townsend , who also gave up his time to provide the music and entertainment for the evening. Lastly, thank you to everyone that that came along to support us. (If you enjoyed it, please spread the word so next year we wont have to panic about the numbers !!)
  
  
• 20th May 2007 We were so lucky on our OPEN DAY that we had near perfect weather, which meant we had a good turn out of people. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the volunteers who manned the stalls, thank you also to the vegetarian and vegan society who put on a great spread for us and to all the general public who attended.
  
  
• 13th May 2007 Was the day for the draw for our Spring raffle. All winners will be notified in due course.
  
  
• 10th May 2007 When we took over three years ago we 'inherited' a number of old horses which means that days like today are somewhat inevitable. Today we had to say goodbye to our old friend Beauty.
  Beauty was a sweet old mare but ill health got the better of her in the end. She was very popular as she had given many happy hours to children of all ages, who for many was their first time they had had 'hands on' experience in grooming and handling a pony. She will be missed by so many. Click here to read more
• 24th March 2007 Parcelforce Worldwide ( Wakefield ) came to the sanctuary to take part in a community challenge. 25 staff, family and friends gave up their Saturday to 'create' a garden for us. We wanted a remembrance garden for the horses we had lost that had trees and shrubs to give a screen and was attractive to wildlife. Parcelforce Worldwide not only gave us the people but also over £500 to buy the plants and paving required to turn a paddock into the garden. We would like to say thank you to all that gave up their time and worked so hard to complete the task.
  
  25th February 2007 It was all change at Hope Pastures as we saw Chieftain go off to a new home and two new residents arrive. It is always at bit sad when a resident leaves us, but in Chieftain's case the emotion was also tinted with happiness as he headed off to a good new home. We had been trying for ages to find somewhere suitable for him, but being a stallion, re-homing was always going to be difficult.
• As our mission is to rescue and re-home where possible, Chieftain's departure meant we had space to take in two new animals in the name of Zak and Napoleon. These two poor animals were in the worst state Hope Pastures has ever seen but the full horror came when we took their rugs off. Both animals were severely under weight and Napoleon in particular, looked like he had never seen a farrier in his life. Follow this link to see more. Napoleon & Zak
  
• 20th February 2007 We opened our 'Buy.at' on-line shop. Our webshop will contain an ever-growing number of retailers such as Amazon, Tesco, Thorntons, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis. All you have to do is to shop online via your webshop - and we'll automatically earn money with every purchase. You pay exactly the same price as on the retailers' main sites, often lower than on the high street and with over 100 retailers, we are sure you'll find what you want. Check out http://www.buy.at/hopepastures
• 18th February 2007 We had what should be known as our first Psychic Night. I say first, as it was such a great success, that I'm sure there will be others to follow. Our thanks must go out to all the psychics that very kindly gave their time, energy and skill free of charge, also to The Suburban Bar & Bistro in Chapel Allerton who hosted the event, and lastly but not least to those that organised and ran the event.
• 19th January 2007 We held our first first joint event with Wheatfields Hospice. Our '60's' night was a great success. We had a great turn out and filled the room creating a lively atmosphere. Our thanks must go out to the following: The New Burley Club for hosting the event, the T.O.G's for providing the live music and QLM, Morrisons (Kirkstall), Greggs and Leeds Catering Company for their contributions to the catering, and also to everyone else that made the night so enjoyable.
• 14th January 2007 We had a new arrival in the name of Hilton
  To see more follow this link