Home Newsletter Locations Diary
 Indexes
Topic Alpha County Sections By

Travellers Resource

Oxhill - Redwings Horse Sanctuary

Oxhill, Warwickshire

Featured
Location Guide

Oxhill Rescue centre was the first Redwings Horse Sanctuary established outside Norfolk (their base). It is home to more than 40 horses and ponies and some donkey's. There are guided tours of the centre and demonstrations of horse care as well as a cafe, gift shop and information centre. If you want to take part in a guided tour or see a demonstration it may be wise to call and check the times and when they are taking place. Most of the time you can move about without restriction and the helpful staff are happy to answer your questions.

The Oxhill Centre is open all year round and visitors are welcome anytime between 10am and 5pm each day. It is a free day out which children particularly will enjoy. The horses, ponies and donkeys spend their day in fenced off paddocks which are all accessible to the visitor via hardcore paths. Overnight they are housed in the stable block.


See Larger Image

On arrival you are taken through the visitor centre and down into the stable block area. Within this area some of the stables have exhibitions and demonstrations taking place. Others are the night time shelters for some of the horses out in the paddocks. On our visit which was in February, the Donkey's were in a hardcore paddock within the stable block, they were quiet and well tempered and were happy for you to stroke them. Each donkey was wearing a coloured neck collar which contained their name and on the fence were information boards telling you about donkey's in general and also giving details of each individual, the oldest of which was a grey male at 41 years old.


See Larger Image

Felicity in this picture is said to be a friendly donkey who loves to be cuddled, she is distinctive by her markings and has very large ears. She apparently likes to be groomed and is even known to go to the back of the queue to get a second grooming. She is the adoption donkey at Oxhill.

The Paddock Walk starts at the paddocks with all weather or woodchip surfaces, which are the special care areas, then the path takes you through the grass paddocks. Throughout the paddock walk there are boards on the fences which gives you information about the individuals, their age and details of where they came from and how they got to be at the sanctuary as well as giving details of their markings so you can identify which is which.

They have a range of horses, from the larger breeds such as cobs as well as smaller ponies like Shetlands. Many of them were wearing coats to keep them warm, although a sunny day there was a chill in the air. Each paddock had a small group in together. You are not allowed within the paddocks but many of them do come over to the fences to check you out.

Many of the paddocks you can access from at least two sides so if they are a little shy you can still get close enough to photograph them. They also had shelters provided for those who needed them.

Behind the stable block there were three further paddocks one had a large horse in it, behind there were two medium sized horses disagreeing with each other a lot of the time, this was the only paddock you couldn't really get to close to. The third paddock had a group of 5 Shetland ponies.

Other visitor facilities at Oxhill includes a cafe which serves jacket potatoes, baguettes, soups and quiche as well as Fair Trade teas and coffees and cakes. There is a children's play area and picnic areas for those visitors who want to take their own food. It is an open site so in winter can pick up a chill while in summer you would be open to the heat of the sun, there was one small shelter down by the paddocks furthest away from the visitor centre, which you could retreat to if it rained.

Visiting on an afternoon in February there were not many visitors about and by about 3pm they were starting to put some of the horses into the stables for the night. During the winter last entry is at 4pm. Our visit lasted about an hour, but you could spend longer. They don't have any restrictions on photography and in fact welcome visitors.


See Larger Image


See Larger Image


See Larger Image


See Larger Image

See Larger Image


See Larger Image

Click on any of the pictures above to see a larger version

 

There is a really good site map which you can download from their web page as well as a direction map, both of these are in PDF files.

About Redwings

Redwings Horse Sanctuary was established in 1984 and works to save horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Every year they provide a safe, secure home for rescued animals. They are a registered charity whose base is in Norfolk. At Norfolk HQ they have a specialist veterinary team, and equine hospital, welfare team, rehabilitation and rehoming teams, and their admin centre, this site is not open to the public. They also have a second site in Norfolk, near Great Yarmouth which is has a visitor centre open to the public. They have two further visitor centres one at Oxhill in Warwickshire, and one in Essex. As well as donations, they also have an annual adoption scheme where you can adopt a horse or donkey for a year and in return get a picture and details on the individual you choose to adopt and a six monthly update on their story so far.

They have two other centres open to visitors and these are: Ada Cole Rescue Centre in Essex,  Caldecott Visitor Centre in Norfolk


Further information Grid

 

Location:

Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Oxhill, Warwickshire

Ceremonial County: Warwickshire

Grid Reference:

SP 329473

Map Link:

VIEW MAP

Aerial photo:  

Route(s):

 

Best Times to Visit:

Winter months in the week have less visitors

E-mail:

info@redwings.co.uk

Website:

http://www.redwings.org.uk/visit-oxhill.htm

Other useful websites:

Young Redwings A special site for younger members.

Nearby Locations:  
Other Relevant pages:  
 

.


Planning Grid

Location:

Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Oxhill, Warwickshire

Grid Reference:

SP 329473

Getting there:

Off the A422 between Banbury and Stratford Upon Avon.

Access:

From car park through visitor centre which is accessed via a ramp, from Information centre steps and ramp for disabled visitors into stable area, paddocks are accessed via hard paths.

Parking:

Large free car park on site

Facilities:

Visitor Centre with cafe, small shop and information centre, toilets, disabled parking and toilets, children's play area, Picnic areas

Things To Do, See and Photograph:

Horses all of which have been rescued and donkeys' some small wild birds around as well.

What to take:

Suitable lenses for close-ups and longer lenses for getting those that like to keep a distance. Grads or polarizer on very sunny days for the sky. During cold winter days wrap up warm, during the summer make sure you're covered from the sun.

Nature highlights:

 

Address:

Redwings Horse Sanctuary

Oxhill Rescue Centre

Oxhill

Warwick

Postcode:

CV35 0RP

Telephone:

0870 040 0033 (information line)

Opening times:

9.30am-3.30pm Nov-Mar, last entry 3pm.

Closed 25-26 Dec and 1st Jan.

Charges:

Free entry

Photo Restrictions:

None

Other Restrictions:  
Special Needs Access: Ramp from car park to visitor centre, and ramp from visitor centre into stable area. Concrete path through
Special Needs Facilities: Disabled toilets, some picnic tables are suitable for wheelchairs.
Children Facilities: Childrens play area
Dogs Allowed: Keep on lead

Please let us know any other information that we can add to the Further information and Planning Grids or page and any errors that you discover. Before making a long trip to any location it is always wise to double check the current information, websites like magazines may be correct at the time the information is written, but things change and it is of course impossible to double check all entries on a regular basis. If you have any good photographs that you feel would improve the illustration of this page then please let us have copies. In referring to this page it is helpful if you quote both the Page Ref and Topic or Section references from the Grid below. To print the planning grid select it then right click and print the selected area.

Please submit information on locations you discover so that this system continues to grow.

 


By: Tracey Park Section: Key:
Page Ref: oxhill_redwings Topic:  Wildlife Last Updated: 03/2010

.

This page:

Link directly to this page, with text or the button on right.

Text linking: Redwings Oxhill Horse Rescue Centre, Warwickshire on Photographers Resource

Linking Instructions                            http://www.photographers-resource.co.uk/

Photographers Resource, all the information for the photographer