Top honour for farmer with welfare of horses at heart
Last updated 08:46, Friday, 27 June 2008
A Cumbrian farmer’s dedication to the welfare of horses has been recognised with two British Horse Society honours.
Peter Dean of Kirkhouse Farm, near Hallbankgate, has loved horses since childhood.
This affinity led to a 40-year involvement as a welfare volunteer with the society.
Peter’s work was honoured last week with a Long Service Award at the society’s Annual General Meeting in London.
He also received the British Horse Society President’s Award. A citation, read at the presentation said Peter, 78, had “improved the lives of countless equines” as a result of his involvement.
Peter told The Cumberland News that he was “immensely surprised” to receive the awards.
He said: “I was surprised because welfare is not the glamour side of the BHS and suddenly, to find it was in the spotlight, was immensely gratifying to me.
“I see this as the total effort over the region to get an improvement to the general welfare of horses.”
Peter was a riding school inspector for the society in the early days of his involvement.
He was also instrumental in a BHS drive to improve the lives of semi-feral New Forest ponies.
He said: “The New Forest pony was in a terrible state.
“The New Forest was full of do-gooders who were pretty ghastly people.
“There’s all sorts of people who dash about rescuing horses. They don’t do a lot of good because they antagonise the people who own them.
“We spent two years studying it and made a lot of recommendations, most of which were scoffed at.”
But much of the committee’s advice has since been adopted and has contributed towards thriving New Forest herds.
Peter has also worked with horse owners in disadvantaged urban settings and in the ex-mining communities in Durham and Northumberland.
Initially, Peter and his colleagues met with some hostility.
“It used to be dangerous and there was a great risk of being assaulted.
“I ran like mad off one particular place and I learnt very early on to park so my car pointed towards the way out!”
But times are changing.
He added: “One of the biggest successes of the BHS was to get the public at large to be interested in the welfare of horses.”
Peter has kept a small herd of Exmoor ponies at his farm for over 50 years and said his dedication stems from a general love of the species.
“I whisper all my woes to them when I get ticked off with agriculture,” he said.
The BHS citation concluded: “His commitment to the work of the BHS is widely celebrated and his contribution to equine welfare has been exemplary.”
