Since my last post I have been faced with a series of changes.  One of those change was unexpected and certainly unwanted.  One of the horses in the WOW! World of  Whispers herd became ill and died.  It was tragic, tremendously upsetting and left a big void in the project.  The space Glen’s death has left will not be filled, no matter how many other horses come into the project.  All of us in the project needed to deal with this change, we had to come to terms with our loss.  One of the things Glen’s death brought about was a renewed enthusiasm for the work the project does.  The people who cared for Glen realised that the immense learning they went through whilst trying to save him can be used positively for other horses who may find themselves in similar situations.

Try to recognise the positives in every change in your life.  Change is inevitable and it is essential for us to learn and grow.  Embrace change.

Enjoy the journey.

This week I went to Wales to help to move the 8 World of Whispers horses to the Norfolk/Suffolk border.  I have been volunteering for most of my adult life and being involved with these horses has been one of the best volunteering experiences I have ever had.  We travelled overnight, leaving Wales at 2.15am and arriving at our destination just after 9am this morning.   Our next task is to find a permanent project base to operate from and we are now working on a plan to help us to achieve that by next spring.  We need at least 50 acres of grazing with some buildings suitable for use by people visiting the project.  The horses are not stabled, living outside 24/7, so they only need either natural shelter or basic shelter, not necessarily stables.  Ideally the location will be within North Norfolk, but anywhere towards the Norfolk/Suffolk border could be suitable.

One of the things we are doing to help move the project forwards is fundraising that will enable the project to become a Registered Charity.  We are currently running a raffle that will be drawn at my Art Gallery on 16th December, 2009.  Tickets can be purchased by visiting the World of Whispers website, or contacting me via my email, admin @ mandyallen.com.  We hope to raise £5,000 through the raffle.

If you have never experienced that euphoric feeling that comes after giving freely you should try it.  Find somewhere to volunteer, give something for nothing, and see how much difference it makes to your overall well being.  The rewards are immense.

Enjoy the journey.

About 3 weeks ago a film producer visited the Project to create a video that will be used to promote the Project both through the WOW! website and through dvd’s and YouTube.  It has been a very interesting experience being involved in creating this short film.  As well as being the second camera person during filming, I spent some time this week in the editing suite with the film producer and the WOW! Project owner, Helen Wingstedt.

One of the people who had visited the Project, and had an amazing experience, was a newspaper columnist and BBC presenter.  He was there on filming day to talk about his amazing experience.  Off camera we all talked about life in general and he told us he had recently put a post on his personal wesbsite called ‘Sex, Drugs and Oil’.  He said his site had more hits on that post than at any other time in its history!  His theory was that if you include the word ‘sex’ in the title it encourages a plethora of hits – I just thought I would test it out!

Enjoy the journey.

For my part I have spent some time arranging for an exhibition of the photographs of the herd to be showcased at my gallery, Art-next-the-Sea, with the preview being held on October 10th, 2009 from 2-5pm. You are all welcome to come to this preview, and Horse Whispering Healer and WOW! founder, Helen Wingstedt, will be at the gallery for the preview.  After the launch of the collection we will  be selling prints via our internet shop; this will be able to be accessed via the Art-next-the-Sea website.

I will now hand the rest of this post over to Helen.

The Whispering World – Helen Wingstedt

An enormous thank you to you, Mandy, and to every one of you who’ve taken the time to read Mandy’s inspiring feature and responded to my Equine SOS – Save the Herd at World of Whispers.  August 2009 has easily been one of the most stressful months of my life on the one hand, and one of the most encouraging on the other.  To have so many people come forward to enthusiastically support the horses, the Project and me, for the work we’ve done and want to do, has been an incredibly moving and humbling experience which will be remembered and repaid in any way we are able.

I look forward to breaking good news with you all, as it happens, in the months ahead and thank everyone who by donating, will have made success from distress for animals and people possible.

Very best wishes,

Helen Wingstedt
The Horse Whisperer

See how the project is progressing so far at World of Whispers.

Enjoy the journey.

All I can say is WOW!  I have just had the most amazing experience of my life!  As you will know from my last post, my partner and I decided to go to Wales to help to move the World of Whispers project to a new location.  You can follow the journey of the last few days at World of Whispers.  Above is a photo of me with Jack, who I was particularly drawn towards.

Our reward for spending two days packing and sorting was to be able help to move the herd to their new home on Saturday morning.  It was not planned for that day but was arranged specially for us to enjoy as we had to leave that afternoon.

I have very little experience with horses; riding as a teenager and a couple of beach rides about 10 years ago is all I have done.  You can imagine my anxiety when the horses arrived at the new location and we were all told to take one and walk it down the lane!  There were five horses and four people.  I was the only ‘non-horsey’ person in the group.  Guess who got to lead two horses at once??  But I did it, and it made me feel really great.  If you visit the WOW website there is a picture of me leading the two horses.

We had planned to leave Wales just after lunch but sat in the field with the horses for such a long time we didn’t hit the road til 5 o’clock!  I have returned exhilerated and buzzing – it is an opportunity I am so glad that I took.

If you have made a donation you will be invited to an open day in Wales next year.  I will be there and really look forward to meeting you all.  Please take the opportunity to donate and come along to the open day.  You will not regret it.  I can vouch for that!

Donations can be made via paypal to helen@helenwingstedt.com, or look on the website for details of where to send cheques.  Come and experience something amazing.

Enjoy the journey.