Two well-known faces at the former horse sanctuary run by Jenny Macgregor, known widely as SWHP, are walking to raise funds for a group of volunteers to support the work that Jenny devoted much of her time to.

Sue Hughes and Chris Lloyd will be walking the length of Offa’s Dyke from Prestatyn to Sedbury in Chepstow, a total of 177 miles, to raise funds for Manes and Tails.

Their amazing journey will start on 26th August and finish on 6th September.

The Manes and Tails Group was formed after the loss of Jenny Macgregor, founder of The Society for the Welfare of Horses and ponies (SWHP) and its subsequent merger with Redwings Horse Sanctuary when the SWHP committee decided to continue fundraising for animal welfare.

Sue and Chris aim to raise £1,000 to donate to a group of volunteers who carry out welfare work for abandoned horses.

The aim of this particular fundraiser is to raise as much money as possible to give to the HungryHerd ladies who voluntarily feed the ponies on Gelligaer Common, near Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly, southeast Wales, from November to March each year.

The total cost of feed for these ponies is approximately £12,000 a year and the ladies do a variety of fundraising events throughout the year in order to raise this money.

HungryHerds are a non-profit feeding group: their aim is to give good quality haylage in the winter months to the wild and abandoned horses and ponies.

These ponies are not managed and their environment is bleak. Some mares have two foals feeding from them: this year’s and last year’s.

Most have worm burden and breeding is indiscriminate, causing foals to be born in December and later.

The volunteers aim to make life a little easier by giving four decent meals a week through the winter months, this does not stop them foraging or doing what wild ponies do. They never feed by hand and do not give anything other than haylage.

Sue is a past chairman of the fundraising committee for the SWHP and spent many years both working with the horses at Coxstone Farm near St Maughans and fundraising for the SWHP, including canoeing the River Wye, running The London Marathon, the Racecourse to Racecourse Bike Ride, and cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End accompanied by Chris Lloyd, who for years had a veterinary practice in Ross on Wye and now works as a locum and supported the SWHP on so many occasions.

Manes and Tails also have a fundraising shop at Risca Road in Newport where all donated merchandise ranging from books to household goods to high quality clothing is sold and also collect second-hand horse rugs and attend local tack sales and agricultural shows such as Usk where they sell these items on. If you would like to donate to Sue and Chris’s fundraiser, please go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/hungryherds01