Sue, from Blue Acre shared what the grant will help achieve and what it means for the charity going forward:

"The Anthony V Martin Foundation recently invited selected animal charities to apply for a grant under their 25 year celebration. We were thrilled to come 5th out of 14 awards and can now begin an exciting new project.

"We have a very uneven area between the yard and the indoor stable block where we wash and fill buckets, bath the animals, and which is in constant use to transport straw, hay, feeds and used stable bedding. In winter the area is a constant mud bath which makes it unsafe and virtually unusable.

"This grant will enable us to put a concrete base over the whole area, build a shed to store hay and straw to be used in that area, and possibly put a covering over part of the area. The benefits of this are invaluable — more horses can be brought over to the yard area at any one time for grooming, treating wounds, farrier visits and vet visits; we can hold group educational sessions for our younger volunteers in all weathers; we can groom more horses at one time, in one place, instead of only 3 or 4 at any one time; in winter we can feed more horses under cover; and we'll have vehicle access to the yard and stable area to move hay and bedding into local storage sheds, saving volunteers from having to move it by wheelbarrow from our large hay barn.

"And so much more which we will discover when the project is finished.

"The Anthony V Martin Foundation helps and supports so many animal charities worldwide, believing that all animals have the right to live without fear or abuse of any kind. We are overwhelmed by their support for our tiny charity and can't thank them enough for believing in what we do. It truly makes all the harder days worthwhile and spurs us on to keep doing the very best we can for these beautiful horses and to educate the younger generation."