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Volunteer with us

Volunteers are very important to us. Giving your time to help us makes a real difference to our work.

Volunteers are very important to us. Giving your time to help us makes a real difference to our work.

World Horse Welfare’s vision is a world where every horse is treated with respect, compassion and understanding. Our mission is to work with horses, horse owners, communities, organisations and governments to help improve welfare standards and stamp out suffering in the UK and worldwide.

Do you have the gift of time?

Volunteers are at the heart of our work helping our staff to make a difference. There are various opportunities by which you can join the team. Whether it’s hands on with the horses, gardening, helping within our visitor centres to help us educate the public on what we do or general administrative support within the offices we are always looking for an extra pair of hands.

We ask for all our volunteers to be over 18. For our younger supporters we have a work experience scheme – find out more here.

To find out more about volunteering for us please call Kirsten Cooke on 01953 497232 or email kirstencooke@worldhorsewelfare.org.

Current volunteering opportunities


Expression of Interest to become a World Horse Welfare Trustee

Volunteering for World Horse Welfare comes in many different forms. This can include everything from lending a hand with administrative duties at our Head Office in Norfolk, helping at our Visitor Centres, mucking in on the yard with the farm teams or helping out at our events. One other way is through joining our Council of Trustees.

The World Horse Welfare Council is responsible for the general control and management of the administration of the charity and acts in our best interests. Trustees are not expected to take part in the day-to-day running of the charity but are responsible, as a group, for the overall governance and strategic direction. To do this effectively our Council includes representatives from various areas of expertise and backgrounds – including veterinary, equestrian, international development, legal, marketing, IT and accountancy.

In return, those who volunteer with us will enjoy the opportunity to use and build their skills, influence the direction of the organisation, attend a range of special events and become part of a diverse and friendly network.

We are currently looking for someone, based either in the UK or overseas, with international development experience in the human development sector and, ideally, the animal health and welfare sector as well. Experience of equines, whilst a bonus, is not required, you only need an empathy with our aims and an interest in helping to guide our work.

World Horse Welfare embraces the diversity of perspectives on equines to inform our day-to-day work and would like the Council membership to reflect this. We encourage expressions of interest from currently under-represented groups, including people from a broad age range, LGBTQ, ethnically diverse communities and people with disabilities.

If you would like to express an interest in becoming a World Horse Welfare Trustee, and have international development experience, then please email a covering letter and your CV to Fiona Abel by Friday 28th April 2023 (fionaabel@worldhorsewelfare.org).


Head Office, Snetterton

We are always in need of administrative support, even if you can only spare a few hours during the week. As a charity that is entirely reliant on donations, our fundraising team run lots of events around the country, send out appeals asking for donations, manage our range of merchandise and much more to ensure we continue to raise as much money as possible to allow us to continue to help rescue, rehabilitate and rehome horses. As a campaigning charity we rely on having accurate and up-to-date information available about our campaigns activity and need assistance with accurate data inputting so we can help horses across Europe.

Most roles require you to use a computer.


Rescue and Rehoming Centres

We have four Rescue and Rehoming Centres located in Aboyne Aberdeenshire, Blackpool Lancashire, Somerton Somerset and Snetterton Norfolk. Our equine teams are always in need of additional help with the daily care of the horses. Our maintenance teams would love some support with general maintenance tasks and gardening.


Visitor Centres

We have a Visitor Centre at each of our Rescue and Rehoming Centres. This is where we hold events, educate members of the public about our work and hire out our indoor school and conference facilities to corporate organisations. Our Visitor Centre teams would love your help dealing with members of the public and also with front of house duties in the coffee shops.


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