Harmony Fields Winter Warriors!

Hello and thanks for looking at our page!  I'm Cath, and this has been quite a journey, I'll try to summarise for you the best I can without putting you to sleep!

 About 20 years ago, myself and my mum Mione set up local registered charity Glendrick Roost Animal Welfare Centre. 

6 years ago, my partner Ronnie and I started Harmony Fields Soul Sanctuary in the grounds of a local holistic centre.  Our dream was to create a tranquil place where people could have easy access to the healing power of animals, which we have been fortunate enough to experience over our lifetime.  There's nothing like chilling in nature with a clydesdale horse or giving a pig a belly rub to chase your troubles away!!

Harmony Fields is a social enterprise offshoot of the charity, where people can experience tranquility and connection with our small family of rescued animals...it's an escape from a crazy world, a haven of peace in nature, where animals are your guide to inner calm and mindfulness!  Not only are we here for anyone who feels drawn to spend time with our animals, but we also provide therapeutic group visits for people struggling with mental health or trauma and will expand on our relationships with charities and support organisations moving forward so that we can grow this invaluable side of our work and reach those who will benefit most from our unique sanctuary.

 We built all infrastructure ourselves with our own blood, sweat and tears (literally!) and no funding, including 90ft polytunnel, paths, fences, shelters and yards, it took years of effort and was a real labor of love but eventually we set up a beautiful experience which was loved by all who visited.  

Despite COVID, we struggled through and kept afloat by providing family "bubbles" with a much needed escape filled with lots of animal cuddles!  

 We then went on to provide work placements for vulnerable young people and worked with them for over a year to build their skills, confidence and abilities until we had a strong, wonderful team around us who took care of the animals and the visitors alike with genuine compassion, kindness and love.

Thanks to them, we were finally in a position to bring in a sustainable income to support not only the animals of Harmony Fields, but the young people themselves with permanent employment moving forward, as well as begin to distribute a little profit to help support the animals at the main charity too. 

 Sadly, after 6 years of establishing the sanctuary from the ground up by ourselves, we were given notice to leave our rented land within 6 months due to unfortunate unforeseen circumstances on the estate.  

Cue the worst 6 months of our lives as we began to dismantle everything we had built up while at the same time trying to find a new forever home to settle in with our precious furry family.  We had to close to visitors while we took everything apart, so our income stopped completely in its tracks. 

Our young team really stepped up, putting in extra hours and incredible effort to help us clear the site in preparation for the move, as well as to keep the animals in a familiar routine with plenty of love and attention while I tried desperately to secure us a home to go to. 

 Fast forward through all the unbelievable stress and upset, and with two days until the deadline to have the site cleared and vacated, we finally signed the papers for our very own forever home!!  We moved everything we own and all our animals, building materials, supplies, fences, shelters etc, lock stock and barrel, within 2 craaazy days and literally dumped it all in piles in a bare field on September 1st 2022! Our very own bare field!!! Woo hoo! But oooooft lol! And here we are! 

 We've spent the last couple of months doing the basics: getting the shelters back up for the animals, including the mammoth task of erecting a half size version of our giant tunnel as a walk through for the big horses, getting the worst mud handled with countless mud mats, putting up fences, learning the land and where the water lies (haha!), creating a secure feed store and tool store, plus cobbling together a dry space for our awesome humans and generally just trying to get to a functional point to survive the winter and catch our breath!

Unfortunately, due primarily to access issues with the new site which cannot be resolved until early next year, we are unable to open properly for now, even if we could get the infrastructure/health and safety stuff sorted out quickly...we just have to stay afloat and get ourselves through the next few months.

Our young folks' funded contracts ran out a couple of months back, yet they have stuck with us as volunteers to help us and the animals through the move and the settling in period, but devastatingly they are now being forced to look for other work due to being unable to survive on no income and us being unable to bring in enough to pay them for the foreseeable while we attempt to get enough in place to allow us to have a decent volume of visitors again. 

This is a huge blow not only to our team, but also to the animals who have formed a strong bond with the guys over the last year and a bit, and these young folks are one of the big reasons we have chosen to put ourselves out there and do this fundraiser - to allow us to support the animals and keep our amazing wee team on in some form or another until we are in a position to pay their wages again next summer.

What will your money do?!

We have 15 animals here at Harmony Fields, from our huge Clydesdale horses, Bruce and Lucky,

                                                                                                                                                to our sweet little old sheep Miss Bailey...they all have a forever home with us, and are all rescued.

 As you can imagine, just their basic daily feed and care over the winter months is very expensive, especially now we are in a brand new field with no proper facilities in place and costs have leapt up this year! AND of course, we have spent everything we had securing our new site and facilitating the huge relocation, so we're left with nothing, coming into the worst, most expensive part of the year!! Scary times!

 Every penny you give will be used to care for the animals through the winter, improve and grow essential infrastructure around us and hopefully provide some financial support to our young team, allowing them to stick with us until we start bringing in money again!  You can chose a specific reward to decide where you'd like your money to go, or just let us know in a wee message when you donate if you have a preference!

Once we are set up, we will be here for you and for those who need an escape, with easy access to relaxing spaces surrounded by nature and our beautiful animals, such as mindfulness, craft, music, art, equine facilitated learning sessions, wanders with horses and more!

 Together, we will get through the winter and emerge the other side ready to soothe your souls! 

Thank you so much for reading, and for ANY support you can offer, every penny raised will help support our furry family through the winter and get us ready for an incredible future together!

We've put together a wide range of reward options, hopefully something to suit all budgets, and some including early access visits to come see the animals here in their new home long before we are in a position to fully reopen, however you don't have to purchase a reward, you can simply donate whatever you like and every single penny is appreciated more than you know!

Looking forward to seeing you in our beautiful Fields soon! Thank you all xxx