Distressed horses by the River Lea navigation, Enfield

Hi, that is really sad to hear.
i got quite far with this - or so i thought..

The last update I had from the welfare team at the British Horse Society was at the beginning of October. I provided all information to them and photographs. And after a few emails back and fourth, and a couple of phone calls they emailed me to say:

I am getting in touch regarding the concern for the horses at River Lee Enfield, that you had reported to the BHS last month.

I am pleased to confirm that our local Field Officer has attended to the concern. They have been made aware of the horse owner and will continue to monitor this concern moving into winter. Please be assured that on assessment of the horses body condition there were no immediate concerns present, all horses that our Field Officer was able to assess were standing at a healthy weight. With the levels of burrs present in the manes and tails of these horses, please be assured that these shouldn’t be having a major impact on the welfare of these horses. I can understand that they do appear to be unsightly, and why you would be concerned from seeing them.

As stated this will be something that our Field Officer will continue to monitor, so if you have any future concerns or notice any signs of deterioration, please do get back in touch.

I also found out that Thames Water are the landlords, and after sending an email to their general email, which i thought would be a complete long shot, i actually received a phone call from their land assets team a couple of days later - showing concern and that they were going to follow it up with the tenant. And that I should get back in touch if nothing is done. Again sad to hear to that they haven't take responsibility as landowners

I cycled up there around a month or so ago with a bag full of carrots and fed them, someone had already piled a huge pile of scraps in the middle of the land which they were feeding from but they still looked like they were not being properly cared for.

I urge you to contact the welfare team at the British Horse Society - welfare@bhs.org.uk as they do seem to care but maybe under resourced or need chasing?

Red Wings only told me to get in touch with RSPCA (i did at the beginning but i found that they weren't very helpful). Red Wings also emailed me to say:

Thank you once again for your call and email. I have had a chat with our Essex based field officer, who has asked me to get back in touch with some information for you.

Our field officer spoke to both the RSPCA and BHS in the area, who said they’ve both made visits to the horses recently, and provided some advice to the owner. From the photos you’ve provided and the visits by the other orgs, the horses are in good body condition, and their weights are currently no cause for concern.

As for the burrs, while they are really distressing to see, they are very common around this time of year. We receive lots of calls about horses with burrs in their manes and tails, and while nasty to look at, they generally don’t cause the horses any harm or distress.

If you have any questions or further concerns, or if anything changes about the horses and you’d like to report them again, please feel free to do so.

It seems to me that if the horse's weight isn't at risk, charities etc don't seem to really do much. But I definitely do not think these horses are doing great and I wish we could do more