How beneficial is volunteering?

I decided to do my last post on some volunteering I had the opportunity to take part in.

This was at the Blue Cross in Burford, which is one of two centres to rehome horses- the other being Rolleston in Staffordshire.

Ever since I was younger, I’ve loved horses and so when choosing a department to volunteer with, it was an easy pick.

There are a range of horses here, mostly native ponies that have come in as a group.

Daily chores here included; making feeds, grooming horses, bringing horses in and taking them out to the fields, mucking out stables, cleaning tack, and keeping the yard generally clean.

What isn’t offered as a volunteer is any “hands-on” work with the horses, things like riding or any rehabilitation work. This is obviously from a health and safety perspective.

This is a shame coming from someone who is seriously interested in the behaviour of animals. All I wanted to do was get involved but instead was left doing mediocre jobs that added little skill that could help me in the future, not to mention these were already things I had done before from when I used to ride.

Going off this I’m not sure how Id go about getting more valuable work experience in this sector as I’m convinced a lot of places offer the same sort of volunteering prospects.

What I think I would be interested in is the office side of this sort of work, and the actual rehoming of the horses. Maybe as well, management/care plans and new behavioural methods to try with difficult horses. This suggests I’m leaning towards a more science-based work ethic.
When I was volunteering here there were definitely things I would’ve done differently, such as increased levels of enrichment for the horses.

Nonetheless, I loved volunteering here because it meant I got horsey cuddles for free.