By Dominic Timms ()
12 Dec 2011

To address this, the Brooke, working in partnership with the Donkey Sanctuary and local government vets, is running three feeding stations, each near a local landmark:

Ramsis Stables, where the thrice-weekly Brooke mobile vet team is also running, El-Zoul Stables and the third near the government vet centre opposite the Mena House Hotel. The Brooke has drafted in a team from the Mansour office to help with the feeding programme

At one station they have a list of 167 names of owners at another nearly 300. It is expected that around 600 owners or approximately 1800 horses will be covered.

The owners then bring their horses to one of the three stations and show their identity documents. Their names are ticked off a list, while their horses are marked with a colour to prevent them being brought twice. The owners are then handed over a paper token which they can take to the feed seller near the pyramids and exchange for their feed. At each station community volunteers help to organise the process.

“It’s taken nearly three weeks to plan and execute because there are so many people involved and so many names to collect,” says the Brooke’s community development officer Dr Mohamed Madany. “But it is going better than expected.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Donkey Sanctuary vet Dr Shaban, when I meet him at around 11am. “We have 103 names to cover. We started at around 9.30am and everything is under control.”

Owners astride their horses - often with two horses in tow, queue for the few minutes it takes to complete the marking process.

Mohamed Magdy, a 21-year-old owner of four horses said he thought the whole community would be grateful:
“The entire community of Nazlet El-Saman is thanking you for all the free treatment and feed that you are providing us. It helps us to feed our horses on the days when there is no business.”

Other owners, such as 25 year old Ibrahim Ryad, went even further. “I’d like to say a big thank you to all the Brooke’s supporters. I wish we could repay the favour one day. Maybe you can all come to Egypt and visit us. I promise I will give you free horse rides around the Pyramids.”