Everywhere in the world, we can observe and be touched by acts of kindness. People from all walks of life, faiths, and cultures extend themselves beyond the call of duty to help others unconditionally. Through their noble deeds, humanity as a whole is elevated.

To commend virtuous actions and encourage more people to be inspired by their examples, Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Leadership Award, Shining World Compassion Award, Shining World Hero and Heroine Awards, Shining World Honesty Award, Shining World Protection Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Inventor Award, to recognize some of the most exemplary, generous, caring, and courageous people who walk amongst us.

I’m Sara, and this is The Horse Refuge and we’re situated near Maidstone in Kent (UK). And basically we’re a home for sick and unwanted animals. It started off with horses, but we have a huge variety of animals now. And I should think we’ve got about 150 permanent residents. And we have quite a lot in foster homes, but here we have horses that sadly, through no fault of their own, can’t be re- homed because they’ve had a bad time or they’re very ill, or they’re old. They’re here for the rest of their life.

Once the personal assistant to Lord Houghton of Sowerby, Sara Tuppen worked in the British Parliament, focusing on animal welfare legislation. Mixing and mingling with politicians, she enjoyed the privileges of her position: private dinner parties in the house of the prime minister, dining in haute cuisine restaurants and shopping for designer dresses in London’s fashionable Chelsea district. Today, however, Ms. Tuppen is living a different story. She renounced it all in 1995 when she set up the Horse Refuge for the animals she loves.

Currently without a true home, she lives on a farm in an outbuilding with 20 animals – dogs, feral cats, parrots and an owl – having sold her residence that was worth more than US$300,000, jewelry, furniture, and nearly everything else she owned for the sake of saving her animal friends from exploitation and slaughter. There is no central heating or hot water in the shed and all her cooking is done on a camping stove.

Before when I was, living and working in London obviously it was a completely different lifestyle. It was a round of parties and lunches and dinners and going to posh hairdressers and buying good, expensive clothes. And now it’s a question of getting clothes from the charity shop and how warm is it going to be?

It was very cold in the winter and it was very damp and it was minus seven (Celsius) and it was quite tough. And you kind of expect certain things in life like a bath or a washing machine or somewhere to cook, and being warm and it was difficult to say the least.

With frostbitten fingers and painfully purple feet, her heart pulls her out of bed at 5:30 every morning to tend to 50 fragile horses and other vulnerable animals. Teary sleepless nights, worrying about their wellbeing, she curls up in bed with a woolly hat, gloves and two pairs of socks… but must get up every couple of hours to medicate some residents like Good Girl the horse.

I mean, poor Good Girl, because of the way she is, I’m up every three or four hours in the night to make sure she hasn’t fallen or anything, and to make sure she gets an extra feed and she gets round the clock medication. She’s got serious liver damage due to ragwort poisoning, and sadly, I mean if she was a human, she would be on the transplant list. She’s taken to having the odd fit, which isn’t very good at all and we’re using milk thistle and various other things to try and kick-start the liver again.

We just hope we can get the liver going again, that’s what we hope.

She’s fallen down several times now, and it’s me and a couple of other people who’ve helped her up several times, and it’s hard and it’s sad the fact that she’s gone down, but I’m always happy we brought her back up and it’d be nice if she carried on surviving.

Horses skeletal from starvation, arthritic from old age and subjected to severe neglect and abuse, these are the equines she takes in. Saint-hearted, she patiently heals their wounds and brings them back to life… and to love.

This is Casper the Great, who’s very dirty, he’s been rolling in the mud, but very, very handsome. He’d obviously eaten a lot of ragwort when I got him, and his eyes were sealed up with blisters and he had seeping wounds coming from everywhere and we stopped a lot of the problem with milk thistle and stuff. In the summer he can’t really go out in the daylight, because it burns him, and basically his skin will bubble up and blister again, and he’d probably get melanomas, so he goes out at night, but he’s quite handsome. He’s got eyeliner on.

And this is Echo, poor Echo has got something called Marie’s disease. Sadly it’s affected the growth on her legs, her legs are misshapen where the new bone has formed, and her eyesight’s gone. But she comes in and out, and she seems to be quite happy and she is kept on a low dosage of a medication that keeps her pain-free. But they gave her three months to live five years ago, but she’s still with us, and she’s still showing us she wants to be here at the moment, bless her.

Tragically, more and more horses are being forsaken in British fields each year. But mercifully, the refuge is a caring cradle that offers a sparkling miracle of hope and vitality.

At the moment we’ve got about 60 horses in permanent residence. The people are just turning their horses away and there’re so many starved horses in the fields, just thin skeletons. And also sadly, terribly sadly, dead horses I’ve found this year we’ve had to go and see. But, all the horses here are individuals, there’re no sort of two cases or two personalities that are the same. And they all need a lot of special care.

Tilley was a total starvation case. The vet thought she’d died. The first three or four weeks she couldn’t even stand, she was so weak, she couldn’t eat properly. I mean it was heartbreaking. Nobody really thought she would turn the corner. And one year later nearly she’s a picture of health. As you can see she’s a very, very beautiful girl now. She’d make anybody proud. She’s bouncing full of energy. Aren’t you, Tilley?

Well people don’t believe it’s the same horse because it was too terrible for words. She’s fantastic now. I mean she’s living a life that any pony should live really. She goes out and runs around in the day and eats a lot and she comes into a nice warm stable at night.

The Horse Refuge tries its best to find new homes for the horses, but in most cases the equines will stay with Sara Tuppen for life.

Where we can, we find homes for horses, but most of the ones here are permanent residents because they’ve had a lot of trauma in their life, or they’re old, or they’ve got physical problems and they’re not suitable for re-homing obviously. They’ve got to be a horse that’s completely safe when you re-home it.

We were privy to experience the special friendship Ms. Tuppen has with the animals, how she showers them with warm words and treasures them with doting affection.

This is Bandit in the barn here, Bandit’s one of our very old residents. He had quite a tough life, didn’t you, Bandit? And he’s one that’s in his 40s now, but as you can see he’s in quite good condition. He’s a great favorite, he’s a real character is Bandit. He’s a very funny boy. He’s got his pajamas because the temperature really drops at night, doesn’t it? And he’s old, and he needs to be kept warm. Don’t you, my darling?

Sadly for us all, we lost our beloved old Shire horse James, last week, aged about 44. And he was Bandit’s friend. But I have to say, Bandit seems to be coping with it a lot better than we are. I don’t know why, maybe he’s just old and wise and he knows more than we do. And he knows that James is in a better place.

As a little girl, Ms. Tuppen set up an animal hospital in the family kitchen nursing injured pigeons, mice and hedgehogs. Now the sanctuary is home to a colorful family of approximately 150 animals: horses, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, peacocks, parrots, geese, ducks, deer, a cow, a goat and an owl – each christened with his or her own charming name. One of the most popular residents is Colin the goat, who thinks he’s a dog and waddles next to Sara Tuppen everywhere she goes. We know lots of people who love Colin. He sticks to me like glue.

Well, this is an ex farm cow, called Honey. And Honey is quite elderly, I think she’s about 18, and she’s very, very friendly, and very friendly with people. And although we’re not a cow sanctuary as such, I thought it was just nice so that people can come and maybe stroke her and brush her, and learn how special she is and then, then maybe would be a bit less inclined to eat cows is the plan. Hopefully if people can interact with the animals and the wide variety we have here, they will be less inclined to eat them.

Please join us again tomorrow on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants for the concluding episode in our two-part series on The Horse Refuge when we will meet some of the other lovely residents of the Refuge and celebrate Sara Tuppen receiving the prestigious Shining World Compassion Award.

For more details on The Horse Refuge, please visit

Gentle viewers, thank you for joining us for our program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May all people and animals live in everlasting peace and harmony.