Shire horses trekking to Moray call in at Kingussie
There was delight at Highland Horse Fun in the Badenoch capital overnight – especially for the horses.
"Great to see Jamie and the team from Coldcroft Shires arriving at Highland Horse Fun Kingussie to overnight and rest," said proprietor Ruaridh Ormiston.
"This is such a special charity drive from Gloucestershire to Elgin in memory of Jamie’s brother, who was fatally injured in a road traffic accident while travelling to go on duty at Balmoral.
Jamie Alcock is driving Millie and Willam, two of his Shire horses, from his farm in Gloucestershire to Elgin in Morayshire to raise funds for a charity that helped support his brother through more than a decade of round-the-clock nursing care.
After a year of lockdown — during which Jamie rarely left the farm as he was classed as clinically vulnerable — he is now breaking out on eight-week fundraising trip to north east Scotland.
He started his adventure on June 5th, planning to camp out with the horses along the 650 mile journey, which he estimates will take about eight weeks to complete, "give or take a decade or two!"
Jamie is hoping to smash his fundraising target of £15K for his chosen charities – Police Care UK receiving 75% and The Fire Fighters Charity receiving 25% of donations.
The independent charities both support serving and retired police officers and firefighters when they have been harmed as a result of their work.
They hope to be in Aviemore tomorrow at the roundabout between the New Retail Park and the Scandinavian village to meet people, accept donations and offer short carriage rides to lucky locals.
"I hope many will go along and meet Jamie and the team, especially his two lovely Shire horses from 10am."
Monday should see the team reach Grantown East Highland Heritage and Culture Centre.
Plans are for a public welcome at 11am where the team will offer carriage rides to raise money for the charities.
More info on the challenge here
