Mossburn Community Farm

29/01/2025

Thank you to all family and friends of the late Angela Marshall for donations following her funeral, totalling £250. We are sorry for your loss and truly appreciate your kind donations towards the care of our animals.

27/01/2025

Little Billy was such a good boy today and had all four hooves fully trimmed with very little fuss and just a horslyx to help! This is the first time we've trimmed his back feet without sedation since he arrived and we're so pleased with how far he's come. Big thank you to our farrier Grant for being so kind and patient with Billy and all of our horses and ponies 😊

25/01/2025

We've been brought this young chicken that was found in Cassalands, Laurieston today. May have been lost due to storm damage, if you're missing one please get in touch 🙂

24/01/2025

What a day! Most importantly, all the animals are absolutely fine and most of them didn't seem too bothered at all by the weather 😊 Can't say the same for the staff today, it was a struggle but we got everyone fed, watered and mucked out as usual 🐴🐷🐮🐑🐰🐐🐔🐾
We have sustained some damage in the storm and at a time when we are already struggling, we would really appreciate any help towards the cost of repairs. Equally, if anyone can offer any practical help please get in touch 🙂
As well as the fence and roof slate damages, we need to replace a window in the static caravan (this is staff accommodation) which was broken by the fence, some guttering has come off an outbuilding and there is minor damage to some of our rabbit housing. Luckily the tree fell into the field and didn't block the road/break the field boundary fence!
A huge thank you to whoever stopped after noticing our trailer had gone for a little voyage across the car park and towed it back over for us! We didn't catch you before you left but thank you, that was a big help 😊

23/01/2025

Are you, or do you know someone, aged 16-25 who meets any of the criteria below and would like to enhance their employability and life skills?

We have been awarded funding for a new ’Young Adults Project’ for those aged between 16-25.
This will run for one year, every Monday from 10am till 3pm starting on the 3rd February. If you are interested but can't start on this date or don't want to commit to the whole year, please do still get in touch.
Participants will help with animal care on the yard for part of the day, before taking part in a variety of activities such as designing and implementing a gardening project, baking, crafts and Animal Assisted activities such as animal grooming, exercising (no riding), pony agility, nature walks. These Animal Assisted activities are aimed at reducing stress and anxiety, enhancing communication skills, improving confidence and a myriad of other benefits to mental and physical health.
In addition, during the year Mossburn will provide a selection of workshops inviting guest speakers from different organisations for example, a money advisor from a bank, baker/food hygiene skills, etc.
Participants must identify as belonging to at least one of the following groups:
- People with a long-term health condition or disability
-People with neurological conditions or learning disabilities and those from neurodiverse communities
- People from a Minority Ethnic background
- People facing socio-economic disadvantage
- People experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage
- People diagnosed with mental illness
- People affected by psychological trauma (including adverse childhood experiences)
- People disadvantaged by geographical location (particularly remote and rural areas)
- Le***an, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex or any other member of LGBTQI+ communities
- People who have experienced bereavement or loss

The young adults will need to bring their own lunch, suitable clothing and be responsible for their own transport to and from the farm.

If you would like any other information or would like book a place on this new adventure, please contact us by email - [email protected]

19/01/2025

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Josh and Dave who spent hours today clearing the mudcontrol mats around our cattle feeder 👏 Unfortunately cattle are very messy eaters and they trample waste haylage and mud all the time. We try to keep on top of clearing the platform daily but it does gradually build up over the winter months and when we had the recent cold spell where it was frozen solid everyday so difficult to clear properly, it all just got even worse!
This was a big, physically hard job barrowing everything down the hill to the muck heap and it is such a great help to us to get it properly cleared again to this degree. Thank you so much! 😊

18/01/2025

Hello Burt 😏 Cheeky Burt and his brother Ernie are always up to no good around the farm! 😄

14/01/2025

Robbie, Jess and the rest of our Tuesday Living Well group were thrilled to be able to colour up to the £3000 on our Winter Appeal target! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far 😊 We still have a way to go and with the recent cold spell the animals needed extra hay/haylage and bedding to keep them fed and warm! Please visit the link to read about the appeal and donate if you can.
As we are now in 2025, the next 25 people to donate to our fundraiser at the link below will be added to our E-newsletter mailing list for one year for free (usually £1 per month)! You'll need to confirm you're happy to be added so if you donate either send us a message or keep an eye out for an email from us 😊

https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/mossburn-winter-appeal-24-25

09/01/2025

-8.5°C at the farm at 7am today! 🥶 Having to cart water everywhere for the animals is tough going 😴 Clive wasn't too keen to get up and go out this morning, can't say we blame him, but he did join the other pigs snuggling in the barn together in a big straw pile during the day 😊

07/01/2025

The cold weather might be outstaying it's welcome a bit, but it does make for some nice photos! 😊 Snickers has a lovely thick winter coat keeping him warm.

06/01/2025

We mentioned at New Year that we were sure 2025 would be full of the usual challenges that come with animals and Gypsy certainly gave us our first big challenge of the year yesterday! We prefer to share both the ups and downs of life at Mossburn and at the end of the day this was a reminder of the strength and resilience that horses can show.
Although you wouldn't know from looking at her today (except maybe she is wearing more mud than usual!), Gypsy gave us all a scare and we are all very relieved that she appears to be none the worse for the ordeal.
Gypsy is an elderly mare, somewhere in her mid 30s and staff found her down in the field when they went to feed her and her companions early yesterday morning and were unable to get her up. We think that she slipped and landed at an angle next to the field shelter. Horses can get 'cast' like this for a variety of reasons and for Gypsy, she just didn't have the strength to manoeuvre herself back up from the position she was in. Unfortunately it was clear that Gypsy had been lying at an angle for several hours and was exhausted and her legs would have been cramping/seized up. It had been, and still was, snowing so although her core temperature was normal, she was cold and wet.
The vet was called straight away and helped to roll Gypsy away from the shelter and in a more comfortable position, with hay bales for support and a pillow. Gypsy was given strong IV pain relief and a vitamin injection and covered with thick rugs to warm her up.
A decision was made initially to put Gypsy to sleep, on account of her age and that she wasn't attempting to get up herself. However, Gypsy's main concern was that she was hungry and she was showing a great appetite still, eating the hay around her and also her hard feed. As she started to warm up, her muscle tremors stopped and she alternated between sleeping flat out and sitting up to eat.
We decided to give her more time and we called for a tractor and straps to get Gypsy to her feet. Whether her legs would support her once up, we weren't sure but Gypsy is a tough old girl and we wanted to give her the chance before making a final decision.
A massive thank you to Howie for giving up his Sunday morning to bring the tractor over, it definitely provided the extra motivation she needed to get to her feet!
We managed to roll Gypsy enough to get straps around her and as Howie drove the tractor towards her, Gypsy suddenly put in a big effort and got herself up! Amazingly, it only took a few minutes for her to take some, albeit very wobbly, steps and we slowly walked her indoors.
It was such a relief to see the old girl up on her feet and she was unbelievably sound in her walking after just an hour or so. She continued to make good progress and today she was marching around like nothing ever happened!
We will be closely monitoring Gypsy as there is a possibility of similar reoccurring but for now, she lives to fight another day and she is certainly a fighter!
Big thank you to vet, Jo, for helping get such a great result after a long and difficult visit in less than ideal weather conditions!

01/01/2025

Percy is very particular about how he makes his bed 😄 This one took him over 11 minutes but I've sped it up a lot 🤣 Since he and the other pigs do spend most of their time sleeping, they might as well make sure they're comfy 😀

31/12/2024

Happy New Year to all of our supporters! We hope you have all had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for 2025. Thank you so much to every person who has supported Mossburn in any way this year, from sharing and interacting with us on Facebook to donating funds or goods, we appreciate everything 😊
We are sure the next year will bring us the usual ups and downs of life with animals with challenges as well as new four legged friends to welcome to the farm.
A huge thank you too, to all of our dedicated volunteers this year - we really couldn't do it without you and your help is hugely appreciated.

24/12/2024

An absolutely massive thank you to all the staff at Dryfe Vets and all of their clients who have supported their Christmas fundraising this year. These are amazing amounts and such a generous gesture to match the money raised - this will be a great boost to our Winter appeal 😊
The vets and all of the amazing staff at Dryfe always give our animals the very best of care and we're so grateful to have such a brilliant practice.

🎄🎄🎄 Mossburn Announcement 🎄🎄🎄
You guys have raised a fantastic £361 for Mossburn Community Farm by purchasing our homemade baubles!! Thank you so so much.
It means so much to us that you support us by donating to our chosen charities.
Between The Canmore Trust and Mossburn Community Farm you have raised a fantastic £824 🥳🥳🥳
Team Dryfe wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2025 🎉

🥳🥳🥳 UPDATE 🥳🥳🥳
Our bosses, Jo and Andy, have just announced that the practice are matching the amounts raised. So Canmore will receive £926 and Mossburn £722. Thank you, thank you, thank you 🎄🎄🎄

22/12/2024

A huge thank you to everyone who helped decorate our tree with memorial stars 🌟🎄😊 It has been lovely to see the tree each day on the yard and there are over 65 stars on it!

19/12/2024

It's 15p veg time again! Can we beat last year's huge amount of donations?!
We can use all of the veg in the deal but the animals aren't so keen on too much broccoli or sprouts!

We are open every day from 10am-4pm for visitors to see the animals and drop off donations 😊
We can also use most fruit if you would like to add some.

If you aren't local to drop off veg donations you can send us an E-gift card! We can use these for Tesco, Aldi or Morrisons and you can purchase online to be sent directly to us via email using [email protected]

19/12/2024

Last call for memorial decorations for our tree! We'll be adding the last batch of stars this weekend ✨️

🎄🌟Please help us decorate our tree with memorial decorations🌈🎄
We've been donated a gorgeous big Christmas tree this year and we'd love your help to decorate it. We know how hard it is to lose our much loved animal friends and we'd like to take the opportunity to remember them with a star this Christmas 😊
Make a donation of a minimum £2.50 per star to our fundraising page linked below, leaving your pet's name in the note and we'll add it to one of our little wooden stars. Each star is hand decorated and finished off with a little bell.
You can collect the decoration to keep after Christmas or we can post them if you make a minimum donation of £4 and send us a message with your address.

https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/mossburn-winter-appeal-24-25

18/12/2024

We hung our own special star on our memorial tree this week 🌟
We are very sad to share that we had to have little old Bobby put to sleep on Monday. Although we only had the pleasure of caring for Bobby for five months, he made a big impact and he will be hugely missed. At 32 years old, he certainly had a good innings and he remained a lovely natured, kind and well behaved pony through all of his treatments and medications. As we posted previously, Bobby had been diagnosed with liver failure and we were managing this as best we could for the past few weeks. It was a tough discovery as we had all been so pleased with how well Bobby was doing overall and how much his condition had improved but his liver enzyme levels certainly told a different story! His appetite deteriorated further at the end of last week and he had a couple of falls that he couldn't get himself up from unaided. This got worse on Monday morning and there was only one last kindness we could offer Bobby. He passed very peacefully and Billy is coping surprisingly well with losing his friend. We do often find this is the way when losing a pony which has been poorly - their companions definitely know they are unwell and seem to cope better than may be expected. We have brought Coco up to keep him company and this has been going well with Billy quite taken with his new girlfriend and Coco a bit less sure about the arranged marriage!