[Animals] Meet the woman who gave up her life in Australia to start a horse hospital in Egypt

[Angel of Death]

In 2014, Jill Barton sold her home in Western Australia and flew to Egypt to rent a property, employ a vet and start a horse hospital. Eight years later, she says the hospital has helped thousands of horses and donkeys, and employs three vets to tend to an average of around 75 animals per day. "It certainly wasn't easy," Ms Barton told ABC Radio Perth Breakfast host Tom Baddeley. "I don't speak the language. It's a completely different culture." Originally from WA, where she rode polocrosse in Mukinbudin, Ms Barton felt compelled to start the hospital after a visit with her former partner to an existing equine rescue centre in Cairo in 2013. She said they were shocked by the number of animals that needed care their owners could not afford to provide.

"I'm an animal lover and a horse lover," Ms Barton said. "It was really incredible, quite disturbing." "We just started by renting a property and we employed a vet. And then we created the charity back here in Australia — my ex-husband did that for me. And, yeah, we just kind of went from there. And it's just really grown." Ms Barton's charity, Egypt Equine Aid, is located at a rural site called Abusir, between Giza and Saqqara in the northern part of the country. She said there were many families in the area who lived in poverty and relied on working horses and donkeys for their livelihood but could not afford to pay for veterinary care — if it was available. The charity runs a hospital that treats horses with wounds from traffic accidents and diseases or ailments such as tetanus, strangles and colic. She said many of the animal owners were suspicious of the charity at first, but the hospital has since earned their trust. Ms Barton said some of the horses they treated were likely descended from around 10,000 Australian "Waler" horses that remained in the Middle East after World War I. "The legend goes that the soldiers shot their horses, [that] they didn't want to leave them behind, but it's not true," she said. "So in fact, we did leave 10,000 horses behind. We gave them to the British who sold them to the Egyptians a year later." Ms Barton says equine equipment from the World War I era is still in use today. "Anybody that goes to the pyramid area would see that those old war saddles are still in use today," she said. "They're obviously repaired over and over and over." Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. LISTEN Duration: 20 minutes 41 seconds20m Meet Bill the Bastard; Australia's greatest warhorse She said wartime "bits" — the metal piece that goes inside the horse's mouth — are also in regular use. "Sometimes you see them have welding repairs done on them, but they've really stood the test of time," she said. In 2020, Ms Barton received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the welfare of equine animals. "I want to leave this legacy to the animals of Egypt," she said. She is currently visiting Australia to rally more support for the charity in this country.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-02/australian-woman-runs-horse-hospital-egypt/101395792