Emma

Our Team

Owner - Horse Fanatic

General Animal Crackers Chica

Emma, (32) from an animal loving family in the UK, grew up with animal friends instead of humans and an imaginary horse that looks like Shanti. A childhood spent rescuing bugs and frogs whilst begging parents for horse riding lessons. Grew up to study horsemanship, small animal veterinary nursing, animal first aid and various horse communication or barefoot short courses. With a lot of experience of being self-employed, from running a charity shop for a horse sanctuary in the UK, dog walking and dog training businesses and dancing. Because there has to be one interest that isn't covered in dog hair. All spare time is spent walking dogs or expanding knowledge on animal welfare and horses reading books and watching Youtube videos. Still has more animal friends than humans but has real horse friends and no longer imaginary ones!

A dream into reality!

"What we do at horse sanctuary is hugely necessary and incredibly rewarding. Large numbers of animals are used in Tenerife for agriculture and tourism. Then often find themselves unloved or neglected once their working use comes to an end. It’s a pleasure and a privilege for us to rescue, re-home and care for animals in need. But medicines and therapies are costly and in constant demand. And our need for feed, shelter and homing animals never ends.

Edo

Our Team

Owner - Craftsman - Builder

Self Taught Farmer and Cowboy

Edo (34) from a small city in Italy having never had a pet before meeting Emma but always dreamed of retiring to a farm and living self sufficiently with a pack of dogs. After leaving school, developed a background in building, customer service, entertainment and having a natural skill for languages, speaking six of them. The couple met while Emma lived on a horse centre in Fuerteventura and Edo was on holiday. Bonding over their mutual dancing experience they worked with a stage show together for a year before starting to plan this project. Soon finding out that they had the perfect ingredients to develop it together. Edo realising his dream to have a farm far before retirement age, but the work has just begun.

"We’ve already learned so much from our adventure so far. We’ve learned to plan and register, then build up from nothing for us and our animal shelter. We’ve had to understand the business of fund-raising and running a charity. Solving problems by using solar-power and ecologically water systems. We’ve gained the help from generous local people and visitors to Tenerife. To create a team of people that work for the love of the animals and not for profit. Getting their hands dirty or by donating their hard-earned money when they can."

Here you will see an interview with Emma and Edo. You can see their backgrounds, their thoughts and plans for the future.

Emma and Edo may be the couple behind the project, but without their amazing team of volunteers they certainly couldn't do it alone. Here is some of our current team members that keep this place running and growing.

Izzie

izzie-(please-crop-to-size)

Our wonderful virtual volunteer

No longer physically here but still queen of fundraising! The day she had to leave the finca was a sad one. We still miss her spirit and positive vibes however we are fortunate that we don’t have to miss her amazing skills too. Izzie still puts many hours a week into our office work from fundraising, connections and managing new office volunteers. Without her skills, ideas and passion Emma would seriously struggle to keep the office running even without her being physically here. Getting daily calls from a stressed Emma, we hope that Izzie doesn’t get scared off any time soon!

Sue

mum-sue1

Emma’s mum AKA finca mum!

Finca nurse/ sewing machine/ accountant/ launderette and more Sue has obviously been involved in Emma’s crazy animal adventures her entire life, but without expecting to has become busier than ever since retiring. Coming almost every day to the finca, we really couldn’t do it without her help on many of the boring tasks like managing food deliveries, managing the charity shop, washing the huge turnover of bed linen, doing the tax returns, fixing clothes/ tents and even fixing volunteers with injuries. Her skills from a career in massage for sports injuries comes in very useful here as an agony aunt or nurse.

Andrea, Tommaso, Patrick & Rob

andrea,-rob,-tommy,-patrick11

Part of the building dream team!

Woodwork, metalwork, electric and anything else needed! With an ever-growing sanctuary a building team is vital to make sure we can keep up with places to keep the animals and volunteers. This amazing group of topless builders all have unique skills that we are so grateful for. Building, fixing and saving the day when emergencies happen we are very lucky to have them here with no plans to leave. They make such great work. Adapting to our challenging situation of second-hand broken tools and recycled materials from the bin. It's never easy to build here but this team always manages to win and create something fantastic, even with a smile (almost always).

Lena

lena

Manager of the small animals.

Leading the team for caring for many many animals! With every animal that is not a horse or donkey and over 400 of them to care for, Lena has to lead the team of “small animal” volunteers. Making sure every day that everyone knows what to feed to who and all of the special requirements for many animals are met. Always leading the team with a smile and knowing almost every animal personally she is a perfect addition to the finca. With a lifelong passion for animals It's a bonus that every animal loves Lena as much as Lena loves every animal!

Jacob and Alex

Jacob-and-Alex

Long termers with a passion!

Becoming part of the furniture and learning it all! This place wouldn’t exist without the passion of our longterm volunteers. Jacob and Alex are perfect examples of this. Here due to their love for the project, animals and this way of life they are helping everywhere they can. Jacob started with mechanics and cooking while Alex started with feeding smaller animals and giving tours to visitors. Both have migrated to the horse team due to their growing passion. Also, both without previous horse experience they have learnt everything here and become real assets to have around. Passion and hard work is what makes the perfect volunteer and we are happy to have these 2 without plans to leave.

Cymra and Bleu

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Mother and son duo!

Our Queen of the kitchen & our youngest volunteer! With her lengthy experience of fantastic vegan cooking Cymra is the perfect kitchen Queen. Making sure our volunteers all have full bellies and are happy. Happy volunteers are the key to our happy sanctuary and this starts in the kitchen. Cooking for 45+ people with only waste food is a challenge that she takes on daily! Bleu is currently our youngest volunteer who likes to help everywhere he can due to his passion for animals. His knowledge and love for horses grows every day. Egg collector/ donkey walker/ chatterbox and dog bather are some of his main roles at the finca.
Last but certainly not least we have our huge team of volunteers, we are totally staffed by unpaid volunteers from all over the world, of all ages with a range of skills and expertise. Animal care, building, gardening, social media, etc. All who give their time to expanding our lovely finca and taking care of the day-to-day tasks. For more information on our volunteering programme you can check out our page volunteers. Or check our work away profile to read our lovely reviews workaway
Our Team