IT is the birthday present that everyone wanted at Burford’s famous animal charity The Blue Cross.

Celebrations to mark its 21st anniversary earlier in the year were postponed by the arrival at the centre of the bacterial infection streptococcus zooepidemicus that affects horses.

But Blue Cross in Burford has just announced that its equine centre has now reopened and is rehoming horses once again.

The birthday party in June, which would have seen staff showing off their skills with horse riding displays and canine training sessions, had to be postponed.

But far more painful for staff was that their mission of finding good homes for unwanted and neglected horses and donkeys came to an abrupt stop.

Horses were neither allowed to come in or leave the centre until the shadow of infection had been lifted.

Gemma Taylor, the equine rehoming supervisor, said “It was the first case that we have ever had of it.

“We had 70 horses on the site when we shut down.

“Before we closed we had been rehoming about 10 horses a month.”

However, the conditions of many horses brought in continue to appall staff.

One recent case is four-year-old mare Poppy.

Ms Taylor said: “She had been left in a field in the Leighton Buzzard area with no grazing or water – just lots of rubbish and scrap lying around. She had become very under nourished due to her foal taking all her nutrients.

She was found with another mare who had a dead foal by her side.”

Although the organisation is more than 100 years old, it moved to Burford as part of the charity’s expansion plan in 1990.

The ongoing challenge remains to find each animal, including cats, dogs and other pets, a home as quickly as possible and a new rehoming scheme, Home Direct, has just been introduced.

Dogs and other animals adopted under the scheme go directly from their old home to a new family without having to be admitted to the centre.

As well as freeing up vital space in the kennels, the scheme is also an advantage for dogs that are likely to become stressed in a kennel environment.

Centre staff member Joanna Toscano said: “More people need our help than we can actually help. If an animal can stay at home for two or three weeks longer while we find a new home it will help.”

Three dogs have so far been rehomed under the scheme.

It has added to the sense of optimism towards the end of a birthday year that has proved one of the hardest since the Burford charity became one of the UK’s best known homes for homeless pets.