World Horse Welfare, the official charity at the 2010 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, has partnered with the horse world’s hottest new star; Chinese Olympic event rider Alex Hua Tian in its latest drive to stamp out horse cruelty and abuse.

The leading international horse charity is launching its new ‘Hands On’ campaign in direct response to an increase in demand for its services. In the past two years alone, it has dealt with a 61% increase in the number of multi-horse rescue cases.

In 2009 10 large groups totalling 87 horses were removed to the safety of World Horse Welfare’s four centres, including an appalling case in Aberdeenshire where a barn full of rotting corpses was discovered along with 25 neglected mares, stallions and foals. This compares to 2008 when the charity dealt with eight large groups totalling 54 horses.

“Sadly horse cruelty is still shockingly common in the UK,” says Roly Owers, chief executive.

“We need people to really get Hands On against horse cruelty and help us to continue to be there for these horses and many more. Please come along to our stand at Badminton Horse Trials to pledge your support and buy one of our new ‘Hands On against horse cruelty’ t-shirts.”

This exclusive new t-shirt has been designed to drive awareness of the new ‘Hands On’ campaign and is being backed by rising eventing star Alex Hua Tian. Twenty-year-old Alex will be competing at Badminton for the first time this year and will be appearing at World Horse Welfare’s stand to help boost sales.

“Badminton is a specific opportunity for both World Horse Welfare and myself to really bring home the issues of horse cruelty and abuse and make people aware that they can get Hands On and make a difference. Welfare is at the very top of my agenda with my own horses and I am happy to be able to offer my support to the charity and the vital work they do to help horses,” says Alex.

The t-shirt will retail at £6.99 for children and £9.99 for adults and will be available to purchase from the World Horse Welfare stand (stand 99) at Badminton Horse Trials and on the World Horse Welfare website.

For more information about how you can get Hands On against horse cruelty visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org