‘My heart lies with the horses,’ says award winner who helps young people and sets horses up for happy futures

The founder of an equine charity that prepares thoroughbreds for new lives after racing and helps young people who are not coping at school has been honoured with a prestigious award.

Grace Muir, who set up HEROS Charity in 2006, was given the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) Community Impact accolade at the 2025 RoR Awards on Saturday (25 January). She received the accolade in recognition of “her outstanding contributions to both the racing and education sectors”.

“I am so honoured to receive this award from RoR because they lead the way in this sphere. While we also do different work at HEROS, there’s no doubt that my heart lies with the horses,” said Grace. “I hope that we continue to grow, expand, and reach more targets, making a real impact on the aftercare of former racehorses.”

In a video shown during the awards ceremony at Cheltenham racecourse, Grace explained that she started the charity with the sole intention of retraining and rehoming former racehorses. In 2015, HEROS diversified and set up an education programme, with support of funding from the Racing Foundation.

Grace said the charity sees a difference in young people “within a week” of them being at HEROS.

“We have 11- to 16-year-olds, who are not in school, but they come to us one to three days a week,” she said.

She added the charity’s mission is to capture the young people’s interest in horses, and get them back into school – with the hope they may return to HEROS to undertake a post-16 qualification and then on to employment in the racing industry.

“We also have a forest school, which we started in October 2023 – they have a half-mile walk to the forest, and actually the horses catch sight of them there and say, ‘Hi, what are you doing? Why aren’t you with us?’ Many of those [students] are now doing dual days – one forest, one equine,” she said, adding that HEROs has “lots of ideas and new things coming in the future”.

The two other finalists in the community impact award were Samantha Barton from Redberth Croft CIC with Up For An Oscar, for their work in building confidence and horsemanship skills among those who have faced adversity; and Louise Robson and Forth Bridge, of Thoroughbred Dressage, for their community outreach work.

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