Re: "as your mum once told me"
Yup - once worked for a horse welfare charity that keep some poor knackered beasts ( one blind, others were in terrible health as they had been rescued from bad treatment) as they knew they got lots of money for looking after them. Going back 7-8 years, i got told to sort the blackberrys out (when the whole blackberry network was down, iphones were of course bought for the execs. An then expensive 40" TV was in the reception area even though the site wasnt open to the pubic , only to a select number of visitors.
Provided training and employment for loads of folks in numerous locations in the UK. The hundreds of horses seemed to be an aside.