Hunter Horse Haven in Anna Bay struggling with limited access on muddy, flood-prone driveway

Located near Anna Bay, Hunter Horse Haven is a not-for-profit group responsible for the rehabilitation and rehoming of rescue horses but with a sludgy driveway, limited access is posing a problem.

"The simple fact is that road in is impassible most of the time, you can't get a car in let alone a horse float," treasurer Louise Evans said.

The driveway, which is soft and sunken even on a warm day, winds around to the sanctuary which is home to 23 horses on a block prone to flooding.

"We have no rain for a week and it's still muddy, we're ankle deep in mud when it's dry, imagine when it's wet," Ms Evans said.

She said not having a safe driveway was putting both the horses and 40 volunteers at risk.

"Usually we have to get horses dropped at the front of the property and walk them in," she said.

"We can have horses with serious behavioural problems and leading them in when they're unfamiliar with the place and other horses can be very dangerous to volunteers, and it's not great for the horse either.

"When we get rescues we don't know what time of day it's going to be, a safe road to drive in on is important."

Ms Evans said the double-handling of feed was also becoming too much for the organisation's helpers who are mostly made up of women.

"We try to carry as much as we can but I can tell you bringing 10, 25 kilo bags of chaff off the truck, onto the trailer and trying to get it in with a paddock ute, and offload it - the double handling is too much," she said.

"The other side of it is if we have a horse who is sick and needs to get to a vet we'll struggle to get the horse out."

Ms Evans said being an organisation that runs solely on community donations and grants didn't leave much room to splurge, especially when faced with a natural disaster.

"Our feed bill at the moment is $800 a fortnight plus hay which is $26 a bale at the moment," she said.

The property runs on bore water, with no toilet, no electricity and nowhere to store feed and tack other than two large shipping containers.

"We have a bulk feed container that has saddle blankets, fencing ... we're just finding storage wherever possible," Ms Evans said.

"It's very difficult [for volunteers] to work in those conditions especially in summer and in the rain we've got no cover."

Despite the struggles, Ms Evans said the Port Stephens community had been "extremely generous" with their donations.

"Community donations are what keeps us going and we try to make do," she said.

She said ideally donations were needed of gravel and sand to help fix 115 metres of driveway.

"Truckloads of sand and gravel and a shipping container ... we really need it," she said.

Ms Evans said another way people could help support the sanctuary was by sponsoring a horse for $12.50 a week or adopting.

"What's really helped us is horse sponsorship. You can sponsor a horse, you get an information pack twice a year and you can come and visit the horse," she said.

If you'd like to donate visit Hunter Horse Haven on Facebook or call 0422 870 075.

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