Pippa Funnell, patron of World Horse Welfare, was a back seat driver at Olympia, The London International Horse Show this week to promote the re-homing of ponies
The top British eventer took part in the Santa vs Scrooge Celebrity Scurry Stakes as a backstepper, along with In-Harness magazine founding editor Fiona Powell, on the carriages pulled by two World Horse Welfare rescue ponies.
The 12-year-old driving ponies, Sapphire and Yogi from the Trust, with their drivers, Amy Last and Liz Harcombe, raced round a course designed by international FEI driving trial course builder, Johan Jacobs who also designed the FEI World Driving Cup course at Olympia.
Following the competition, grooms were handed an ice bucket brimming with ice which they could throw at a nominee of their choice. Roly Owers, The Horse Welfare Trust’s chief executive, was the hapless recipient and he took his dousing in smiling good heart.
“It is for a good cause, after all,” he laughed.
Founded in 1927, initially as a campaigning organisation to prevent the export of live British horses for slaughter, the Horse Welfare Trust is now the UK’s largest horse welfare and rehousing charity and its net has spread worldwide. With some 1700 horses and ponies in their care, their aim is always to re-home their charges with sympathetic and caring people, supporting them with one or two visits a year by one of their field officers. Ownership of the horses and ponies remain with the Trust.
“We will have rehoused some 300 horses and ponies by the end of the year,” said Roly Owers “We have every type of animal from Thoroughbred racehorses and eventers to children’s ponies.”
