A young rider who has been through years of cancer treatment has qualified for the London International Horse Show – with his “pony of a lifetime” who survived colic surgery and has come back better than ever.
Dylan Ward, who was voted inspiration of the year at the 2023 Horse & Hound Awards, earned his London ticket with McFlurry at only their second affiliated showing competition. The pair will be contesting the British Show Pony Society performance pony not exceeding 148cm class. They qualified in July, eight months after McFlurry underwent his lifesaving surgery.
“It’s really special,” Dylan’s mother Jessica told H&H. “We’ve got absolutely no expectations. I hope Flurry will be good but showing is really new to him too. Just standing in the middle was hard for him as he’s a dressage pony; why would he be standing still in the ring?!
“But whatever happens, they’ll try their best and have fun.”
Dylan was diagnosed with inoperable bone cancer in 2022, aged seven. After two years of intensive chemotherapy, proton beam therapy and radiotherapy, he finished his treatment in April 2024, but he is unable to use his left leg as a result.
“He’s in remission,” Jessica said. “Because it was inoperable, he still has a mass but they think it’s scar tissue. He’s still got three years of scans till he’s not monitored, and he still has a lot of hospital to do with all the side effects and disabilities, but the cancer side has definitely ramped down.
“He just cracks on, and when he’s riding, you just wouldn’t know. He makes the most of everything.”
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Dylan first went to ride Nederlands New Forest pony McFlurry three years ago, when he was at a friend’s yard. Jessica said she had no intention of buying this 14.2hh FEI dressage prospect for her nine-year-old para rider son.
But there was an instant connection, she said, and thanks to the power of social media, people made up the price to buy him for Dylan. The pair have won multiple dressage championships including the Pony Club special ability class two years running, and been placed in British Dressage able-bodied championships.
Then, last November, McFlurry colicked. He had surgery and spent days in intensive care. Jessica said there was no guarantee this would save him, and even less chance of his coming back to what he had been.
“Dylan did all the rehab,” Jessica said. “He had to be walked four times a day for three months and Dylan did it all. He’d go out there, on his crutches; he lost him once when something spooked him but he did it all.
“It’s been a rollercoaster but he’s an awesome horse. He’s quirky – he’s had me off before! – but him and Dylan, it’s just something like I’ve never seen before. They’re amazing.”
Jessica said once McFlurry was back into some work, they fell into showing almost by accident.
Dylan Ward and McFlurry: champions at first attempt
“We only did a walk-trot class because we thought it wouldn’t be fair to do anything lower at dressage, and they they managed to come away as champion,” she said. “Then I was convinced by friends to try to do some affiliated, and they managed to qualify for London at their second ever affiliated competition.
“Colic surgery has a massive risk that they’re probably not going to come back to where they were but he’s come back stronger and better and looks like a different horse.”
Jessica said her view, and Dylan’s, has always been to make the most of everything.
“When Dylan was diagnosed, it was horrific, and I cried for a day,” she said. “Then I thought ‘How can you be like that all the time?’ If I had cried for months and I’d lost him, that’s all I’d have done in that time.
“My dad also died at 49, suddenly, and that had already taught me that you have to live everything. Sometimes that’s difficult and expensive but make the most of what you can. And that’s when you get weird opportunities, like qualifying for London International in a sport you’ve never done before!”
Jessica added that London is very special to her in many ways.
“Losing my dad was even more sad as I know he’d have loved being a granddad,” she said. “None of my family were horsey but every year we went to Olympia, it was a Christmas present from my dad and he came with me. So when Dylan was old enough, I said I’d take him every year.
“He went in the sleigh with Santa one year when he was poorly, with Willberry Wonder Pony, and now he’s going back as a competitor, so it’s even more special.
“They’re a crazy pair; both been on the side of death and managed to come back. I could talk about them both for hours.”
Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
