Toytown rocking horse to be sold to raise British team funds
Toytown, Zara Phillips’s world champion ride, came face-to-face with his wooden doppelganger after Stevenson Bros of Kent immortalised him as a rocking horse in aid of Britain’s Olympic equestrian teams and the Countryside Alliance (CA).
The one-off model of the chestnut gelding may only stand a few hands high, but it has captured his trademark white flecks and wide blaze, and boasts Toytown’s real mane and tail hair and one of his brow bands.
It will be one of 18 exclusive lots to be auctioned at the Cheltenham Countryside Raceday on Friday (16 November).
Model maker Marc Stevenson said: “I love Toytown, he’s such a fantastic horse — who could ask for a better model?”
Another Stevenson rocking horse recently raised £30,000 when auctioned for charity, but Marc expects Toytown to raise even more.
“Both Team GBR and the CA are brilliant causes and the more money we raise, the more gold medals we may win in Hong Kong,” he said.
Members of Team GBR will also be at the event, with prospective members of the squad for the Beijing Olympics — including Zara, Mary King, William Fox-Pitt, Carl Hester, Ellen Whitaker and Anne Dunham — mingling with the crowds.
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The 2007 season brought nine team medals for Team GBR, including team gold for British eventers at senior, young rider, junior and pony European level, and team bronze plus young rider and pony gold in show jumping.
Last year the Countryside Raceday raised £200,000, and 25% of funds raised this year will go to Team GBR. For tickets telephone the box office or visit the website. Tel: 01242 226226 or log on to www.cheltenham.co.uk
Advanced bids for the Toytown rocking horse can be made by contacting Stevenson Bros. Tel: 01233 820363
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.