Cooley Rorkes Drift (“Art”), the horse who Jonty Evans secured the ride on through crowd-funding and who he fell from last month, incurring a serious brain injury, has moved to Andrew Downes’ yard to be kept in work.
The news was announced in a post supposedly from Art in the Facebook group Art’s Amazing Family, a group set up for the people who donated to the crowd-funding campaign (the group is currently closed to new members as the necessary checks for admission cannot be made without Jonty’s input).
“Since Jonty fell off me back in June I have been working on my tan in the field at home. I must say it’s been going rather well! You guys are amazing because I’ve also had an endless supply of Polos! This is all very good news but Jonty would not be happy to see the size of my tummy,” read the post.
“So in the last week I’ve been on a small road trip up to Staffordshire (where they all talk funny)! I’m up here to be with an experienced rider called Andrew Downes.
“Jonty knows and respects Andrew as an eventer and my team believe that Jonty would back this decision. I am not here to be competed but to be kept in work until Jonty is better. Andrew has a very nice yard and I’ve started making some new friends already.
“The plan will always be to get back home with Jonty and the team but until then this is the best place for me. Andrew is going to be super busy looking after me so please continue to monitor this Facebook page for updates on me.”
Art also asked everyone to support the #WearGreenForJonty campaign.
“I really do miss him! You guys are an incredible family and I can’t wait to see you all at events again,” he concluded.
The Art’s Amazing Family Facebook group is currently not accepting any requests from people wanting to join it — the administrators tried to include everyone who had donated after the campaign last year, but issues with email addresses meant not everyone could be found. At present Jonty is not in a position to look through all the requests that are coming in to the page, so the group is closed until he is well enough to do so.
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