Ali Stearn’s painting of Jack Brock with Father Christmas is raising money for Dementia UK, to add to the £17,000 the pony has already helped raise.
Ali told H&H she bought Jack 15 years ago, from “lovely” Mark Brock, who went to a horse fair looking for a coloured horse and came back with Jack and his dam, who was pregnant.
Ali drove past the field, “fell in love”, and ended up taking home Jack and Joe, his half-brother.
“About five or six years ago, a nurse saw Jack in the local paper and asked if he would go to a care home. I said ‘we’ll try’,” Ali said.
“I said I was sure he would, as he comes in my house, and he did, he was there for ages.”
Jack became a brand ambassador for the East of England Co-Op, which had chosen Dementia UK as its charity of the year. As his fame grew, he was invited to more and more care homes.
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Ali, who has never charged for hers or Jack’s time, said: “I thought, how am I going to get to them all? And that I’d better raise some money instead.”
A sponsored walk with Jack raised £12,000. Then, after Ali had painted the Christmas card for her stepfather Bob Champion’s charity, selling 5,000 packs of cards, “I thought I’d better do one for Jack”.
“I think this is the best I’ve done,”Ali said. “I love supporting Dementia UK, and the reaction of people when they meet Jack is amazing. He’s brilliant with them.
“He knows how to be calm, and he’s so responsive — then you take him home and turn him out and he goes galloping and bucking up the field; if you saw him then, you’d think you could never take him into a nursing home! He’s a one-off.”
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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.
