New home for rescue pony with taste for stardom
A rescue pony with a taste for stardom has found a new home after spending more than three years at World Horse Welfare’s Glender Spooner Farm.
May arrived at the charity’s Somerton centre in March 2014 after she was found in a poor state.
The skewbald mare was being fly-grazed on land near where the original Top Gear programme was filmed, hence her name, which is inspired by presenter James May.
May was emaciated, suffering from a heavy worm burden and infested with leg mites.
Thanks to the care she received at Glenda Spooner Farm she made a full recovery and quickly became popular with World Horse Welfare staff and visitors.
May has met many famous faces, including presenter and World Horse Welfare patron Suzanne Dando and eventer Mark Todd.
She met the pair while she attended Badminton Horse Trials to showcase the charity’s work in 2016.
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May has also been introduced to Emily King, who is World Horse Welfare junior club patron.
“Emily visited Glenda Spooner Farm earlier this year and enjoyed taking May out for a hack around the farm,” said a World Horse Welfare spokesman.
“May has been a wonderful ambassador for World Horse Welfare during her time here and provided the inspiration for our Invisible Horse Trail at Badminton 2016.”
The 14 fibreglass horses which made up the trail were crafted from a maquette of May sculpted by sculptor Judy Boyt.
Judy’s sculpture, which showed May’s right side emaciated as she was found and her left side in good condition, was unveiled by the Princess Royal at the official opening ceremony of Glenda Spooner Farm’s new visitor centre last year.
May has now found a home where she can enjoy hacking and pleasure rides with her new “owner”.
Joan, who has taken on May, also volunteers at Glenda Spooner Farm, so will be able to give regular updates on her progress.
“As with all the horses on our rehoming scheme, May will always remain in World Horse Welfare’s ownership to safeguard her future,” added the charity spokesman.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.