A stud owner whose daughter was treated by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight air Ambulance is running a fundraiser with a difference.
Gerda Weston, of Weston Warmbloods, is selling £10 tickets to a raffle, the winner of which will get a stud fee waived on any of her stallions this season.
The idea came about as she wanted to help the organisation that came to her daughter’s rescue some years ago.
Gerda told H&H her daughter Anna Beck, who now works with her and rides at the stud, was involved in an accident on a horse she took on on loan.
“Anna didn’t have a horse at the time – we’d put all our good mares in foal – and was bored so she got this horse on loan who she’d been told was perfect,” Gerda said.
“She got on it and straight away, I said: ‘Anna, get off now’. I’d never seen a horse look like that before.
“Its eyes rolled backwards in its head, it reared up and threw itself on top of her. It finally got to its feet but its legs buckled and it went back down on her again. I thought she was dead.”
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Anna, who was knocked unconscious, suffered a broken pelvis, ribs and collarbone, but not her back as her mother had feared.
“It was horrific,” Gerda said. “But the air ambulance saved her. They’re so crucial to us as riders, and I think some people don’t realise they’re charities that don’t get government funding.”
She and Anna, thinking recently about ways to raise money, came up with the idea of Anna’s riding a 24-hour marathon on the school, on different horses.
“But I said people have done things like that; we wanted to get people’s attention,” Gerda said, adding that the semen prize was the next idea.
“It’s given people a giggle – it definitely made the man from the air ambulance laugh!” she said.
Entrants need to email their details to studfeeraffle@gmail.com, to get information on how to pay. The winner, who will be able to choose between Cornets Pleasure, Zip Phin, Big Star offspring C Star and Kantairo, will be drawn on 7 April.
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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.
