A pony who “refuses to retire” has just been placed at his first British Eventing competition at nearly 30, after fate reunited him with his owner.
McCaulley and his loaner Daisy Wilkinson finished seventh in the BE80 at Forgandenny on 9 August, to the delight of Daisy, and the pony’s owner Laura Ferguson, who told H&H that “21 years on from when I first called him mine, he remains the greatest legend in my life”.
Laura first met 14.1hh McCaulley when she was a teenager having lessons at her local riding school.
“I took him on loan because he was in the health and safety books all the time and they had to remove him from the riding school,” she said. “He was prone to running away with children, and a star at running at a jump at 1,000mph, dropping his shoulder and putting you over the fence without him, then running in the opposite direction. I loved him!
“I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for a ‘naughty’ pony, and no matter how much he threw me off and made me look like a numpty at a show, I just loved him. He was one of those love at first sight ponies; I absolutely adored him, and when they took him out of the riding school, I was the only one stupid enough to keep riding him!”
When Laura was 15, she was given the opportunity to buy him, which she said was one of the best days of her life. But by the time she was 18, she had outgrown him, and unaware of loaning options, she sold him to a girl, who sold him on to someone further away.
But a few years later, he turned up again.
Picture by Action Replay Photography
“One of my friends came up to the yard I was working at and said, ‘Have you got McCaully back?’” she said. “I said ‘What are you talking about?’ and she said he was in the field behind my work.
“So I contacted the girl who I sold them to, who put me in contact with the girl she sold them to, who was in the process of selling him; somebody was coming to pick him up tomorrow. I said ‘Please, can you cancel it and I’ll come and pick him up?’ She said yes, and I went with a trailer and moved him over the road, from one field to another.”
A friend lent Laura the £1,000 to buy him back, so he came home nearly 15 years ago.
“It was a bit of fate, for him to be in that field,” she said. “He was always my heart horse, and I was in the position where I was teaching at a yard where livery was offered as part of my package and I didn’t have a horse at the time. It was one of those moments of ‘I was never meant to sell him, so I need to go and get him’. Him being right there was just, to me, a massive sign of ‘This is your chance to get him back’, so there was no question.”
Laura said she had thought MacCaully might retire young, so she tried to but he was not at that stage, she said, so she loaned him out to a couple of people, the second of whom also tried retiring him.
“But I didn’t think he was ready for it so I brought him home and he’s been back three or four years,” she said. “Daisy started riding him four days a week; I said ‘He’s a bit older now, you might have to take a bit slower’ – and the two of them have just completely ignored me!
“They just gelled. A pony deserves to have a kid to love them and do all the fun stuff. She started taking him to the beach, then she took him to a county show and did a course of show jumps, and you could see, he got to the show and was ‘Everybody’s here to see me’, buzzing on the grass, ‘Let’s go’! And after that, I said until he tells us he’s ready to stop, keep doing it because he loves it.”
Picture by Action Replay Photography
Laura said MacCaully’s passport puts him at 26 but that from her knowledge of his earlier years, he must be 28.
“He just has this zest for life about him,” she said. “Everything he does, he does it 110%, and he thinks every time he goes somewhere that everybody’s there to see him. As soon as he gets to a show and there’s a crowd and cameras, he just comes into his own and goes in there like he’s walking a catwalk. We’ve just got the pictures from Forgandenny, and every single picture, his ears are pricked forwards, he’s taking her. I could never get him to go over a cross-country jump when I was younger! But he’s definitely coming into his own as he gets older.
“He’s not a dressage pony, he’s definitely a jumping pony; Daisy was very nervous about the dressage, but by the time she finished the cross-country, she couldn’t have cared less, she was ecstatic.”
Laura wanted to share her story to show that older horses can thrive doing something they love.
“I think people can be quick to retire horses and absolutely, if your horse is ready to retire, but I think some people are a bit apprehensive to do stuff, or keep them fit and going. I think some ponies and horses thrive in their older years.
“I keep saying to Daisy, if you and him are having fun, keep going. I’ve tried to retire him twice, and both times, his health has deteriorated, I’ve put him back into work and he’s been like it never happened. I think it’s inspiring to see a pony of that age thriving – and doing a new job – in his late 20s and loving it, and giving people happiness.”
Laura added that McCaulley is “the pony who made me who I am”.
“He is my whole world; I couldn’t imagine life without him,” she said. “He gave me that inspiration to keep going. If I think ‘Maybe I should stop’, I look at him and think ‘No, if he can keep going, so can I’.
“He refuses to retire quietly, and why should he? He’s a reminder that age is just a number, and with the right care and a big heart, anything is possible.”
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