rory the pony

NEWS AND VIEWS  -  STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH!

Rory was just a day old when he came to Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society's Basildon based Sanctuary on 14 October 2006.  His dam had rejected him at birth.  Rory’s owner had immediately sought veterinary advice and, armed with this, was determined to do his very best for little Rory.  He stayed up all night trying to bottle feed the youngster, who was having none of it.  In desperation, Rory's owner contacted his vets again the following morning as the youngster was fading fast.  Knowing how very difficult it is to handrear such fragile beings as rejected or orphaned foals, the vet suggested he contact EHPPS for help with Rory.  Rory’s owner was a caring, responsible and compassionate man – but he knew when he was beaten with Rory.  This is when EHPPS were approached for help.

Now vets can do pretty amazing things for young foals such as Rory, but it is absolutely imperative that the foal is presented to the vet within the first 24 hours if it has any chance of survival.  Handrearing sickly youngsters is another business altogether – and no easy task.  As with most newborns, their condition can deteriorate extremely quickly and an expert eye is needed to spot this.   Hand rearing foals is one of EHPPS’ specialities and we have a very good success rate – provided that the foals are presented to us quickly enough. As we always say “We can work wonders, but we can’t perform miracles".  Rory was by far one of the most difficult foals we have ever reared – well who lived to tell the tale anyway!  

Stable Manager, Sam Edwards, went along with one of our Field Officers to collect Rory from his owner.   Sam arrived back at the Sanctuary, sitting in the passenger seat of our truck, with a tiny, half dead, colt foal in her arms.  Our vet had been alerted and was on his way to the Sanctuary to see what could be done for Rory.  As soon as he arrived, our vet put Rory on an IV drip of plasma, some strong antibiotics and got some fluids into him.  It was touch and go for the first three weeks as to whether Rory would survive.  We lurched from one crisis to another with him.  However, with the skill of our vets, who attended Rory on a daily basis, the dedication of our staff and volunteers and Rory’s strong will to live – Rory went from strength to strength.  One particular person deserves a HUGE pat on the back for all she did for Rory and that is Sam Edwards, EHPPS’ Stable Manager.  She sat up night after night after night for the first few weeks with Rory – her eagle eye not missing a thing. During this time, Rory was living in my office and roamed around the Information Centre through the daytime.  Having no other four legged creatures to mix with, Rory struck up a strong bond with Sam’s Labradors, Alfie and Millie.  He loved Millie in particular as they were around the same size (Millie was just nine months old when Rory arrived at the Sanctuary and was nearly twice his size!)  The pair played together, slept together, teased each other, shared milk from the same dish and chased balls together.  Rory’s story was featured in our local paper “The Evening Echo” in December 2006, merely intended to be a  cute, feel good tale just before Christmas – nothing more, nothing less. 

We didn’t realise what an impact this story was to have on the media at the time; the day after the Echo feature, we were bombarded with ‘phone calls from national newspapers as well as some others in the County.  The Daily Mail were the first on the ‘phone, and it was arranged for them to send a photographer down the following day.  Their photographer spent over four hours photographing Rory and Millie (and Alfie when he could be bothered) and came up with some beautiful shots of the little lad.  The story appeared in The Daily Mail on 8 January 2007, and our ‘phone lines went on overdrive from thereon.  It quickly got to the stage where we simply had to turn down requests for Rory to "make a TV appearance" as it was getting a little out of hand; after all, the day-to-day running of the Sanctuary and the residents' care always has to come first.  However, we thought if we were selective and agreed to do a few publicity interviews, this would also give EHPPS some prominent (and free) advertising. 

So …. Rory’s fame started to spread.  Rory starred on GMTV, BBC Essex, BBC Look East, in various other newspapers and, perhaps most famously, The Graham Norton Show in February 2007. 

Graham’s team came along to the Sanctuary one Friday afternoon and had a whale of a time with Rory and the dogs.  The put a little film together of Rory up to some silly antics and invited us on to Graham’s pilot show in January of this year.  The film was shown on the pilot show to see how well it went down with the audience.  Rory’s cuteness factor won them over and we were subsequently invited along to Graham’s new BBC2 series which started in late February 2007.  This time Rory was asked to come along too as a celebrity guest.  Knowing Rory pretty well by this stage, I knew he would be “up for it” – he’s a brave little pony who has only ever received love and kindness and, subsequently, he has no fear of people at all.  (By this time, Rory was fit and strong and no longer needed us humans mollycoddling him, so we paired up with an elderly pony, Bracken (aka “Nana Brack”).  It was Nana Brack who took the little colt under her wing and started teaching him how to be a pony.)  Before Rory was allowed onto the show –albeit for a five minute appearance, we had to meet a lot of criteria concerning Rory’s wellbeing (and quite rightly so).  The Corporation of London’s veterinary team had to be consulted before he was allowed into Television Centre, a written report from our vet was also required; an equine nutritionist was also consulted about the ingredients being used to make Rory’s “Oscar” which Graham Norton was planning to have presented to Rory for his “award winning film”.   Graham Norton’s production company paid for a professional horse transporter to take Rory, Sam Edwards and I, to the studio. Nanabrack came along for the ride too as she hated being parted from her little lad at this stage – remember he was just four months old at the time.   

At the studios, every possible effort had been made to ensure Rory’s safety and comfort; rubber mats were brought into to put across the miles of cables around the place, his “Oscar” (actually named a “Graham” for the purposes of the show) was shown to us to ensure we were happy with it – it was made of marzipan and icing sugar by the way.  The costumes department had also made Rory a tiny bib to look like a tuxedo.  During the rehearsal, Rory gallantly trotted onto the stage with Sam Edwards, who was his private groom for the afternoon (Nana was in the luxury horse box happily feeding her face at the time!).  He didn’t bat an eyelid at all the people and paraphernalia surrounding him – a true professional from the start.   Later on, the audience had taken to their seats, the cameras were rolling and I had been wired up to take part in some banter with Graham later on in the programme.  Rory’s little film was shown halfway through, and the audience roared with laughter at him playing with the dogs and generally being – well, just generally being Rory!  Kim Catterall and Elijah Wood were the star guests (Opps I should say the “other” star guests!) and towards the end of the programme Kim Catterall read out the “Graham” nominations.  The nominees were listed as “Black Beauty, “Sea Biscuit” “Amy Winehouse”(!) and “Rory the Pony”.  Guess who won?  Yep –  little special boy.  To the theme of Black Beauty, Rory, resplendent in tuxedo and with personal groom, walked out on stage to receive his award and promptly bit the head off and stood their munching on it thoughtfully.

Following the show, we were bombarded with emails regarding Rory – they came from all over the World – Poland, France, USA, to name but a few.  Rory’s story also started popping up on websites from Scandinavia to Australia. 

I would like to personally thank Rory’s original owner, Roger, for allowing me to have Rory.  He had a wonderful, caring home to return to, but I had become totally smitten with this youngster from day one.  He used to sleep in my arms when he was tiny and trusted me implicitly.  Roger also saw how well Rory had also settled and how happy he was.  

This is a story with a happy ending. Rory is adorable (but a cheeky little monkey at times), his ex-owner knows he is loved, safe and well cared for and will be for the rest of his life, and I am a totally besotted  “mum” to a smashing little pony.

Future Plans?  Well Rory is still young.  However, we are planning to have a lot of fun together at local shows and, when he is old enough and if he is happy to – I will have him broken to drive.  I think Rory has the perfect temperament for a driving pony – he’s bold and unfazed by most things.  If that doesn’t pan out for any reason – then I’m sure he’ll always have his film career to fall back on!

Sue Allery
Trustee and Sanctuary Manager
Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society
Registered Charity No: 297893