Willberry Exclusive: My Badminton Debut

Pinch me

Soon it was just little old me, Ben and the V8 Super Cob himself, Mr Mulry, galloping at speed across the beautiful parkland. Each time we passed a crowd they cheered with huge excitement and great support. You could feel just how special an event we were at. Badminton Horse Trials. THE Badminton Horse Trials. And THE Willberry Wonder Pony was achieving his dream of jumping round the world famous 4* cross country course with the utterly inspirational, cancers butt kicking legend that is Ben Hobday.

I hadn’t really had much time to prepare myself for this magical day, as it was less than a week before the event that we had found out that I would be riding around it. Hannah had been fortunate enough to have been invited by Ben to ride Mr Mulry the Tuesday before Badminton just as he had promised her when she first met him a couple of months before and being the wonderful person he is, he stayed true to that promise.

At this point the combination were second on the wait list and we really did still think it would be unlikely that the pair to get in. So why not let a 17 year old get on board your possible Badminton 4* ride and have a go on flat and over some fair sized jumps? Seems reasonable! Anyway, Hannah had asked her hero if it would be at all possible for me to join him round the cross country course if he was lucky enough to gain entry and, of course, as Patron of our brand new charity “Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony” he said it would be his honour.

She had the most incredible day riding the wonder cob both on the flat and over fences. She was in absolute awe of Ben for allowing her to ride his top horse, especially to jump him (that in itself was an extremely exciting experience on Mr Mulry), but most of all, so grateful to him for trusting her and giving her a chance to do something so special and it will definitely be something she will remember forever and ever and never forget.

Stitched up

The double of corners. Now Hannah had told me they were on an easier line than the previous year when we’d walked the course on Thursday, so this made me a feel a little better, however, I soon reminded her that they were still incredibly large and wide and also she wasn’t the one that had to ride them.

Though I did feel a little mean after saying this, especially as I know how much of an absolute dream riding round Badminton (and Burghley) had and always would be for her and sadly cancer would stand in the way of this. But I was determined to achieve at least some of her dreams that just now weren’t possible. So here I was, stitched to a number bib, floundering around on the back of a top riders back, aboard a seriously powerful and talented horse called Mulry.

Well, never in a million years when I was sat on that shelf at this very event last year waiting for that lovely blonde girl and her mum Jayne Smart to buy me did I think I’d be doing this a year later! I’m sure Ben was thinking the same when he was sat in hospital a year ago too. As much as he wanted to, he never ever deemed to to be possible. Even so, Ben and Mulry tackled the double of corners effortlessly, and I felt like I really ought to have been doing a heck of a lot more to help than holding on tight but they were the experts so I left them to it.

Crowd control

 As Ben and I had been watching how it had been riding all morning before we went out, we soon realised that this was the case as the fence had been catching out lots of combinations, especially over the D element that was on a surprisingly steep angle following the mound with the hanging log in the middle.

But Mulrys Error being the extremely genuine Super Cob he is and Ben riding like a true champ too and me… Umm… Hanging on for dear life (!!) meant that we cleared this combination with ease and yet again the crowd went wild.

The further we continued the more I was able to depict what the fans were saying as they screamed wildly for the three of us; “Ben, we love you!” “Hold on Willberry!” “Go Mulry!” “You’re our heroes” “Kick on!” “We love you!” “Don’t ever give up!”. Each kind word meant so much to both me and I’m sure Ben too and only made us ride harder to complete.

We were well on our way to the Dew Pond that Hannah and I had watched so many getting caught out at last year and Ben and I had watched the very same thing happening this morning too. The horses were just seeing the water at the very last second when they reached those upright skinny houses and then either stopping dead, clambering over one leg at a time and crawling into the water or cat leaping and completely unseating there rider into the murky water that sat on the other side.

Kick on

Or you could be Ben and Mr Mulry who seemed to just jump in effortlessly canter through the water (covering us both once again from head to toe thanks to Mulrys plate sized hooves) and jumping out over the skinny house that followed. Perfect. That’s all I could say, perfect. So we galloped on our way, crowds still going wild, growing in confidence more and more as we went, which we needed, as I was all too aware of what was fast approaching.. The Vicarage Vee. And I knew Ben would be thinking the same but we had to keep it out of or minds for the fences before needed riding with 150% focus and determination first before we even got to that one.

I could feel Mulry’s gallop was starting to slow, he was getting tired too by the time we reached the top of the long pull before the next water complex with that HUMUNGOUS spread say right in the centre of it. Ben could feel the same as he said “Come on Mulry, keep pushing, we’re not quite there yet! You can do it. Do it for me!”. His kind ears flickered as he listened to the man he trusted most and seemed to grow stronger in his canter as we approached the large rail that stood before hand.

It all seemed fine until we hit the water and Mr Mulry’s rather large hooves found their disadvantage as we tripped, falling face first right down into it. I screamed “S**ttttt” at the top of my voice… I was so so glad no one could hear me, especially Ben, but I really did nearly poop my pants, because we Wonder Ponies might be awesome, but we honestly cannot swim to save our lives! Sharp as ever Ben was quick to respond and heaved him up out of the water, kicking hard on to the extremely big spread that followed. You certainly couldn’t fault this mans bravery.

Super powers

I could definitely see why Hannah never shut up about him. Just as wonderful as his rider though, Mulry shook the water from his ears revved up his engines and fired himself at the oxer, honest like an angel and flew out over it making nothing of its size. What a cool pair. I felt so privileged to have been there to witness it, let alone be on board too. As if that wasn’t enough stress for my heart.

What followed was a stonking great right angled open corner, up a fairly steep slope, but yet again the trio tackled it head on and succeeded. Phew, we were half way home! A little breather to recover from what we’d just encountered as we galloped away from the pond and over a large roll top and brush and we were soon facing our worst fears. Our absolute nightmare. The demon of all demons. The Vicarage Vee.

Ben the Brave

Fortunately, the V8 Super Cob being the absolute legend he is, and Ben being the ultimate master of the find-a-line, kick hard and wave your whip in the air look, flew over this ginormous great ghastly jump with ease and all three of us, bar my stomach, which was still taking off, landed safely. Phew, the relief was indescribable.

However, I knew it most definitely wasn’t over yet. We still had a long way to go to make it home and there was still plenty of fearsome jumping efforts that the Mulry machine had to tackle. But ever the fighter, one of the main reasons Hannah admired him so much, Ben kicked away from the lethal rails with even more fire in his belly to succeed. He was going to make it round this course, he knew it, I knew it, we all knew it. Just a year after #kickingcancersbutt he would make it round Badminton.

The big bank and roll top. Check! Angled hedges. Check! Upright gates. Check! We were nearly there, but first the almighty lake that was surrounded by vast excitable crowds, totally elated to see this wonderful pair nearly home and fighting hard to get round. My favourite fence on the course had to be the Mitsubishi pickups and I just wanted to scream “heeehaaaa” as we flew over them but I knew I mustn’t in order not to distract Ben. Hannah had given me strict orders on this before I was allowed to come.

I knew it was fair and he would seem rather shocked if I just came out with some random comment seeing as I’m ”meant to” be a soft toy, not a real talking Wonder Pony, but sshhhh, not many people know that – it really would sound just a little silly if when asked by the press “Why an earth, Ben, did you just tumble off Mr Mulry when approaching the lake looking frightened and confused?” And he were to answer “It was Willberry, he asked me if we were nearly there yet”. I’m sure many would just deem him as insane as no pony can talk can they?! Now that really would be crazy…

Cheering for home

The crowds went wild as we cleared the pickups and Ben artfully brought Mulry back to a bouncing powerful canter ready for the great big hedge with a huge drop into the lake on the far side. With a perfect stride we launched ourselves into the depths of the water, Hobday now sat well back in the saddle with my arms flying high above my head like I’m on a rollercoaster ride (some kind of rollercoaster this is!) Even with his long reins, we steer the Super Cob through the left handed right angled turn to the step up out of the water, neatly then ride a bold and forward two strides out over the skinny brush box that followed.

The cheers were then deafening; “We love you!” “Just keep kicking!” “We’re all behind you!” It was incredible to hear such amazing support from so many. To be honest I had a little tear in my eye; I was that touched to know that people knew little old me and Hannah, I really didn’t expect it. And for those who didn’t know, they wanted to, they wanted to know why there was this silly looking little pony teddy strapped to Ben’s back and the reason was because we are #kickingcancersbutt once and for all by raising money not only for research but to #wishwithwillberry too so that people can be happy and make the most of their last days as they so deserve to and with a horse too – as they really are the best animals on the planet.

Of course he can’t tell him that because he’s a horse but at least I can (kind of) and make sure everyone – including Ben – knows that that horse thinks the absolute world of him and also Sally his owner who he is so grateful to for allowing him to stay with Ben despite what happened last year. She has remained by his side like the truly wonderful woman she is and neither Ben nor Mulry can thank her enough. They were going round Badminton together. They had made it. He was so chuffed.

Editor’s Note:

Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony charity has been set up to raise funds for bone cancer research and ‘Willberry’s Wishes’, which will allow seriously ill people to have a horsey wish granted. If you would like to make a donation, here are the details:

To donate to Willberry’s account, please put your name followed by ‘Donation’ for reference.
Account No. 59445149
Sort Code 60-02-05

Read Hannah’s story at www.willberrywonderpony.com

Photos kindly supplied by Hannah Francis