Tabish is an incredible 13-year-old girl who was sadly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2019 and is undergoing 3 years of treatment.  She used to ride when she was younger, but in the tough times after her diagnosis her mum Jo decided it would be a wonderful tonic for Tabs to start riding again.  As she didn’t have her own pony, Jo decided to put a request on her local whatsapp group to see if anyone had a horse or pony that Tabs could ride from time to time.

A wonderful lady called Pippa immediately offered her own horse to ride, which was a lovely horse but at around 17hh a little overwhelming for Tabs!  She then found a friend’s smaller horse for her to ride, and as soon as Tabs sat on Monty she was in heaven! 

It was Pippa who contacted Willberry and his team to see if they could help Tabs develop her riding skills with some riding lessons at the nearby equestrian centre run by Julia Bodman.  Well of course Willberry was delighted to help, and so Tabs began to have regular lessons on Monty, which she absolutely adored, and which gave her something wonderful to look forward to in between hospital visits.

Willberry went to see her in action in a lesson with Julia and were very impressed to see what a natural and competent rider Tabs was. 

She had a week of lessons and Julia had hoped that by the end of the week she might be cantering, but by the end of the lesson on Monday Tabs was cantering and even jumping a small jump!! 

Julia was flabbergasted!  Tabs and Monty showed what a great team they were, and Willberry gave them some extra gifts of a smart Willberry numnah for Monty and a Willberry jacket for Tabs – ready for when they go to their first show together!

Pippa also took Tabs to The Hannah Francis One Day Event at Larkhill, where Tabs was given the VIP treatment with a driven course walk and even the chance to sit up in the cross-country commentary box to watch and hear how it all works!

      

Willberry is so thrilled to help Tabs on the road to being a top rider, and who knows, even becoming our next Olympic gold medalist!! Our thanks go to Julia Bodman who has given Tabs so much confidence and belief in such a short time, and we just can’t wait to see what she does next 💗