Rachel mother got in touch with Willberry to see if he could wave his wand in Rachel's direction. Rachel's sister Amy has breast cancer which has sadly spread. Sadly she is now facing a terminal diagnosis. 

With the Sunday of Nunney Horse Trials being Rachel’s 13th Birthday, Willberry and her Mum were keen to create a magical day for the two of them.  The wish was for Rachel and Amy to have a VIP tour of the XC by car. Rachel even had a few of her closest friends come and join the celebrations.  

Willberry woke at the crack of dawn, excited to meet Amy, Rachel and their friends and family. He had to fight his sweet tooth as he sat in the car with a super special birthday cake for Rachel and like every good party, Willberry had bought alongs some goody bags. Granting wishes, birthdays and eventing? All in one day? Blimey - Willberry couldn't wait to get going. 

The fab team at Nunney International were amazing in helping Willberry fulfil this wish. Teressa took Amy and Nanette on a full-on XC expedition!  Visiting the XC control to see the action, waiting at certain points of the course to see some of the big names like Andrew Nicholson, jumping the tricky combinations. 

The family had planned a picnic but in true British style the weather was quite unsettled. Even a Wonder Pony cant battle with mother nature.... He can however rustle up a table in the sponsors marque!  Amy and Rachel had some special visitors during their lunch, Kitty King, who had just won the 3*, Bridget Parker popped along with her Gold Medal, and David Doel! In a funny turn of events it turned out Amy used to babysit for him and the family were keen to say hello!!  Willberry's special birthday cake did a good job of refuelling everyones tanks. 

Mrs Yeoman, Bridget Parker and Teressa where so helpful.  Tanzy Lee took some great photos and Eileen Walwin and Caroline Hoddinott made such a fantastic job of the cake. Willberry is so thankful to the support he receives to help keep #makingmemories. 

Amy said: “It’s been a lovely day and so nice as you wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to experience something like this. Meeting the riders was fantastic. I love going to support my sister when she’s riding and it’s been great to come here today and have such a special time.” 

Hannah has battled with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for since her diagnosis in April 2018 and Willberry thought that she really deserved a treat for herself. Hannah has always wanted to go to the Cheltenham Festival on Champions Day so Willberry and his team of fairies got to work.

Just before Hannah’s wish was received, as if by magic, Willberry was contacted by all round good guy, business man and amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, who rides regularly at Cheltenham. Sam had heard of the charity and was kindly offering to help make any Cheltenham racecourse wishes extra special if he could.

With Sams help, Hannah was lucky enough to go on to the course at Cheltenham and get up close and personal with some of the epic jumps that the horses have to scale. Despite a slightly damp start to the day Hannah had a wonderful time.

Willberry received a request for Alice to be granted one of his special wishes from her Mum, Lara.  Alice has been through a tricky time after losing her father to pancreatic cancer.  Willberry was keen for Alice to have a fantastic day and create some lovely memories after the tough time she had been through just like Hannah would have wanted.

At the top of Alice’s wish list was to meet Ben Hobday and visit his yard. Willberry hold Ben close to his heart as he spent many happy hours in the company of Hannah and Ben - and let’s not forget that special trip at Badminton aboard Mr Mulry.....  

Willberry sprung into action and, with the help of Ben’s lovely wife Emma, a plan was soon in place.  Alice lived quite a long way from Ben’s yard so Willberry found her and her mum a lovely hotel to stay in called Eshott Hall.  Alice and her Mum got to stay two nights at Eshott Hall as Willberry wanted to make the experience as easy and as special as he could. 

The following day they arrived at Ben’s yard at midday and what an amazing time they had.  Ben and Emma looked after Alice and Lara extremely well. The cherry on the Willberry shaped cake was Ben inviting Alice to go cross country schooling on one of his horses...

“What an absolute treat”  Lara told us that she and Alice will never forget the experience and that it was a once in a lifetime day.

Very special thanks to Ben & Emma Hobday in making Alice’s wishes come true.

Wendy got in touch with Willberry's Wish team about how she wanted to go and visit the famous Frankel. Willberry and his team got strraight to work, speaking to Victoria Murrell who works at Banstead Manor stud Juddmonte Farms Ltd where Frankel spends his days.. Willberry also managed to get a trip to National Heritage Centre For Horseracing & Sporting Art organised before their trip to meet Frankel.

Along came the 7th December, the day for Wendy's wish. The sun shone as everyone made their way to the museum. Wendy and Julie were lovely. By stroke of Willberry magic, the first person we bumped into at the museum was Bob Champion!! He was on his way up to Olympia but wished them a good day. The paintings of the race horses were magnificent and the silks from the jockeys going back years in glass cases were extraordinary. 

The RoR have a small yard at the back of the museum where they can keep up to 8 horses for the start of there re training. They gave a demonstration of their work which Wendy and Julie (Wendy's daughter) went and watched. We had to be sure to keep an eye on the time as we definitely could have spent longer at the museum.

After lunch was finished at the museum we got back in the cars and headed out of Newmarket town and into immaculate countryside to arrive at Banstead Manor Stud.  Despite a quick sat-nav error and arriving at the mares unloading bay they arrived through the high metal gates up the drive to a beautiful manor house and the offices.

Wendy and Julie went with a lovely man from the yard and grabbed a seat in the sun as the 5 stallions were paraded out for them. Wendy said she'd had a brilliant time and was even lucky enough to give Frankel a carrot!!

What did Wendy think of her wish?

”What a wonderful Willberry Wish my daughter, Julie Hurst, and I had when we visited Newmarket in December in beautiful sunshine! The Museum in the morning was very interesting and the live demonstration of the Retraining of Racehorses quite fascinating.  They do such a good job. After a delicious lunch there Julie and I progressed to the main event of meeting Frankel and the four other stallions at the Juddmonte Stud. It was such a privilege to have all the stallions paraded before us as we sat on our 'director's chairs' and then to be able to pat and feed Frankel with carrots was oh so special! We will treasure the memory for ever. Our guide was so welcoming and knowledgeable, too. Very many thanks to him and the Stud. We also really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful and varied trophies that Frankel and the other stallions had won. Truly a day to remember!” 

Willberry is so glad he managed to bring a smile to Wendy’s face. 

Clare Reeves contacted Willberry’s Wishes in November 2017.  In April 2017 she was diagnosed with a grade three triple negative breast cancer.  She was only aware of her condition when her little mare began nudging her breast every day, and she realised she had a lump.  She has undergone a double mastectomy and hysterectomy, but apart from her young family her focus throughout was being able to get back to riding her little mare Frankie.  Frankie was very green and so one of Clare’s Wishes on her list was to have a sympathetic instructor who could help her and Frankie gain confidence together with the big goal to ride around a Wobbleberry event.

Willberry found a wonderful instructor James McCullough and arranged for ten lessons to fit in with Clare’s chemotherapy and operations over the Spring and Summer months.  James helped them enormously and gave her the confidence to finally compete in her first Wobbleberry event in September, where she successfully completed all three elements and was absolutely elated just like Willberry!

 Being the Wonder Pony he is, Willberry also managed to link Clare up with the showjumping legend, Nick Skelton. Clare headed to his yard and was treated to an amazing day there, with Nick showing Clare around all the yards, hosting a yummy lunch and even a tour of his son’s racing yard and the gallops in his mini Moke! 

Clare is an incredibly tough, positive girl who has fought her way through a dreadful time, whilst fund raising for Willberry at the same time.  She is enjoying good health now and is going from strength to strength on Frankie.

Bring on the 2019 season!