Our Delivery Report
Funded on 28 July 2025 | Delivered on 23 December 2025
£11,828
RAISED
33
BACKERS
90
DAYS TO FUND
BIGGEST PLEDGE
£5,000
From South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership
1600
people have visited this project!
21 June 2025
Miniature therapy pony with ‘an awful lot of personality’ nominated for BBC award
Horse and Hound Magazine on InstagramA miniature Shetland therapy pony who spreads joy to elderly residents in care homes and helps those with dementia has been nominated for an award.\n\nKaf Barriball’s 10-year-old gelding Jo, who is small in size but has an “awful lot of personality”, has been nominated for the animal category at the BBC’s Make a Difference Awards, which “recognise those who improve lives” in their local communities.
South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership donated £2,000
More about our impact
Activity, health and leisure
Feedback from care home managers and activity coordinators whose residents met the therapy ponies as part of this project was incredibly positive. Many were only too aware that without our visit, many of their residents would most likely never have come into contact with an equine again in their lifetime; this is particularly heart-wrenching when it is clear that because we're based in a large agricultural community, many of these people either worked with, or owned, horses/ponies at some point in their past. Residents ranged from 58 to 104 years of age. The majority of the residents visited were female, but this did vary from home to home. That said, most of the male participants were very keen to interact with the ponies; there did not appear to be any difference in willingness to participate based on gender or age. A relatively small (but not insignificant) proportion of the people visited did not receive any regular visits other than those of a medical nature and, as a result, our visits enabled them not only to interact with the ponies, but with the handlers too; simply being able to engage with new faces improved the residents' moods, but when coupled with the addition of our therapy ponies, we were told we'd really made their day! These fully funded visits allowed residents of homes that could not otherwise afford a visit to benefit from meeting the ponies. It also meant that some homes were able to have more Having these visits fully funded not only allowed some care home residents to meet the ponies for the first time, but for others to have more visits than they would usually be able to afford; being able to visit homes on a regular basis has allowed us to build real relationships with the people we visit which, in turn, has had additional benefits for those residents. The nature of all of the feedback received was overwhelmingly positive, and many residents (even those with memory issues) apparently talked about the ponies for some time after their visit (in some cases for weeks), and were very keen to see the ponies again.
