Hundreds of entries were received from all around the world in a creative competition to celebrate the Year of the Horse.
The winners
World Horse Welfare asked entrants to send in their equine art, from poetry to painting, to be judged by a panel comprising Ian Stark, Pippa Funnell, editor of Ponymagazine Janet Rising, equine artist Michelle McCullagh and the charity’s chief executive Roly Owers.
The winners were as follows:
• Children’s poetry:Kiki Ratty, aged 10 from Kent, for A Dreamer Left Alone
• Children’s painting and drawing:Ella Staveley, aged nine from Bristol
• Children’s colouring:Kiki Ratty, aged 10 from Kent
• Adult’s poetry:Christina Ayres from Felixstowe for My Husband Said
• Adult’s painting:Geneve Gurr from Cambridge
‘Right from the heart’
Ian Stark said the poem written by Christina Ayres, which tells of a long-suffering husband with a horse-mad wife, “sums up horsey life in so many families”.
“It shows that horses can be not only a disease, but our saviours too!” he said. “It’s so well written right from the heart.”
‘Inspirational’
Kitty Ratty won both the colouring competition and the children’s poety, which told of an abanonded pony finding a new family. Janet Rising claiming her words as “inspirational”.
“It was inspirational,” said Janet Rising. “It had an uplifting ending after the poignancy of the preceding verse. In short, as with all good writing, it played on my emotions, which is what I look for and enjoy from any reading material.”
Both poems can be downloaded from the World Horse Welfare website.