Something borrowed, something blue

Credit: Zara Davis Photography

Pumpkin was in Blue Cross care for more than 500 days, now she's in a loving home and was bridesmaid at her adopter's wedding.

Poor Pumpkin must have felt she was always the bridesmaid and never the bride after spending more than 500 days in the care of national pet charity Blue Cross, watching other horses get rehomed while she waited patiently for someone to fall in love with her.

Then, Christmas 2024, Natalie King from Gloucestershire contacted Blue Cross’s rehoming centre team in Burford. Her 29-year-old cob Domino had just lost his best friend and was struggling on his own. “Domino was absolutely miserable, he needed a friend and fast,” Natalie says. “So I contacted Blue Cross and they matched us with Pumpkin who was looking for a home as a non-ridden companion. ‘She’s super-cool and just happy to be involved!’ they told me. Perfect!

“I showed them my home – an 11-acre smallholding with one sheep, two pygmy goats and Domino. The horses’ paddocks and stables are less than 60 yards from our front door so it’s a lovely set-up. I’m very lucky and Blue Cross agreed Pumpkin could come to me on long-term loan. When they told me how long she’d been in their care my heart went out to her.

“Five days later Pumpkin arrived at ours in a lorry. I put her next door to Domino and after a quarantine period of one week, they joined each other in the paddock. Happy days – they really liked each other. I was very relieved it was all so easy and that Domino was content again.”

Pumpkin, a 17-year-old skewbald cob, arrived at Blue Cross Burford horse rehoming unit in spring 2023 and spent a short stint in a new home before returning, through no fault of her own, to the charity’s care. But Natalie quickly realised she wanted Pumpkin to live with her forever.

“Pumpkin is perfect – an angel pony. She never puts a hoof wrong,” Natalie says. “When I call her name from the paddock gate, she trots over to me. I’ve had Domino 15 years and he’s never once come when called! Pumpkin is so easy-going and polite. She’s a joy to have around.”

A few months after Natalie took Pumpkin in, Blue Cross Burford Regional Adoptions Facilitator Bradley Moore-Taylor visited to see how things were going. Realising how happy Pumpkin was, he asked Natalie: ‘Would you like to officially own her?’. There was only one answer. Yes! “Pumpkin was so obviously happy and settled with Charlotte it felt right to make the arrangement permanent,” Bradley says.

And that wasn’t the only ‘Yes’ Natalie was saying. The following week she got married, with Pumpkin’s legal ownership paperwork arriving the day before the wedding. “We had a service in the village church and the reception in a tipi in our fields,” Natalie says. “The horses were very much part of the day, watching the goings on from the paddock, and Pumpkin becoming officially mine just made it more special.

“Then my bridesmaid Siân said: ‘Pumpkin wondered if she could be a bridesmaid too.’ Sian had got her bridesmaid’s dress taken up and used the spare fabric, unbeknownst to me, to tie a bow in her forelock. It was such a lovely gesture and Pumpkin looked gorgeous. So Siân and I had some official wedding photos taken with Pumpkin – girls together. Then my husband Ben and I had pictures with Pumpkin, Domino and ex-racehorse Benji (Old Beginnings), who had returned home from his retraining yard. The boys love their little sister!"

For richer for poorer; in sickness and in health – that’s Natalie’s vow to Pumpkin as well as Ben.