Derbyshire horse with beautiful coat of poppies helps raise crucial funds for armed forces charity

Claire Barley, from Eckington, has found a novel way of raising much-needed funds for the Royal British Legion. After taking part in the town’s Remembrance Sunday parade, she decided to use her horse Troy to help the charity – and raise awareness of the horses that have contributed so much during conflict.

She said: “The idea came from my own passion for horses. It’s been an idea that I’ve had for two or three years – I’ve marched in the Remembrance Sunday parade myself and been there every year for this event, and it’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing. Because I have this horse Troy, who is such a calm, quiet boy, I had the idea of him joining the parade, in the hopes of raising awareness of the war horses that fell during the First and Second World War. The parade was then shut down for the next two years because of Covid, and we’ve picked the idea up again this year, not knowing what response to expect and what red tape we’d need to go through.”

READ THIS: Eco-activist who faced four years behind bars for pouring human excrement over Derbyshire statue of Captain Sir Tom Moore spared jail

Claire said that, despite having to circumvent a series of different problems, Troy was given the green light to take part in Eckington’s Remembrance Sunday march. He has already appeared in the town, helping to raise an extra £800 for the RBL – and will also be taking part in other events over the next couple of weeks.

“It’s been quite a challenge to be honest – it’s been a lot tougher than I thought with event insurance, risk assessments and convincing councillors that Troy is suitable for the event. Initially, Eckington Parish council were reluctant to authorise Troy taking part at first, but after meeting him a few times and seeing the response from the public, they are now fully supportive of us. Finally, we’ve got through all of that. He did a walk of remembrance in Eckington a couple of weeks ago where the whole village turned out to see him, with his coat made of purple poppies. The Friends of Eckington War Memorial purchased the rug that Troy wears, and Walton Knitters made the poppies that have been attached to that – and we raised £800 through that.

“We have another event where he will be launching the RBL poppy appeal in Eckington town centre at the market on Friday, October 28, and Troy will be there at around 10.30am. On November 5, there’s another parade through the parish of Renishaw – Troy will be in all his regalia and there will be a couple of councillors collecting again for the RBL.”

Despite Troy being popular with Eckington residents, and having the support of councillors, a recent development means that he might not be able to take part in the town’s remembrance parade after all of Claire’s work.

She said: “The ultimate finale was for Troy to take part in the Remembrance Sunday parade, but we’ve hit a brick wall. Everything that has been asked of us, we’ve done. We’ve exposed him to crowds, to church bells ringing – all these things councillors had concerns might be a problem. We wanted to be part of the parade, and sadly, for unknown reasons earlier this week, another group involved said that if Troy takes part they won’t be participating. At this point in time, we don’t know if he’ll be able to march, despite all our efforts – and the community really want to see him there.

“I don’t know if there will be any negotiations to sort this out, or if it’s ‘them or us’ – it’d be a great shame if not because the public have all got behind Troy, they all want him there. I’ve got four horses, but I’ve chosen Troy for his temperament and personality. He’s a calm, people loving horse who loves fuss and attention – if I didn’t believe in his steady character, I wouldn’t have put him forward for this.”