Meet miniature pony Jack Brock and owner Ali Stearn

When a pony is part of your family – it should be a part of Christmas too!

Jack Brook is a small horse with a huge personality. Already famous for his charitable work throughout East Anglia and at Christmas, the Miniature Shetland Pony, an adorable family pet as well as an official dementia ambassador, makes sure he is at the center of his family’s festivities.

Jack shares a stable with his brother Joe on a farm in Selfield, near Weymondam, but also pops up regularly next to the farmhouse to visit owners Ali and Robert Stern and their two young children.

His festive traditions include helping four-year-old bunny and two-year-old Bertie hang their stockings on Christmas Eve (and helping himself on any carrots left for the reindeer) and a place at the table for Christmas dinner.

It gets its own storage too. “All of our pets get stocked!” Ali said. “He’s going to have carrots and apples and mint and he needs a new headband!”

Over the past few years, Jack’s Christmas has included starring in Charity Cards, created from Ali’s paintings, an artist as well as running a plant and garden design business, The Garden Box, and writing and illustrating books about Jack’s Colorful Life.

Jack and Joe were originally rescue ponies, and Ali adopted them 14 years ago.

She grew up with horses, and learned to ride when she was two years old. A year later, her mother married jockey Bob Champion (played by John Hurt in Heroes, for his Grand National victory and victory over cancer).

“When they got married, Bob was in a rented yard and Mummy bought a plot of land in Newmarket and built a racetrack from scratch so that Bob could train with the horses at Newmarket races,” Ali said. “Growing up in Newmarket was cool. I had my own ponies with their striped racing papers. We had mini versions of our ponies!

“I used to go out with Bob on the run before school on my little pony. I’ve always wanted to be a jockey. That poor pony was getting out of his way. There was this chain of racehorses and then I on the pony! I was sitting on all the racehorses and walking around the yard with Bob grabbed my leg. I was like a pea on a drum!”

She was raised with her sister Tilly – her father was a point-to-point knight – and half-sister Henrietta who was Bob’s daughter. “We always brought ponies home when we were kids!” Ali said.

But when she was fifteen, her mother and Bob separated, and then her father died in tragic circumstances. “I was 17 or 18 at the time. It was very painful. We had a great relationship with my dad and I adored Bob,” Ali said. “My personal life has been very sad.”

She believes this is the reason for the time and effort she’s devoted to raising money for charity and helping people with dementia. Even as a child she was fundraising. “We used to shake buckets of Bob Champion Cancer Trust money when we were kids collecting it from cars coming from racing,” Ali said. And my first Christmas card starring Jack raised money for the Trust, too. “I still talk to Bob every day,” she said.

She adopted Jack and Joe because of her love of horses but said, “Jack was my therapy. It’s a therapy pony that goes to foster homes but my therapy is to take it. I got addicted to go because you see the response of people with dementia. It’s like they’re living in a fog and we all try Reach out or stumble our way, to try and pull a few back and get past a few things – smells, touch… People come back for a few seconds and this moment is a huge joy for their caregivers and their family members.

“Being a part of that happy feeling is totally addictive. I want to let more people do that.”

Almost by accident, Jack first put a hoof on the family farm. ‘I put it on a lead rope and left my phone on the kitchen table and to avoid trying to get it back into the barn, I thought, ‘It’s too small, I’m going to pass it through the kitchen door and grab my phone.’ He was very comfortable about it and curious. I found it very interesting, so I did it again another day when my husband was having lunch. I just brought Jack inside. He was actually watching the race and Jack’s head was banging around the door! Then it became a novelty. If we had guests, I’d bring it up when they’re a little confused! ”

When she was planning her wedding, the concept of Jack as a “confectionery pony” carrying baskets of confetti was born. Jack is a hit among brides and grooms, and then a nursing home nurse asks if he’ll visit the elderly residents to cheer their days.

The cute and friendly pony was so popular with people with dementia that it was adopted as a dementia ambassador for the East of England Dementia Cooperative in the UK. Ali said: “Helping raise awareness of this disease is our passion. I have lost some very special family members to dementia and Jack’s strength has proven to be so amazing so our job is to help as much as we can.

“A lot of caregivers who work all hours of God’s work writing and saying please can I bring Jack and I can’t say no.”

Even during the pandemic, Jack was able to make window visits in nursing homes across Norfolk.

“Jack even poked his nose through some window where the residents fed him carrots!” Ali said. He also toured around the apartment complexes to please the families who close their doors during the closure. People faced their families, and they showed Jack on their doorstep. This led to news on ITV and we also received a wonderful letter from the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, the Queen’s representative, thanking us.”

Over the past few years, Ali has turned some of her Jack paintings into Christmas cards to raise money for dementia charities, and in the past three years alone, little pony Ali has helped raise more than £24,000 for dementia charities, including £17,000 from Norfolk people helped her through dementia UK.

Jack and Joe aren’t the only ones on the farm. In addition to farming, Ali’s husband, Robert, is an amateur point-distance champ and has ridden over 100 winners. The couple met at Newmarket and Ali said, “His first love is racehorses! And because I grew up with racehorses, we had this in common.”

They train racehorses on the farm, where arable crops are surrounded by a mile-long enemy.

“Robert and I share the same passion for racehorses. So it’s funny that I ended up with two greasy, fluffy Shetland ponies, two scruffs with no breed at all! And the money Jack raised for charity means he made more money than most racehorses do! this is! ”

Their children Bunny and Bertie now ride Jack and Joe on the farm where Robert grew up and his parents still live and work. Family is very important to Ali, who is close to all her siblings, including the sisters with whom she shared her childhood and her father’s two children. Her mother is also a frequent visitor. “We are all great friends,” Ali said.

She is now talking about publishing Jack’s stories that she has written and painted with her own paintings. They started with Jack, who was purchased as a rescue pony with his mother, who is shown to be in foal with Joe. When I got them on Ali she honored the name of the man who originally helped them, Mark Brock, by using it as Jack’s nickname. The comic books continue to tell the story of how Jack managed to win the hearts of thousands of people throughout Norfolk and beyond. He recently starred in Hello magazine’s Instagram feed – shared between posts about David Beckham and Jennifer Lawrence.

This year Ali raised more money for dementia charities by taking Jack to people’s doorsteps on special occasions in exchange for a donation on his Just Giving page – but there was no charge for his recent celebratory visit to the Nook Children’s in Poringland. And for the whole of January, he’ll be back to visit nursing homes – hoping the residents will blow his nose and feed him carrots.

Before that, there’s Christmas – and a little horse with a big heart will hang its stock in the farmhouse fireplace tonight.

For full details of Jack’s charitable work, including his Christmas cards, how to book a visit and how to help him raise more money and spread more happiness, visit jackbrock.co.uk

Bunny and Bertie wear clothes by Coccolino of Timberhill, Norwich. coccolinonorwich.co.uk

Ali wears Trojan-designed clothes in West Norfolk. troylondon.com

Her shoes are by Fairfax and Favorite of Norfolk. fairfaxandfavor.com

Floral arrangements by Millie Rose Floral Design of Wreningham near Norwich. millieroseflowers.co.uk