STORIES
Animal
DONATE

Big Ben

by Florencia from St. Andrew's, Argentina

My hero is Big Ben; he was a horse born on April 20th, 1976 and died in 2005. He was an unusually tall colt, that's why he was called big Ben. Really he was called Winston, but his second owner named him Big Ben, because he was as high as the clock tower in London.

Its second owner paid $ 45,000 for him even though the first one only paid $2,000. Big Ben left the flat fields of Belgium and Holland for the hills of South Eastern Ontario. In 1984, the horse began competing in show jumping events. His first World cup final came at Gothenburg. He won 40 Grand Prix titles.

His story was told in the book titled "Big Ben." Big Ben survived to two colic attacks, as well as a terrible trailer accident in 1992, where 2 horses died. One was so injured it was forever unrideable. And another would never enter a trailer again. But Big Ben instead, won a Grand Prix only two months later.

After 11 years of competing around the world, in 1994 Big Ben retired to the farm in Perth, Ontario at the age of 18. He was included in the Ontario Sports Legends Hall of Fame and joined the best bred racing horse to enter the hall of fame.

I chose Big Ben as a hero because he could survive to a trailer accident and only two months later he won a Grand Prix competition.

Page created on 7/6/2008 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 7/6/2008 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.