If you were watching the Super Bowl on February 2nd, you may have been charmed by an adorable chestnut mini in a TELUS ad determined to leave his paddock and join his buddies to the tune of โDonโt Fence Me In.โ That cutie would be William, the 18-year-old gelding who holds the title of clinic mascot at Ferguson Equine Veterinary Services in Mono, Ontario.
William is owned by veterinary assistant Sarah Ball, who describes the rather unusual way he came into her life. โMy whole family are into horses and we had this old Hanoverian and he was getting beaten up [by his paddock-mates],โ she explained. โSo we bought him a mini horse to keep him company. The lady was really funny โ it was a handshake deal, money exchanged, bill of sale โ and then she added, โOh, by the way, she might pregnant.'โ
As time wore it it became very apparent the mare was indeed in foal. โOut he popped and he was the most adorable thing. My sister kept the mare and I took him on.โ
Williamโs transition to being a valued โstaff memberโ at Ferguson Equine was pretty organic. โI started working for Robin [Dr. Robin Ferguson, DVM] about six years ago,โ said Sarah. โThen we built the clinic and Williamโs been here for about four years.โ Sarah says that besides being a hit with the clients, he makes a wonderful babysitter. โIf thereโs a horse in the clinic and itโs by itself, heโs its buddy. Heโs kind of perfect that way.โ
However, how he ended up landing the TELUS commercial involved a bit of kismet. โThrough Dr. Fergusonโs practice, one of our clients is Canadian Wrangler โ Sue Parker and Rick Parker.โ The pair are noted and respected trainers of animal actors for movies and television; on their website they claim to have wrangled โeverything from trick horses, moose mascots, big cats & charging Brahma bulls to scorpions, rats, beavers, lemurs, monkey bartenders, gargling roosters & break-dancing ducks.โ โSue happened to be coming through the clinic and we were doing โThe 12 Days of Willyโ countdown to Christmas [a series of fun winter-themed photos] for our Facebook page. So she caught us doing one of those and I said โHey, if you ever need a mini for anything, let me know because heโs really good.'โ Sue took a picture, as she had a client in mind who wanted a big fluffy mini with โa certain look.โ โSure enough, she showed them the picture and they loved him. We were shooting the commercial the next week.โ
The experience โwas a blast. He was really good on set.โ William had already been exposed to lots of exciting things in his life: Sarah had even taken him to her 12th-grade high school evolution class where he got to ride the elevator to the third floor. โIf the opportunity came up, I would love to do an ad shoot again. It was really fun and for me, it was a bucket list thing.โ
William recently had a little dental work done thanks to specialist Dr. Ian Bishop from Northern Equine Veterinary Services of Kirkfield, ON, who were thrilled to tend to the little celebrity. Selfies were the order of the day and Sarah notes that William is recognized a lot lately thanks to the TV spot and related posters plastered all over the country. โEven our FedEx lady came in and said, โItโs the TELUS pony!โ
Now the trick will be to make sure William doesnโt cop an attitude and want to hire an agent โฆ but Sarah admits he is definitely entitled to โall the carrots he wants for life.โ