A TRAFFORD community horseriding group has launched a Messenger-backed appeal to pay for a lifesaving operation for its beloved Shetland pony, Timmy - and to save it from closure.

Six year-old Timmy pulled through an operation last week to treat a severe case of colic.

He is recovering so well that he was fit enough to return home to the base of the Urban Riderz group, on the Sale and Stretford border, just a week after vets said he would probably not survive.

But the surgery has left the cash-strapped group with a massive financial headache - because it hasn’t got the funds to pay the vet’s bill, which will amount to several thousand pounds.

And if it can’t raise the cash the group could fold, two years after it was set up to give everyone a chance to ride and learn about horses.

David Moores, vice chairman of Urban Riderz, said they hadn’t hesitated to agree to the surgery for Timmy.

David added: “Timmy is the face of Urban Riderz and loved by everyone who meets him and he would not have pulled through without the operation.

“But now we need to raise the money to pay the vet fees. If we don’t get the money our future will be bleak.”

Julie Birrane, the co-founder and president of Urban Riderz, said:“Timmy is everything to Urban Riderz, everyone loves him.

“We were in tears when we found him sick - he was lying on the concrete with his legs shaking, it was just awful.

“We were all on tenterhooks waiting to hear how he was and we are so relieved he has come through the worst.

“We thought we had lost him.”

She continued: “We are here to help the community - but now we need the community to support us.”

Urban Riderz has just launched a riding and horse care course for adults with learning disabilities and runs stable management courses for children on Saturday mornings. A homeless teenager who it taught how to ride, Darryl Breslin, earned a place as a trainee jockey at the prestigious British Racing School in Newmarket last year.

*To make a donation to the group visit urbanriderz.org or call into its base a the Society for Abandoned Animals’ Centre, Barfoot Bridge, off Dane Road, Sale.