Before moving, the homeowner sold the statue for $500, but the community wants it to be in a prominent place
In a town in eastern Ontario, people are upset about the sale of a well-known statue.
A fiberglass and concrete horse named “Tony” stood on the lawn of a private home west of Winchester, Ontario, for 35 years. Locals and travelers said they used the figure to help them find their way.
Roy Fawcett, Shirley’s late husband, bought the horse in 1988 to decorate a float for Winchester’s Centennial parade. He named it “Tony” after the colt he used to ride on his family’s farm when he was a kid.
The statue was put on a concrete pad on the Fawcett family’s lawn outside of Winchester at the corner of County roads 43 and 3, where he became a popular landmark.
Shirley Fawcett said that people often stopped at the intersection leading to the town of Mountain to take pictures.
She once got mail with the address “Horse Corner, Winchester,” and she remembers that late at night, teens would try to climb the horse.
Shirley Fawcett is moving now that she is almost 90. Then, her son John decided to sell the statue to Will Armstrong, a local vet, for $500.
Then, people wrote on community Facebook pages about how shocked and sad they were that the horse had gone missing. They said that the horse helped people find their way home during a storm and was dressed up to entertain children during the pandemic.
If the community can raise enough money, the statue will be sold back
So, Armstrong has decided to sell it back to the community for $2,000, which is four times what he paid for it the first time. This is what selling agent Steven Doyle says in an online ad. Armstrong didn’t want to talk about the statue with the CBC.
Janet Smith, a local resident, is now leading an effort to buy the statue back and put it back where people can enjoy it. Her online campaign is trying to raise $3,000, but so far it has only raised about $1,500. Doyle has even given the community more time to get the money together.
“Tony is part of where we live, he is part of who we are here,” said resident Brandi Hawley, who hopes he can be displayed somewhere publicly.
John Fawcett is not very emotional.
He said, “I’d never heard so much fuss over a yard ornament.”
Dundas Veterinary Services, a local animal hospital, has offered to let “Tony” be put up on its property if Smith can find a way to raise enough money.
Kim Archer, a senior veterinary technician at Dundas, said, “It would be great to have him here and keep him in the community because so many people know him.”