After being told off for “horsing around”, one of my friends bought a horse mask to wear at his workplace. Impressed by the mask, it seemed like a good idea to theme a Christmas card on the New Forest’s most familiar occupants, its ponies (Ashurst Lodge, the Wessex Institute campus, is in the heart of the New Forest in Hampshire). So I borrowed my friends mask, bought a few more, and we create this surreal scene of a posh ‘horsey’ group, dressed for dinner, having their photograph taken at their Christmas meal.

As in all our cards there are reference to Wessex Institute such as its boat logo on a horse brass and the equine student graduation photograph on the shelf, amongst other things.