When equine vet Helen Bickerton undertook a marathon she decided that six legs were better than two.

So she brought her 11-year-old miniature Shetland pony Henry along with her.

Helen lives near Maidenheads and works at the Chiltern Equine clinic in Warfield.

Like many other charity supporters she was sad that the London Marathon had to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning a massive loss of fundraising money for good causes.

So she joined the 2.6 Challenge - named after the date (April 26) when the event would have happened.

Helen, 34 decided to do her own marathon - walking the 26 mile distance with Henry to raise money for the Brooke charity which supports horses and donkeys in distress,

Helen said: “I was looking for a fun challenge that people would enjoy following on social media and suddenly I had the idea of involving Henry. You can’t help but smile when you see his little face, and involving a pony made the challenge a little bit different and provided a link to Brooke.”

The pair walked around four miles each day, in line with lockdown exercise regulations.

She said: “Henry’s walk can be quite slow (averages about 2.7mph) so we did a fair amount of trotting too. I let him set the pace - since this challenge is about animal welfare it wouldn’t be appropriate to be dragging him along behind me.”

The pair set off on April 26 and finished five days later.

They were joined some of the way by Helen's daughter Daisy, two.

The money raised by Helen and Henry will go towards Brooke’s work across the world making improvements to the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules and the communities that depend on them. Now more than ever, these animals are crucial to the survival of communities dealing with Covid-19.

You can see all of Helen and Henry’s videos from the challenge on https://helenandhenrysalternativemarathon.wordpress.com/

To donate to Helen’s JustGiving page, head to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/helen-and-henry-s-alternative-marathon