A Haslemere-based animal therapy business may have to sell its animals after its rented farmland was put up for sale by the owner.

The Pony Pals Family – including four-year-old charity fundraiser Verity Seignot-Griffiths – will have to sell some of their pets unless they can raise the money to buy a permanent piece of land to house them after their rented land was put up for sale.

They have now set up a Crowdfunder page to raise funds.

The Pony Pals Family came to prominence on social media during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now faced with the prospect of having to sell some of their animals, the family wants to find a permanent home for the business.

Business owner Caroline Seignot said: “We have always been fortunate to rent grazing, but this gives us an unstable future as it always comes to an end with reasons outside of our control.

“Our rented stables are now being sold, along with our hard work.

“It’s hard to find a suitable paddock for the animals – we need stock netting for the sheep, small paddocks to exclude the risk of laminitis to the pony and donkey and hard standing and shelter as donkeys are not waterproof, especially their hooves.

“We have been searching for somewhere affordable and close to home to rent, but we can’t find something suitable.

“If we can buy our own paddock then we can fence it to make it secure and suitable for our needs, not for someone else to be in control of.”

The Pony Pals Family came to prominence on social media during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Caroline was unable to take her miniature Shetland pony Noodles, three miniature therapy horses and miniature donkey to children’s parties, care homes, schools, hospitals or prisons for therapy visits.

Caroline started to produce short videos featuring her daughter Verity and son Oliver interacting with the animals.

The films were posted on social media pages and became an internet hit when a film of Verity leading Noddles the pony over a jump had more than ten million hits worldwide.

Their social media pages receive around three million hits a month with thousands of loyal followers tuning in daily to see what the animals and family are up to.

Caroline said: “During the pandemic our posts became a light for many people during the darker days.

“The comments were becoming more serious, with the tune turning more from people simply saying a picture was pretty, to people saying they were thankful for the smile and that our posts were something they looked forward to.

“We became a positive little hub for people to escape from all the bad news on social media, and people could just smile with us, rekindle their own farm childhoods or that of their children’s.

“We became a little place to escape all the bad.”

The Pony Pals Family also raise a lot of money for charity.

Caroline added: “Verity is our main fundraiser. Her first sponsored event was a two-mile horse ride which she completed two days after her first birthday. She raised £1,000.

“The next year her and Noodles did it again, raising £2,000.

“She has raised more than £7,000 in total for charities.

“She has run two sponsored 5km runs – one with her sheep Hugo raised £750 for Cancer Research with them both wearing tutus.

“She spent February walking 7,000 steps a day and raised £2,500 for a children’s hospice.”

To make a donation to the Pony Pals Family Crowdfunder appeal visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/pony-pals-hq