Jenny MacGregor, defender of horses and ponies – obituary

Jenny MacGregor, who has died aged 85, was the chairman of the Society for the Welfare of Horses and Ponies (SWHP); during her 40 years with the charity she rescued more than 2,000 horses and ponies and her activism was instrumental in the passing of the Control of Horses Act 2015.

She was born Jennifer Tod on August 30 1932 at Alverstoke, Hampshire, and came from a long line of indomitable and striking women, including her grandmother, the Olympic tennis champion Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith.

Expelled from Parsons Mead Girls’ School, Surrey, at 15 for being a “bad influence”, Jenny was an unlikely debutante, and began working at Vogue, though she spent much of her time asleep at her desk, often having arrived directly from a party.

She met her husband, Alasdair, at a Cambridge Ball after he asked her to hold his wallet before jumping into the Cam to save some people who had toppled off a punt....