Barbara Mills, who died on October 28, was widely known and well liked among those who keep horses and ponies in the New Forest.

She was born in South London, the only child of Jennie and Jack Mills and grew up in Kent, where she became pony-mad and was a keen member of the Chiselhurst riding club.

She worked in HR for Esso/ Exxon Mobil which took her all over the country including spells in Scotland, Abingdon and Leatherhead and eventually to Fawley and Southampton. She became close friends with David Cockeram and together they moved to Minstead in the 1990s, where they lived happily until he sadly died in 2001.

Horses and hunting were Barbara's lifelong passion and when she moved to different parts of the country she took her horse with her, and so had the opportunity of hunting with a number of different packs. When she moved to the New Forest she lost no time in contacting the New Forest Hounds and was a regular attender at their meets, becoming Joint Secretary when her organisational skills were greatly appreciated.

Horse welfare charities were close to Barbara's heart and SPANA (the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) was her particular favourite. This charity works in the developing world, providing free professional veterinary care for working animals and education on welfare for their owners. She joined a number of tours to Jordan, Morocco and Ethiopia to see SPANA's work and made many friends among fellow supporters. Despite her illness she travelled to Zimbabwe with them in 2016.

When Barbara's coloured cob Polly could no longer be hunted about 10 years ago, she had her broken to harness. Polly became a lovely driving horse and Barbara drove her regularly in the Forest with other carriage driving enthusiasts. She was also persuaded to bring Polly to Driving for the Disabled, which gives weekly carriage drives to disabled people and she became a stalwart supporter of the group and eventually Secretary of the Hampshire branch.

Polly was eventually replaced with Billy Boy, who also came to DDA and gave members great pleasure on their carriage drives.

Her friend, Peter Burrows, said: "Barbara's horses were her family – nothing was too good for them. They were fed like royalty and had their rugs changed morning, noon and night. Indeed, it was often observed they had more rugs than Barbara had clothes!"

After her diagnosis of breast cancer, she insisted on coming home early to look after them and heaved bales and buckets around in the yard. When the cancer returned she made detailed arrangements for their care after she had gone.

She was admitted to the New Forest Nursing Home in Fritham at the end of August, where she had a sunny room looking out on the lawns. She was beautifully cared for and died very peacefully in her sleep. A memorial service for her was held at Minstead Church on November 23.