Bopper was bought by Pinebrush couple Chris and Greg Ahearn from the knackery three years ago.

He joined the couple and their 18 or so other rescue horses on their 165-acre farm for a nice quiet life, but it has been anything but.

“They say cats have nine lives and Bopper is probably getting very close to that too,” Chris said.

“During the April storms, 12 horses drowned on our property.  Ten were ours and two belonged to friends.

“I thought Bopper was among them as a friend down the road said he saw horse with four white feet dead in a tree.

“I obviously thought the worst until a day later when I saw Greg walking up the road with him.

“He was washed downstream with all the other horses who were on the lower side of the road, but survived.

“There wasn’t a scratch on him.

“As sad as it was to lose the other horses, I was so pleased he was alive as he is a real favourite of mine.”

But their bad luck didn’t end there as the couple put him in a disused dairy just up the road as all their fences had been washed away in the floods.

Brave Bopper got caught up in his rug and sustained deep cuts to his back legs and rump.

“But the vet fixed them up, and while it took a long time for them to get better, they have cleared up quite nicely,” Chris said.

“However our luck didn’t change there as he nearly died from colic during his recovery period.

“For the past two years I have entered him in the standard bred class at Dungog Show, but because of his scars from the ordeal, I wasn’t going to take him.

“But the scars have cleared up really well so I have decided to enter him.

“He has been through so much and I know the judges will probably take note of the scars, but I think he will do really well otherwise.”

Bopper will compete on Saturday morning.