Downlands Cancara

Downlands Cancara (1 May 1975 - June 2006[1]) was an English graded Trakehner stallion[2] famous for representing Lloyds Bank as the Black Horse in a long-running series of television adverts.

It was shot on the sands of Pentewan Bay in Cornwall and showed a black horse galloping through the surf along the wide deserted beach.

Cancara then went on to star in the Bank's "Legendary Service" campaign where he was seen rearing on top of a waterfall in a fantasy land of princesses, giants and goblins.

In fact he was filmed, rearing, at his home near Petersfield, Hampshire, then superimposed onto a model of a sugar waterfall created and shot at Pinewood Studios, just for the commercials.

Downlands Cancara assisted in raising many hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity, supporting such organisations as The Macmillan Nurse Appeal, Riding for the Disabled, his local Rowan's Hospice, The International League for the Protection of Horses, (now World Horse Welfare) Special Wishes for terminally ill young people and Children in Need, where he walked from Lloyds Bank in Cosham to Lloyds Bank Head Offices in the City of London, visiting Lloyds branches along the way.