adults hunting ponies....

[cheeseandhorses:)]

im not an adult but i hunt on my 14hh arab x - im 5ft7 now so do look a bit silly - he's not the chunkiest but i have found that when going out for a day with a hunt diffrent from the one i normally hunt with i found some people thought that he was not going to be able to keep up and hunt as well as some 17.2hh that were there. Was told by a man that children and ponies do go at the front as they can hold people up (tbh my pony gives the wrong idea at meets - he get very hot and has to stand away from everyone, and on the whole acts like he's never been) but when we got going i didn't see that man at the front - and he has no trouble keeping up with 'big boys' - i got loads of comments on how nice he was and how if he was a couple of inchs bigger..... -

 

[sonjafoers]

Cheeseandhorses this made me laugh.

I hunted with a different hunt 2 years ago & turned up on my pony pictured on previous page. A rather sn***y chap on a TB said to me that I should stay at the back as I'd only get in the way at the front and just to make sure I kept everyone in view if possible. He said that clearly cobs weren't suited to hunting alongside TBs but I should do my best and try not to lose them.

Suffice to say I was alongside him for the 1st half hour or so and after that he was behind me all day - quite far behind me at times.

Oh how I love my little hunting pony

 

[spotty_pony]

My boy isn't a pony but he isn't much bigger at only 15 hands! I have hunted him for the past two seasons and discovered that this is what we both love doing best! He is brave, bold and loves to be up at the front with all of the big horses. We are often the smallest out, and we do stand out against the big chestnuts and bays but everybody is really friendly and we have never had any nasty comments, only compliments! Last season, he was one of the fittest horses on the field and still had plenty of energy, when most of the others were getting tired! I will be hunting him again this season and I can't wait!

Here are some photos of us:

February 2010:

January 2011:

January 2011 (Blood hounding!)

 

[L&M]

Ponies rule in our country - it is hilly, wooded and trappy so the ponies cope so much better than the bigger blood types. I am a 38yr old housewife, 5 ft 6 and 10 stone, and hunt a 14.2hh and wouldn't have it any other way!

 

[icemaiden113]

Couldn't add the pic of my Exmoor at the meet when I posted the other day! But here she is! Hunts twice a week without fail and often whips in as well!

 

[Foxhunter49]

I have hunted many ponies and at 5'9" I did look under horsed!

Who cares? I was not to heavy for them and they enjoyed it as much, if not more than I did.

 

[Orangehorse]

Spoke to a lady once from an English pack that went visiting to Ireland. Scruffy pony was pulled out for one rider, who turned it down, so my lady said she would ride it - and had the best days hunting ever.

 

[abina]

Yep shall be out on my little 13.2hh welsh - she's a hunting machine, jumps like a stag, beautifully behaved, has brakes, and best of all I can get back on after doing a gate, stopping for a pee, or picking someone else up off the floor !

 

[Potato!]

Me i hunt (or at least try to hunt) My 14.1 haffie mare

Please excuse the purple numnah and blue gloves but this was the first time out hunting after an accident where she got so excited she went up and over backwards on top of me so i wasnt actulaay going but was talked into it the night before.

 

[ester]

er yup..

 

[Kallibear]

I will be!!!!!!! We will be going. One of the reasons I bought a sensible little cob, having done there and done that with big excitable nutjobs.

We've not been hunting yet (only just 4yrs) but we've been to a couple of common rides (not dissimilar) and he was ace. Roll on winter 2012/13 when he's big and fit enough to charge about the countryside

He's about 14.3 and I'm 5'8

 

[pipsqueek]

My Dad used to hunt a 14.2hh welsh cob called Ginger out with the High Peak years ago, a few comments such as 'where's your pony club tie Tony' soon stopped. He was an absolute star, jumped anything, never stopped and stayed out all day! I wouldn't worry about what other people think, as long as your not too big for your pony it doesn't matter!

 

[muffinino]

This is my 5'2'' self on my 14.2 piebald gypsy cob at opening meet (scroll down to DSCF2118510 ). There are a couple higher up, too.

http://www.sportingprints.biz/GFHOM061110F5/index.htm

At this point the Master took off down a trappy, sloping, boggy, reedy, gorse-covered hill and by the time we got to the bottom at a gallop, which was a good 3-4 mins later, there was only him, two whips, 2 girls (on ponies), my YO (former MFH), his fiancee (former whip) and I. The other 100 or so were slowly picking their way down the hill at a walk

Scroll own to DSCF2125910, later in the day so we look a bit of a state and I have an odd expression on my face, I was trying to see where I was going

http://www.sportingprints.biz/GFHOM061110F7/index.htm

Please note our matching poppies! He's not the fastest, but he will jump anything the staff will and goes all day, albeit a ittle behind sometimes, but we always catch up
Excuse the grackle being low, he'd rubbed his face on his knee when we had a break. Also, the plait is not a great one, but as you can see I do a running plait in the mane and plait the tail up then secure with electric tape. Very useful way of keeping long hair out of the way. I would also recommend pig oil and sulpher to help protect the feathers from the mud and wet, it really does work.

 

[Toffee44]

er yup..

Oh you have given me hope. And reminded me that I will wear a neck strap (well the horse will)


Thank you so much for your pictures, I hopefully wont be alone in the field. I doubt I will be ready for this season. I might see about going out cubbing this season once or twice if there are any quiet meets, apprantly the newcomers meet was hectic last year. And quite a few people have said go to a quiter cubbing meet and find a buddy rather than go to a meet full of bolting horses ;D

 

[ester]

I haven't been out very much, that was first time out last season, sometime after xmas... pony slipped on muddy concrete and we landed in a puddle . Went back out a couple of weeks later and were fine again then .

Hoping to get out earlier this year, not telling Frank of his advancing years

 

[tinaub]

I hunt on a 13.3 welsh cob and have a brilliant time. Very embarrasing, although flattering, whilst hacking towards the horseboxes after hunting, two 'adults' in front of me must have been talking about something risque, because the chap turned round to me and said, ' you weren' t listening to what we were talking about, did you?' I was somewhat bemused and replied in the negative, only for him to say 'perhaps you should, you might learn something'. He then turned back to his lady friend who muttered about him being careful what he said when there were children out. I was 39 at the time and had three kids,so I'm not really sure what he thought I could learn!

 

[mastermax]

Hi dont worry about anything, you will be fine. I hunted a 14.2 Highland pony last year and can wait to take him agai this year. We have moved from our home county of Cornwall though further up country and have to admit I am a little bit nervous about hunting with the "big boys". If you look in my profile there are some pics of us hunting last year. Have fun, you will love it. x

 

[Ella19]

Spot the exmoor 12.2hh (have bought the photo)

On my 14hh

 

[Ella19]

Wanted to add although I look like a pony clubber I'm 24 in these photos!

 

[EAST KENT]

That`s a lovely sort of pony ,your grey..old fashioned and business like

 

[tootsietoo]

tinaub, that made me chuckle! at least at 39 you are probably quite chuffed to be mistaken for a pony clubber!

That is the only problem I found with hunting my old pony. Later on in his life when I was hunting him, I was in my late 20s and I think often people assumed I was a teenager, so I perhaps didn't get chatted to quite as much as I might have done! However, obviously once people knew me it wasn't a problem, and one of my memorable moments is one of the masters yelling across a field to me, as we were cantering towards a fence "G, can you give us a lead". Everyone knew he would jump . I so wish I was still hunting my 14.2, but he's 27 now and just too past it. I am not at all as keen on my new, rather smart 16hh irish hunter, who looks good but doesn't do the business like my pony did.

Have fun!

 

[Angelbones]

er yup..

Fan-bloomin-tastic Ester!!

 

[hcm88]

I'm 23 and frequently take my younger sister's 14.1 hunting, it's a little machine! I'd admit that I have so much more fun hunting him than I do my eventers, its a bit of a pocket rocket and could gallop all day! People didn't look at me as if I was silly, in fact quite the opposite - everyone wanted him!

 

[xfeex]

yep-

I have 16hh horses but they are not a patch on my 12.2 pocket rocket Arthur!

 

[wilsha]

i hunt my 14.2 but then im only 17 and not very heavy but theres a lady thats quite tall and hunts a 12.2 stallion with us loads of people hunt ponies around here
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101806403218401.2310.100001671246125&type=1&l=2cbcd24d64
you should find one of me and my friends hunting, 2 of us on ponies im on grey shes on chestnut

 

[CrazyMare]

I think this shows how small we are compared to the others!!!

We are the grey bottom

On that particular day, we were jumping 5 bar gates.