Hilarious!!!

asmp

asmp

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We are about to back our youngster and I found a book on my bookshelf that I've had for years called 'From Paddock to Saddle' by Captain Elwyn Hartley Edwards. Flicking through it I read this passage on equipment you need and burst out laughing:

"First item is an Assistant. ............ Above all, the greatest virtue in an assistant is the ability to keep her mouth firmly shut. Chattering women (and I am presuming our assistant will be a girl) are a trial at any time, but when dealing with young horses, that demand the trainer's whole attention, they are an abomination! Given that your chosen assistant has had her tongue removed, or has, at least, learnt to keep it under control, she needs to be a lightweight of the quick, wiry sort - round puddings are not best fitted to this sort of work."

I wonder if he was married???
 
asmp said:
We are about to back our youngster and I found a book on my bookshelf that I've had for years called 'From Paddock to Saddle' by Captain Elwyn Hartley Edwards. Flicking through it I read this passage on equipment you need and burst out laughing:

"First item is an Assistant. ............ Above all, the greatest virtue in an assistant is the ability to keep her mouth firmly shut. Chattering women (and I am presuming our assistant will be a girl) are a trial at any time, but when dealing with young horses, that demand the trainer's whole attention, they are an abomination! Given that your chosen assistant has had her tongue removed, or has, at least, learnt to keep it under control, she needs to be a lightweight of the quick, wiry sort - round puddings are not best fitted to this sort of work."

I wonder if he was married???
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Hahahaha, can I steal that for facebook? I have many friends that will have an absolute scream at that!

Just brilliant. I think I need to buy the book :)
 
He was a great friend of my grandmother and used to come and stay (and drink the place dry of gin if I remember rightly). I remember having a lesson or two with him whilst he was staying and he was very no nonsense (and quite scary) and an absolutely brilliant horseman. Don't recall if he was married, but he always came alone so quite possibly (unless Mrs HE wasn't allowed out in public!).
 
I should add that being of the chatty and pudding variety myself, I should perhaps not help my daughter with her youngster!
 
frostyfingers said:
He was a great friend of my grandmother and used to come and stay (and drink the place dry of gin if I remember rightly). I remember having a lesson or two with him whilst he was staying and he was very no nonsense (and quite scary) and an absolutely brilliant horseman. Don't recall if he was married, but he always came alone so quite possibly (unless Mrs HE wasn't allowed out in public!).
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Ha Ha maybe she was a "round pudding" !!
 
Ha! I'm too a proud owner of that very book! The one with the rather porky pally on the back of the jacket cover!
 
autumn7 said:
Ha! I'm too a proud owner of that very book! The one with the rather porky pally on the back of the jacket cover!
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Not mine. This is the one - I think I got it from a book club in the 80s.

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frostyfingers said:
He was a great friend of my grandmother and used to come and stay (and drink the place dry of gin if I remember rightly). I remember having a lesson or two with him whilst he was staying and he was very no nonsense (and quite scary) and an absolutely brilliant horseman. Don't recall if he was married, but he always came alone so quite possibly (unless Mrs HE wasn't allowed out in public!).
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Sounds like a wonderful man and love the gin bit! No nonsense and direct, from a generation that called a spade a spade. I wonder if a lot of people like him learnt their horse skills from the war. Of the same ilk as the vet Captain Horace Hayes who wrote the original Veterinary Notes for Horse Owners
 
I've got Captain Hayes book too - the 11th Edition dated 1929, it's fantastic reading and I still refer to it. I also have Horses & Stables by Lt General Sir F Fitzwygram dated 1894 (what a name) and Sympathetic Training of Horse and Man by Major Paterson MC dated 1926 both of which are very interesting and in some cases still very relevant. I love flicking through them.
 
asmp, I have the same book but obviously a different jacket cover, published 1994.

Loving the final photo in the book of chap (author?) wearing flat cap, jumping a bridle-less horse (not porky pally this time).
Caption reads "Five-strand wire fence without a bridle. A schooled horse under an educated rider can be ridden safely over such a fence without a bit." Impressive!!

I also have 1987 revised edn. of Horace Hayes Veterinary Notes. The vet Bible of its time and one I still refer to from time to time.
 
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Quite so, Cortez. If I get my skates on I'll get my own wire schooling fence erected by sundown. Naturally barbed to begin with, want her to pick those front legs up, none of this namby pambying. Shall ultimately aim for six strands. Capn Elwyn eat y'heart out!
 
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