Foxhunter49
Well-Known Member
Way back in the 1950's I had saved up enough money to have a days hunting on one of the riding school ponies.
I was meant to be hunting a 12.2 roan mare but she pulled a shoe so I had to ride a 13.2 Exmoor X pony, Pixie.
Pixie was known to be a bit strong but I was fearless and not at all worried about the matter.
We hacked to the Meet and the Field Master was one of the riding school owners. We had been lectured on how to behave, what to do and exactly how to behave.
The meet was fine and as children we were expected to stay towards the rear of the field unless there was a gate to open i which case we either opened it mounted or jumped off to do it.
We moved off and the Field went down a farm track whilst hounds were taken into a field alongside the track. Half way down the track their was a closed gate. As the Field Master went to open it so Pixie did his best bit of bending, using other mounted followers as bending poles and as the gate was half way open he jumped it and continued down the track into the next field where hounds were running towards the first cover.
It took all of a hundred yards for me to be in the middle of them!
Pixie was proving impossible to hold. The leather reins were just slipping through my fingers so I couldn't even swing him in a circle.
Hounds crashed through the covert and I was still with them, scratched from branches and brambles but still on top of my runaway. Hounds (or me) put up a fox and it went straight through the covert towards the open. Hounds and I were soon on his brush.
A hedge and ditch proved no stopper for Pixie and only when going across the next field did I think to lean forward and grab the ring of his bit and haul him around in a tight circle bringing him to a halt. Fortunately no hounds were trodden on because they were all around us.
There was an open gate onto a road and I took it! I just knew that I was going to be banned from hunting for the rest of my life! After all, I had gone past the Field Master, over ridden hounds and been totally out of control.
Frightened of committing more hunting sins I dismounted and started to walk back to where I thought the meet had been.
I decided to lead Pixie back across another field to where I could see the farmhouse and in doing so had to open two wooden gates both tied with bailer twine and up to my knees in knee deep in mud, get followed by a herd of cattle only to find myself in the cattle yard of the farm. Mud changed into a deeper depth of liquid manure.
I stood by the side of the road for at least an hour waiting for someone to find me - it seemed like at least three hours and when no one came I mounted Pixie and rode back to the stables - meeting the 11.30 ride just going out!
The meet had been at 11!
Of course I got into trouble for going home without telling anyone, not as I thought for all the sins that Pixie caused me to make. I wasn't banned but I did have the mickey taken out of me for a number of years after that.
I also got into trouble from my mother for getting so dirty. In those days jodhpurs were cavalry twill and children wore jodhpur boots, not a lot of good through mud and manure, nor any protection against both the inside of the leg getting wet from the pony's sweat and the outside getting equally as wet from rubbing against other horses.
I hunted whenever I could as a child, I saved and bought a pair of rubber reins for when I did and, a lot more when I was working at the riding school accompanying children and adults. I knew I was accepted as an adult when one of the regular followers never sent me off when he told a saucy joke!
I was meant to be hunting a 12.2 roan mare but she pulled a shoe so I had to ride a 13.2 Exmoor X pony, Pixie.
Pixie was known to be a bit strong but I was fearless and not at all worried about the matter.
We hacked to the Meet and the Field Master was one of the riding school owners. We had been lectured on how to behave, what to do and exactly how to behave.
The meet was fine and as children we were expected to stay towards the rear of the field unless there was a gate to open i which case we either opened it mounted or jumped off to do it.
We moved off and the Field went down a farm track whilst hounds were taken into a field alongside the track. Half way down the track their was a closed gate. As the Field Master went to open it so Pixie did his best bit of bending, using other mounted followers as bending poles and as the gate was half way open he jumped it and continued down the track into the next field where hounds were running towards the first cover.
It took all of a hundred yards for me to be in the middle of them!
Pixie was proving impossible to hold. The leather reins were just slipping through my fingers so I couldn't even swing him in a circle.
Hounds crashed through the covert and I was still with them, scratched from branches and brambles but still on top of my runaway. Hounds (or me) put up a fox and it went straight through the covert towards the open. Hounds and I were soon on his brush.
A hedge and ditch proved no stopper for Pixie and only when going across the next field did I think to lean forward and grab the ring of his bit and haul him around in a tight circle bringing him to a halt. Fortunately no hounds were trodden on because they were all around us.
There was an open gate onto a road and I took it! I just knew that I was going to be banned from hunting for the rest of my life! After all, I had gone past the Field Master, over ridden hounds and been totally out of control.
Frightened of committing more hunting sins I dismounted and started to walk back to where I thought the meet had been.
I decided to lead Pixie back across another field to where I could see the farmhouse and in doing so had to open two wooden gates both tied with bailer twine and up to my knees in knee deep in mud, get followed by a herd of cattle only to find myself in the cattle yard of the farm. Mud changed into a deeper depth of liquid manure.
I stood by the side of the road for at least an hour waiting for someone to find me - it seemed like at least three hours and when no one came I mounted Pixie and rode back to the stables - meeting the 11.30 ride just going out!
The meet had been at 11!
Of course I got into trouble for going home without telling anyone, not as I thought for all the sins that Pixie caused me to make. I wasn't banned but I did have the mickey taken out of me for a number of years after that.
I also got into trouble from my mother for getting so dirty. In those days jodhpurs were cavalry twill and children wore jodhpur boots, not a lot of good through mud and manure, nor any protection against both the inside of the leg getting wet from the pony's sweat and the outside getting equally as wet from rubbing against other horses.
I hunted whenever I could as a child, I saved and bought a pair of rubber reins for when I did and, a lot more when I was working at the riding school accompanying children and adults. I knew I was accepted as an adult when one of the regular followers never sent me off when he told a saucy joke!
however this time, my Dad told me he had but actually he hadn't, so I had one very crazy 12.2hh pony and so one of our lovely masters was looking after me on a lead rein. I remember it being the only was to get out was over a jump but obviously that wasn't true because we didn't get in over a jump... anyways, it was only a small post and rail however being little, I remember it being absolutely huge at the time haha and so I had to be taken off the lead rein and jump it. Jump it pony did, however about a million times the height needed and then he just bucked, bucked, bucked and off I came and I refused to take him again!