Hi

I have a funny horse story. My horse Bertie (15.2 hands, bright bay, Cleveland Bay x naughty native - he is Thelwell's pony on steroids! - photo to follow) is an ex hunter and is living proof that you can take a horse out of hunting but you can't take hunting out of the horse. I don't hunt him because it's not my bag but I keep him on a hunting yard because it's a kid free zone and the hacking is really good. The yard ownwe is master of the local hunt and stone deaf in at least one ear! One evening I heard a strange, muffled sound that I initially thought was the tack room alarm playing up. Suddenly all the equine ears in the place pricked up and despite the fact it was evening feed time there was a good deal od in-box piaffe going on. Bertie is normally very food orientated and is blind to anything else when his feed appears so even though he appeared to have grown a hand and was quivering in anticipation, I risked opening the stable door to take his feed in ... BIG MISTAKE ... he barged past me and exploded onto the yard in a trot that would earn him a 9 in any dressage test (why can't they do it when yu ask for it under saddle?!). Then, like a rat following the Pied Piper he followed the sound of the horn and surprised the yeard owner, who was oblivious to Bertie's antics. Imagine the scene, the sun setting, hunt master in mufti (flat cap, wellies, tattered tattersall check shirt and dodgy qulited body warmer) with Berts prancing around him in a circle, no headcollar on, and 4 of us falpping like parrots trying to catch him. He had such a mischevious gleam in his eye and was enjoying himself so much that I found the incident highly amusing rather than stressful but the hunt master's wife has now banished him to the outermost reaches of the gallops to practice his horn skills.

Karen Anne Chudley
Hampshire
England