Horses for morphlet

A while ago i posted some photos of me and horses in the mid 1970s at Margaret Harvey's riding stables in Menston (near Otley) and morphlet  found them online. It turns out that she used to go to the same riding school but about 8 - 10 years later than I did. We share some horses in common and I promised to post some old photos of horses and ponies she remembers hearing about. Please bear with me while I get all nostalgic.

Morphlet, this is the Metal that I knew. According to MH he was 35 when this photo was taken. He was still virtually unstoppable. Oddly enough, he was actually better with a fairly weak rider because he hated having his mouth messed with and so someone who sat still and kept their hands to themselves was safer on him than someone who tried to boss him about. He always had to be upfront, though. MH use to tell tales about this pony, many of them apocryphal, I think. Though when you saw him in action I could believe the bit about being descended from Hyperion and winning the open jumping at the Yorkshire Show in his youth! Sorry this is a very poor photo and doesn't show him off at all.

Metal's long-time stable-mate was Star. Also a great little pony, fast, a bit headstrong but he'd been a good jumping and gymkhana pony in his heyday and still wasn't a pony you could put an inexperienced rider on.

This is Tamarisk, who buggered my back by bucking me off spectacularly.

More in the next post...

 

Horses for morphlet

A while ago i posted some photos of me and horses in the mid 1970s at Margaret Harvey's riding stables in Menston (near Otley) and morphlet  found them online. It turns out that she used to go to the same riding school but about 8 - 10 years later than I did. We share some horses in common and I promised to post some old photos of horses and ponies she remembers hearing about. Please bear with me while I get all nostalgic.

Morphlet, this is the Metal that I knew. According to MH he was 35 when this photo was taken. He was still virtually unstoppable. Oddly enough, he was actually better with a fairly weak rider because he hated having his mouth messed with and so someone who sat still and kept their hands to themselves was safer on him than someone who tried to boss him about. He always had to be upfront, though. MH use to tell tales about this pony, many of them apocryphal, I think. Though when you saw him in action I could believe the bit about being descended from Hyperion and winning the open jumping at the Yorkshire Show in his youth! Sorry this is a very poor photo and doesn't show him off at all.

Metal's long-time stable-mate was Star. Also a great little pony, fast, a bit headstrong but he'd been a good jumping and gymkhana pony in his heyday and still wasn't a pony you could put an inexperienced rider on.

This is Tamarisk, who buggered my back by bucking me off spectacularly.

More in the next post...

 

More horses: Menston 1970s

I'm not sure how we found Margaret Harvey's Wharfedale Riding School, but someone decided to start a riding club at college (Leeds School of Librarianship had been independent, but by that time was part of Leeds Polytechnic and the Student Union had fundingand a minibus). I'm sure there must have been more than just us few in the club but six out of the eight people here were library students if you include me behind the camera. Left to right: Jenny Fisher (now Downsborough); Eileen Gomersall (now Jack); Jan Booth (now Warner). On the pony (Cracker) is John French - not a librarian. Then there's Yvonne Smith (can't remember her maiden name). Kneeling is Teddi Craven (now Coutts) and back right is Pete whose surname I've forgotten. Sadly pete was killed in the seventies in a road accident in Africa. The dog is called Vandal. Location; Margaret's stable yard - a mews of tumbledown brick buildings off Station Road in Menston (between Guisely and Otley in what's now West Yorkshire, but was then the West Riding of Yorkshire. Missing from the photo are regulars Mike Heywood and Lindsey (now Lindsey Heywood). We were a mixture of riders and beginners, but everyone seemed to muddle along. Eileen later went on to train in Germany and became ferociously good.



Jan on Robin; Jacey on Dominic and Teddi on Blossom. I think this was the last day of the college riding club and we were arsing about up in the gorse field, hard hats removed for the camera.


Left: Jan on Robin. All Kestrel's offspring were instantly recognisable by their heads regardless of size of pony. I wasn't all that keen on Robin, but Jan loved him.
Right: Me on Blossom. I should be eternally grateful to her for not bucking me off at this point.


Jan on Dominic. He was a nice ride, a good all rounder and very untypical of Margaret Harvey's horses being neither obviously from the same line as Kestrel or Fell/Dales. Possibly that's why I always forget about him.


This is Major. Sorry the photo is so blurry. He was absolutely gorgeous. I don't know if she bred him, buit I'll post some older photos in the next post which might give a clue to his origin...

More horses: Menston 1970s

I'm not sure how we found Margaret Harvey's Wharfedale Riding School, but someone decided to start a riding club at college (Leeds School of Librarianship had been independent, but by that time was part of Leeds Polytechnic and the Student Union had fundingand a minibus). I'm sure there must have been more than just us few in the club but six out of the eight people here were library students if you include me behind the camera. Left to right: Jenny Fisher (now Downsborough); Eileen Gomersall (now Jack); Jan Booth (now Warner). On the pony (Cracker) is John French - not a librarian. Then there's Yvonne Smith (can't remember her maiden name). Kneeling is Teddi Craven (now Coutts) and back right is Pete whose surname I've forgotten. Sadly pete was killed in the seventies in a road accident in Africa. The dog is called Vandal. Location; Margaret's stable yard - a mews of tumbledown brick buildings off Station Road in Menston (between Guisely and Otley in what's now West Yorkshire, but was then the West Riding of Yorkshire. Missing from the photo are regulars Mike Heywood and Lindsey (now Lindsey Heywood). We were a mixture of riders and beginners, but everyone seemed to muddle along. Eileen later went on to train in Germany and became ferociously good.



Jan on Robin; Jacey on Dominic and Teddi on Blossom. I think this was the last day of the college riding club and we were arsing about up in the gorse field, hard hats removed for the camera.


Left: Jan on Robin. All Kestrel's offspring were instantly recognisable by their heads regardless of size of pony. I wasn't all that keen on Robin, but Jan loved him.
Right: Me on Blossom. I should be eternally grateful to her for not bucking me off at this point.


Jan on Dominic. He was a nice ride, a good all rounder and very untypical of Margaret Harvey's horses being neither obviously from the same line as Kestrel or Fell/Dales. Possibly that's why I always forget about him.


This is Major. Sorry the photo is so blurry. He was absolutely gorgeous. I don't know if she bred him, buit I'll post some older photos in the next post which might give a clue to his origin...

Margaret Harvey

More for morphlet 

Margaret Harvey always seemed to be batty - and she was, indeed, horse mad. She was an excellent rider and bred several different lines of horses - Fell ponies, Dales ponies and a general line of horses and ponies from her stallion, Kestrel. I'm not sure when the following photos were taken, they were given to me by one of the girls who lived in Menston and had known Margaret for years. Margaret's real problem was that she loved all her horses and ponies and couldn't bear to get rid of them, so their numbers kept increasing. She always seemed to be on the borderline of broke, though I guess the family had money at one time. (Margaret had been a society debutante in her youth - I saw the photos and she was gorgeous!) By the time I knew her she lived with her mother (who seemed to disapprove of the horsy lifestyle) and there was a sister whom I saw once from a distance, but never met.


Margaret on Kestrel. Date unknown - possibly late 1960s



Margaret Harvey. morphlet , is this horse Honey?



Margaret Harvey is central on the horse I think is Honey. I don't know the other two riders but the horse on the left is Major and the one on the right looks like an offspring of the one in the middle. Look at their heads.

One more post and more pics to come.

Margaret Harvey

More for morphlet 

Margaret Harvey always seemed to be batty - and she was, indeed, horse mad. She was an excellent rider and bred several different lines of horses - Fell ponies, Dales ponies and a general line of horses and ponies from her stallion, Kestrel. I'm not sure when the following photos were taken, they were given to me by one of the girls who lived in Menston and had known Margaret for years. Margaret's real problem was that she loved all her horses and ponies and couldn't bear to get rid of them, so their numbers kept increasing. She always seemed to be on the borderline of broke, though I guess the family had money at one time. (Margaret had been a society debutante in her youth - I saw the photos and she was gorgeous!) By the time I knew her she lived with her mother (who seemed to disapprove of the horsy lifestyle) and there was a sister whom I saw once from a distance, but never met.


Margaret on Kestrel. Date unknown - possibly late 1960s



Margaret Harvey. morphlet , is this horse Honey?



Margaret Harvey is central on the horse I think is Honey. I don't know the other two riders but the horse on the left is Major and the one on the right looks like an offspring of the one in the middle. Look at their heads.

One more post and more pics to come.