Politically incorrect gymkhana games

-
Can't see this gymkhana game being given programme space in the Prince Philip Cup.  This photograph shows Lady Margaret Drummond Hay and her partner "at a difficult stage of the bun-eating, water-drinking and cigarette lighting competition in the Ladies' Gymkhana at Ranelagh," sometime in 1936.  This event was, strangely, absent from every pony book description of a gymkhana I ever read.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I don't think the horses approve.
12 April 2011 at 13:31
Fran Jurga said…
Are you sure it was just water they had to drink?
12 April 2011 at 14:12
Christina Wilsdon said…
Yes, those horses look very disdainful!

Funny, I've never seen the beer-chugging event in pony books either, nor the mud-wrestling event...
12 April 2011 at 14:36
Jane Badger said…
No, the horses are appalled.

Fran, well, there's water and water. Who knows? Maybe the photo was trimmed to cut out the pile of empty gin bottles.

Christina, no, it's odd that, though I think the mud-wrestling could appear very easily if you choose to do the sack race on a wet day, or maybe do musical chairs in the middle of a ploughed field.
12 April 2011 at 14:42
Susie Blackmon said…
Love the old photo (especially the expressions on the faces of the horses). Interesting leg wrap.
13 April 2011 at 11:08
Jane Badger said…
Ooh yes - hadn't spotted that. It looks rather like a puttee.
13 April 2011 at 18:34
Shari said…
Tell me, do you know if Margaret Drummond Hay in the photo might be related to Annaly Drummond Hay whom I watched in the 1970s win a major show jumping competition in the UK on Merely-A-Monarch? He was an ex-steeplechaser, knocked down one rail which made them first equal and the only way to win was on time. No hesitation, she signalled him, he forgot about being a staid show jumper, leaping, flying, stacking around the corners, hurtling himself over the jumps, with all the power of his hindquarters and his rider almost lying flat along his back. They won - and I sat cheering, with tears in my eyes.
20 April 2011 at 01:49
Jane Badger said…
That did occur to me too. I had a look on the peerage websites, and as far as I can see, M D-H didn't have any children. I think they must be related in some form though; Drummond-Hay isn't a hugely common surname!

I loved your story of watching her win on Merely-a-Monarch.
20 April 2011 at 09:36
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more