Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses.

A highlight of my year as a child was when the November horse and pony magazines hit the shelves, together with their Christmas gift guides. Why not this charming pair of jodhs from Swaine, Adeney, Brigg for double the price of my entire riding kit? Or this extraordinarily expensive china horse at roughly the same price as a small car? Why not indeed? I could always hope. So, in tribute to those long ago, black and white pages of glory, here is my own selection of horse-themed gifts. Like those articles, I have chosen things at which you will gasp and say What is she on? And also the odd, more reasonable contribution. If you no longer wish to smell of the stable, then you might like to try Parfums de Marly, whose creations are mostly named after horses. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have said the Galloway (probably ancestor of the Dales and Fell ponies) was elegant and white, but here in the world of splendidly expensive French perfumery that’s exactly what it is. The...

My parents didn't really do wallpaper - at least in the sense of applying any more.  Our house had elderly and dodgy plasterwork, and my parents took the view that removing the wallpaper covering it would only cause a lot of problems no one really needed, and what was wrong with paint, after all? This did mean I didn't get horsy wallpaper. Riding, August 1960 I would have liked horsy wallpaper. Our playroom had a field sports wallpaper with pheasants on it that I was very fond of. Shooting was a field sport, as was hunting, and hunting had horses, and that I knew was as close as I was going to get to wallpaper with horses on, so that pretty loose association satisfied me. Fortunately for my parents, I had no idea the examples above existed.  And in all those colour ways too.  It is incredibly frustrating to have no idea at all of what the wallpapers would have looked like in the full colour flesh. Well, two colour flesh if I have read the copy correctly. Imagine...

Captain Guy Lucas, who judged hunters in the first half of the 20th century, finished judging a class and left the ring.  He was accosted by a peeress, cross because her hunter had not been placed.  "You," she told Captain Lucas, "should be judging cows, not horses!" "Yes ma'am," said Captain Lucas.  "And if I had you in front of me I should give you the first prize!" Ouch. Found in A Horseman Through Six Reigns - Horace Smith

The keen pony book reader will know many books where a pony gets from A to B on a train.  Rapide arrived at Jill's on a train in Jill Has Two Ponies, and Christabel Raffington's rescued Daybreak travels on a train in Josephine Pullein-Thompson's I Had Two Ponies .  Train travelling horses were in fact legion, but I'm not sure if there's still such a thing as a horse car.  From this story on BBC Wales, it would appear not .

I heard this on Radio 4's News Quiz yesterday: "Ballyderown  Top Notch is a 10 year old gelding. He is a grade A registered   show jumper who was recently acquired by his current rider.   An extremely honest and experienced pony he will take any capable young rider to a very high level.   The pony is being sold reluctantly as the rider is an unappreciative spoiled brat." Here's a link to the ad .  I hope the pony's now gone to a deserving owner, maybe one who's worked frantically at paper rounds, babysitting, and saving farms from fires in order to be able to afford him.

This I think lends a whole new dimension to plaiting.  Were I ever to get married again (though I've done it twice and any more I think would start to look careless) I'd angle to have a horse with those plaits. They're brilliant.  They're by local florist Foxtail Lilly . Thanks very much to Tracey Mathieson for permission to use the picture.

I do love what the book trade calls ephemera: magazines; letters; all those other bits and pieces of paper that add to one's store of knowledge. In the copy of The Horse in Action I wrote about yesterday was a copy of the original bill, for £2 6 3, and bought on February 21st 1955. J A Allen were famed as equestrian publishers and booksellers. Established in 1926, they had a shop in Lower Grosvenor Place, selling books both new and old. J A Allen were taken over in 1999 by Robert Hale. The imprint still exists . The shop, alas, no longer does: it is one of my lasting regrets that I never got to visit it, but its unique savour is marvellously described by Caroline Baldock, who worked there .

There was a definite chill in the air this morning when dog and I headed out. Shouldn't affect these ponies though.

Thanks Susannah for sending me this. Bunny puissance, bunny long jump - what's not to like?

I love this blog .

Or something like that. KP has been much in the equestrian news lately, whether it's because China White wouldn't let her in to the polo (their tent, at least), or because she's going to be appearing at the Horse of the Year Show as the subject of a dressage lesson, or because of the (oh oh oh I am LONGING to say something smartarse here but I won't because really, I don't need to) new equestrian wear range she's designed. However, she is now going to be the face of " Hoof ", which wants to challenge the idea that eventing doesn't really fit into London (a point of view which I have some sympathy with) and which also, much more laudably, wants to encourage London children to ride. Here's Hoof's website . I think this is an excellent idea, though I'm not sure how realistic it is. I can see that having an accessible person like KP to promote riding will do more to reach people who wouldn't normally think of riding than say, Zara P...