How the Hatherley Hunt was named

Perhaps the reason why I never became a Springbok showjumper or international event rider has to do with my inauspicious start in competitive horsemanship . For I first competed on horseback in the early 1960s at a “ show ” organised by the Donkerhoek Perdesport Vereeniging , held on a dusty race course set up behind the old Donkerhoek Hotel on the Bronkhorstspruit road east of Pretoria . There , the committee of the vereeniging decided , a “ toenadering ” should be attempted between its “ boere ” racehorse-owning members of Donkerhoek and the “ rooinekke ” who rode English-style in the Willows nearby . In those days , nobody owned horseboxes in Pretoria so to get to and from shows one had to ride , in our case an hour ' s gentle hack down what is now Solomon Mahlangu Drive , but which in those days was a deserted gravel road ( it hadn ' t even been named after Hans Strydom yet ), and then along the Bronkhorstspruit road to the hotel . The show itself comprised a morning given over to English horse-pursuits such as showjumping and a gymkhana competition , all held on the sandy track in front of the hotel . Thereafter , the afternoon was devoted to races , in which a bunch of brandy-soaked retired and washed up jockeys in faded and patched silks flogged a bunch of emaciated thoroughbreds around the track in clouds of dust , while inside the hotel the bar did a roaring trade and an illegal tote added some financial interest to the proceeding . On the way to and from the show , unbeknown to us , we passed by a grand Victorian house , nestled in a forest of tall trees , the home , since the mid-1800s of the Marks family . The house was built by Sammy Marks , a Lithuanian Jew who arrived in Pretoria by way of England and Kimberley . He built his house with the proceeds of his activities as a mining magnate and merchant . Realising that Pretorians were a thirsty lot , he went into partnership with another immigrant from Eastern Europe , Alois Nellmapius , to build the first brewery , east of the town , at Eerste Fabrieken . The name survives as a station on the railway line in Mamelodi . Next , realising that he needed bottles for his brew he set up the Hatherley Glass & Bottle Manufacturing Co , named after a farm he had bought in the area . The Hatherley name survives on a graveyard in Mamelodi East . But there ' s an equestrian Hatherley connection as well . For in the 1960s the rooinekke of the Willows organised a drag-hunt , which ran in the full traditional manner , with a master , whippers-in , a stirrup cup beforehand and a lavish , if somewhat dusty , hunt breakfast afterwards . If I ' m to be accurate , I don ' t think the Hatherley Hunt ever owned its own pack . Rather , I recall , it borrowed hounds from Johannesburg ' s Rand Hunt for its meets . And the meets ran , as drag-hunts in South Africa must , over prepared ground in what is now the Silver Lakes estate . But how did the hunt come to bear a name associated with Marks ' bottling plant ? Before the first meet , an enthusiastic young rooinek riding master was out surveying the terrain for a possible track for the hunt with a gaggle of overexcited teenage girl riders and an overweight Pretoria stockbroker with equestrian pretensions . Coming across an impressive donga the rooinek and his teenage hangers-on rode down , through , and up the other side a couple of times , before pausing on the edge of the donga to rest while the stockbroker took the slow way around . While resting , he regaled the girls with a couple of tales of derring-do from his youth , so implausible that they began singing “ how the hell can we believe you ?” Just then the stockbroker arrived somewhat flushed , and his horse , spying a particularly green tuft of grass , put his head down to graze , resulting in the stockbroker taking a gentle tumble over the horse ' s head and falling “ plop ” like an overfilled sack of spuds into the dust . Raising his head , he heard the girls singing in their flet preetorria eccents “ how the hell … etc ” and he muttered , with all the grandeur that he could muster from his prone position “ Hatherley … Yes , that ' s a good name for the hunt . We ' ll call it the Hatherley Hunt .” And that is how the Hatherley Hunt got its name . ' Strue . I would not tell a lie .

WRITTEN BY SMALLHOLDERS , FOR SMALLHOLDERS