Country life
HORSES FOR COURSES
By Sam Biles, Managing Director of country Estate Agents Biles and co
Horses and ponies have been part
of the Island’s countryside from time
immemorial. There have been famous
horses such as Warrior - General Jack
Seely’s own War Horse who was so well
known as to be paraded at Olympia and
who had his own obituary in The Times -
the horse the Germans could not kill.
There have been many horses who have visited the
Island for sporting events including those brought
over by barge, landed where the Hovercraft now
arrives and stabled in Ryde before going through
their paces at the infamous Ashey Racecourse where
horses were reputed to change places as they went
behind the woods on the way round out of sight
of racegoers and officials. Red Rum winner of the
Aintree Grand National was a celebrity guest at the
Royal Isle of Wight Agricultural Show in the 1970s
and more recently the Biles & Co Ashey Scurry has
attracted mainland runners and riders who have often
left with the silverware.
Once the home of the Crockford Harriers, the Isle
of Wight Foxhounds have hunted foxes and then
trails over the Island’s beautiful countryside for
many years and traditionally been a mainstay of
the equestrian community. More recently drooling
bloodhounds have also covered the country
followed by enthusiastic riders.
The Pony Club has been on the Island for more
than 80 years and there are some families with 3,
possibly 4 generations who have been trained in
its ranks and attended Pony Club Camps at Barton
Manor, then Norris Castle and latterly George’s Field
in Whippingham.
The style in which horses are kept has changed.
Where there was once hay there is haylage; straw
has been replaced by shredded paper and wood
shavings and riders are more often kitted out in
safety helmets and hi-viz than tweed caps and coats.
High tech diets and minerals have replaced bran
mash with boiled linseed and many seem to have
forgotten the bridlepath in favour of composite
rubber shred maneges.
Land prices are high and pony paddocks still sell for
a premium despite there having been times of recent
austerity and many doting parents still seem willing
to stretch their finances to provide their little darlings
with the best pony and facilities that they can. Show
ponies and good jumpers can command prices of
many thousands of pounds.
So times have changed but if the late “Thelwell” the
famous cartoonist were to be reincarnated and visit
one of the myriad of shows or spider rides on the
Island today he would no doubt find many familiar
scenes of stubborn ponies, girls in pigtails and over-
anxious parents and the next generation of Island
equestrians cut their teeth.
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