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The giant leap over a tiny fence — and other unnerving horse traits you may recognise


  • Australian cartoonist and rider Maryanne Wallace started putting her drawings into comic format four years ago — capturing those moments with horses that we all know only too well.

    “I have two quirky horses (is there any other kind?), that I keep at livery in Australia,” says Maryanne. “And I have wonderful friends at the yard whose horses provide great inspiration for my comics.”

    Through her cartoons she charts the ups and downs that life with horses bring us — and that we can manage to crack a smile about when we have a moment to take a step back.

    “My horse Halo loves food. I can’t underline, bold, or uppercase that enough. He’s a pretty cruisey dude most of the time,” says Maryanne, who has a day job in marketing.

    “I have another horse Jackson who is a very elderly thoroughbred, but he doesn’t seem to know that and has been enjoying retirement from riding duties for over 10 years. Jackson can be flighty and a big scaredy-cat, so he is also great inspiration.

    “I don’t need to worry about Jackson breaking into the feed shed. He won’t even stand in his big deluxe el-primo shelter shed. Halo on the other hand would happily burst through the roof of the feed shed, lowered from a helicopter Mission-Impossible style if it got him a snack.”

    How many of these cartoons ring a bell?

    The 1m10 leap over a 50cm fence

    Legs aids: the multiple choice approach

    Revenge of the rug

    A diet for a top athlete

    One of a kind

    Mind reader

    Matchy-matchy

    Horses kind of love matchy

    The saboteur

    For more of Maryanne Wallace’s work, visit horseontherun.com

    Don’t miss all the latest equestrian news and reports in the latest issue of Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

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