You’d be hard pushed to find a child raring to go at the start of a new school term. But when there’s a pony waiting in the field or at the yard, the thought of algebra is enough to bring you to tears.
If you were pony-mad during school then you were probably…
1. Asleep by first break during September — autumn hunting really took it out of you.
2. Your games kit had a strange aroma of horses — that stripey hockey shirt doubled up nicely as cross-country colours at the weekend. And nothing beat a pair of school tracksuit bottoms to keep you clean at shows.
3. Your art projects only went one way — after a series of paintings, drawings and clay models of horses, your alarmed art teacher got in touch with your parents to ask if you have any other interests.
If for you the days of Pony Club, picnic rides and galloping ponies bareback across stubble fields are but a
4. Teachers nervously awaited your return after half-term — at least one arm would be in a sling after a heavy tumble.
5. You were mysteriously absent from school on the first Thursday and Friday in May (getting your full fix at Badminton).
6. Teachers started turning a blind eye to the hay that was attached to the back of your tights/in your hair — mucking out before school was done in your uniform to save time.
7. Horse & Hound — and the Pony Club Manual at a push — made up your entire holiday reading list.
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8. When your teachers found you manically waving a (illegally obtained) Tote ticket at the common room TV during Cheltenham Festival, the perils of betting was the subject of the next school assembly.
9. The high jump was your forte — all that time spent running around showjumping courses in the garden really paid off.
What memories do you have about being pony-mad at school?
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.
