One for the Matures - Who Remembers WHSmith's Win-a-Pony Competition???

Sorry if this has been mentione before (its late & I'm flicking through posts with bleary eyes:) ) What about follyfoot?? I've got the books somewhere. Must dig them out used to love watching the tv programme too!!
 
rezzer said:
hehe, yeah well i have always loved horses, for as long as i can remember. I got someone to put up a jump and used to canter round the garden on my imaginary horse and pop over that jump, i used to be at it for ages out there!!! How embarassing, oh well! :D
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i used to do that too!!!
 
Me too. I used to tie string to the 'ears' of my space hopper and pretend they were reins - bounced round the garden jumping jumps made of brooms and rakes and anything else I could find. Got so good at space hopping that I won the Butlins Space Hopper race by miles - they gave me a prize but wouldn't let me into the final as it was embarrassing for the other kids.
NR's like therapy - can't believe I admitted to all that!!
 
I obviously used to enter every year, and for some reason one year I remember opening up the magazine and seeing a smug faced girl cantering her 'won' grey pony on a beach. I even remember the name= Sarah Houghton who won 'Mishka'!!!!! I cried for hours
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I so remember that - was totally upset. All the photos of her going to see the pony for the first time at the stables. :(

I loved all the JM Berrisford and Pullen-Thompson books. My Freiend Flicka and Thundercloud were big favourites as well!
 
Oh the memories ! White Horses was my favourite though. Such beautiful creatures. About 20 years ago I was on holiday in Yugoslavia and visited the Lipitza Stud Farm, Wow what an experience, the best holiday I ever had. ! Also loved Follyfoot, it was filmed just down the road from where I lived, so I spent many hours near the gates waiting to see the actors and the horses.!! Sad I know, but I did get to meet Dora and Steve.!!!!
 
I remember the win a pony comps in the old horse and pony mags:) like most of you never won one though

As for imaginary ponys well when i was a child i used to put my mums old riding hat and johds you know the ones that flaired out at the hip (i thought i looked the bees knees) and walked down the road to where there used to be horses grazing in a field and pretent i owned them, every night after school it was like a ritual, about 2 years later i found out the 13.2 pony was for sale and mum and dad agreed to buy her for me so i guess i could say my dreams came true, i owned her for years but saddly she pssed away 5 years ago with a bad bout of colic at the ripe old age of 32 but she remains with me everyday in my heart and will always be a legend even my 10 year old daughter talks about her:)
 
I remember the 'win a day with Downlands Cancara', the Lloyds bank horse. I posted off at least 20 entry forms LOL!!! I didn't win :(
 
MadMumInKent said:
I used to keep my rocking horse in the garden shed, pretended it was a stable, brought it out every day to feed it and groom it :D
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I had a lovely hobby horse that my Dad made for me - it lived in a shed at the bottom of the garden and I exercised it etc every day :) I even used to go on hound exercise on it :p (we lived close to the Heythrop Hunt kennels). I was about 9 at the time :rolleyes:
 
Not old enough to remember the win a horse comps (only the your horse mags but they are recent)
But like the rest of you I did have a rocking horse that lived in the garden shed (his stable) and I had a lovely hobby horse named hobnob, who I used to do xc and sj with daily:eek: I also used to put a skipping rope around my little sister and make her clear a course regularly but she was quite stubborn.:p
I even used to take Hobnob to shows when my mum was competing, he used to stand tied up with a small haynet in the lorry next to mums horse:eek: I then used to ride him round the showground in full attire:eek: We even won 2 rosettes as judges used to think I was ''cute'' and used to walk up and say what a lovely pony you have and ask me about him (usually just when hobnob was playing up about going over the practice jump) they then used to say he's the nicest horse I've seen today I've noticed you haven't entered anything but you both deserve a rosette, (we ended up with a 5th,a special and a 2nd i think) I was so proud of Hobnob as he was a right handful at times:p
 
Harvey99 said:
That's wonderful Dakota's mum. Exactly how a childhood should be :)
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I used to love showing hobnob off, despite his floppy ears, fat nose, and frizzy mane, he was a bit too much horse for me and used to jog alot and get worked up but i always new how to calm him.:p :eek:

I also had a school of imaginary horses with 3 imaginary grooms who used to exercise them alongside the car for me on long car journeys whilst i shouted instructions to them from the car. I was good at seeing imaginary horses.:eek: :rolleyes:
 
Pollski said:
I remember when they had the "Kerry Gold" butter win a 13 hh Palamino comp. in the seventies ... you know just thinking about it makes me remember how desperate I was to win ... I wanted that pony !!!

Only problem was I lived in Central London, (Angel Islington) and the nearest I got to horses was the police horses, rag n' bone horse or the local brewery shires that took short cuts through the square. My parents would always ask me where I'd keep it. I had all the answers. It would be kept in the park across the road and would earn its keep by keeping the grass short and use the manure to feed the roses.

BTW, I also thought I was a horse, could gallop on hands and knees on carpet - fast - and would set up the best jumps both indoors and outdoors. Triples were my speciality ;)

I also 'made' a horse out of two coffee tables, cushions and a hobby horse every single time a horse programme would be on - racing, show jumping, films. Would wear a felt cap and ride all the way through. :p
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I had the pleasure of riding the pony 'Kerrygold' a beautiful dun mare that was used for this competition. I tried on many occasions to enter as much as possible......I wanted to win her! She was the love of my life at that time. I was absolutely gutted when she was won by a lady Somerset way and had to leave to go to her new home. I still often wonder how her life turned out, whether she had any foals? Hence finding this site.....I would still love to know.
 
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This evening is my first experience. As stated, I've often wondered about Kerrygold. As a very young school girl she was my world and convinced myself that I was going to win.......sadly a dream shattered. She'd be long gone now over the rainbow bridge, but hope she had a lovely life.
 
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