Most of us can probably remember Stroller – the remarkable pony who won Olympic medals with Marion Mould (or Coakes). There’s something particularly special about seeing a pony a good couple of hands smaller than its competitors winning despite the odds.
There are other famous jumping ponies, who were around long before Stroller.
I have at last, after a long old search, managed to get my hands on Pamela MacGregor Morris’s Great Show Jumpers. It is not a pretty copy, but it is complete and it is full of absolute gold, and it’s where this information comes from.
Mr Bowser and Little Jim
Little Jim was owned by Mr G F Bowser, and you can see him here clearing 5 ft 8 in (about 173 cm) at the Cross-in-Hand Show in August 1928.
He really was a pony: just 13.2 1/2 hands high. He was jet black โ sadly he was docked, as was common then. Mr Bowser bought the pony from a dealer in Lincolnshire at the Stowgreen horse fair. The dealer had already bought him, and several others, for use in the mines. The farmer who had brought the pony to the sale told Mr Bowser the pony was a ‘real good ‘un’.
Mr Bowser was intrigued, and the dealer, noticing his interest, offered to sell him the pony for ยฃ18, ยฃ2 more than he’d given. Mr Bowser bought Little Jim, and home to the farm he went, to be used in a light float.
The jump discovered
The pony’s jumping abilities were discovered when he cleared a five-bar gate in front of his new owner. Mr Bowser, who already owned a couple of show jumpers, decided to try him over his course. It went so well he took the pony to some small local shows, where he won Open classes.
Then he went to Peterborough, which was then one of the biggest shows in the country, and won the Open there against thirty four of the best show jumpers in England. This was after three jump offs, with the wall so large you couldn’t actually see the pony’s approach.
All this was with a rider who weighed twelve stone: Mr Bowser thought he was too heavy and tried other, lighter riders, but the pony wouldn’t have it. He only jumped his best for his owner.
The film pony
He was retired when he was 21, and then went on to be used in a film of Russell Thorndyke’s Dr Syn, made by Gainsborough Pictures in 1937. Little Jim was to play Dr Pepper’s pony – Dr Pepper had to be stabbed in the back and fall from his horse, and the actor did not want to fall too far, hence the decision to use a pony and not a horse. Little Jim was fitted with a false tail for the part, which understandably he was sad to lose afterwards.
He was a ride and drive pony, and was used at the beginning of WWII. He was put down at the age of 30, having been with Mr Bowser for twenty six years.
If Not and Lady Wright
Another famous jumping pony from between the wars: this one is Lady Wright’s If Not (not to be confused with Vivien Machin-Goodall’s Y Not?)
If Not was nearly a hand taller than Little Jim. He was a liver chestnut, a Hackney/Welsh cross of just under 14.1. Like Little Jim, he was docked. He started life as a milk round pony, but kept jumping out of his field, so at the age of five, he was sent to Lady Wright.
She sent him away to her sister, who drove him in a sulky, which calmed him down.
early shows
Lady Wright and If Not won their first show at King’s heath. That was the start of their career together: Lady Wright looked after the pony entirely herself โ not something that was generally expected in the 1920s โ and they travelled the country jumping. If Not often jumped off against 16 hand horses, and still won. In the 1928 Bath Championship, the wall had to be raised on bricks for the third jump off.
Lady Wright complained, saying it was too much as her pony was under 14.1. Nevertheless, he won.
He was the first horse ridden by a woman to have a clear at Olympia. Lady Wright’s style was unique, but effective. She knew she wasn’t a good example to the younger element, and wrote some self-deprecating articles in Riding Magazine on the subject of how to jump.
If Not enjoyed more than just jumping. If he was anywhere near a car, he used to enjoy sounding the horn (he’d have a bit more trouble these days). One of his favourite games was to chase his owner, stopping if she stopped, and this was their party piece at Islington show.
When he retired, he lived with a donkey, whom he loved. If Not died when he was twenty-eight, still living with his owner.
Links and sources
Pamela MacGregor Morris: Great Show Jumpers, Unwin Brothers Ltd, 1950
Horse and Hound on readers’ memories of Lady Wright
Getty Images – girls at Lady Wright’s training stable
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