Riding The Show-Ring Hunter

Jane Marshall Dillon 

Paperback, second hand, photos in colour.

A strange thing has happened in the United States in the last half century. In the early 1900's it seemed as if the horseless carriage was going to do away with the horse! And for a while, as the motor driven mon-sters increased, the horse really did seem doomed to disappear from the scene. And then this strange thing began to happen. As we became more mechanized as a nation, we began to long more ardently for some of our links with the world of nature and of animals. Most of all, one large, frequently beautiful and generally amiable animal spelled enchantment for countless thousands. This could be none other than THE HORSE!

More and more city dwellers, who could afford the luxury, began to drive their cars out to the country, there to ride their horses. Those who could not afford to own horses flocked to schools or stables for lessons or just to rent horses. Even this rented horse could carry the rider through the park on a sunny fall day and transport him out of his world of city streets and apartments. There is an indefinable quality about this particular relationship that seems to inspire a very special sense of well-being.

Horse fever has seized the nation and seems to be gaining momen-tum with every passing month. In some areas, stables, large or small, sprout out of every suitable and sometimes unsuitable piece of ground. In certain suburbs, almost every home that boasts one or two acres will have a small barn within view of the back kitchen windows. On weekends, the highways will be alive with horse trailers and vans, en route to the weekly shows. In fact, the fascination of this sport has become so great that each of several horse shows, held in the same vicinity and on the same day, may be jammed with entries!

The variety of ways in which people can now enjoy "the sport of kings" is almost endless in its diversity and subsequent specialization. This booklet will deal with only one segment of the horse world-that of the hunter, and in particular the show ring hunter, in the United States today.