Have you got a favourite horse or pony?

Exmoor The Country Magazine has teamed up with TopTrottys who have kindly agreed to donate a prize each issue to the winning My Favourite Horse/Pony entry. This lovely company supply personalised quality items for children and ponies. To be in with a chance of winning a personalised item for your grooming kit simply email us a story about your favourite horse or pony (max 500 words) with a digital photo, care of the Editor, Naomi Cudmore, on email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or simply get in touch through this website.

Our favourite story to be chosen each quarter will be printed in the magazine. If you cannot email please write to: ‘My Favourite Horse’, Exmoor Magazine, Hoar Oak Publishing Ltd, PO Box 281, Parracombe, Devon EX31 4WW. Please include a stamped addressed envelope if you would like your story/picture returned.

Here are the winning entries from spring and summer 2011 to help you get inspired!

Molly Clayton, aged 8 (at the time of writing), and her pony Blue

My pony Blue is 24 years old but when he sees a jump he can still act like he is nine. Blue has a coat that is so white now and he has blue eyes. I like to think that he is half unicorn because he seems a little bit magical to me.

I love him because he is kind, wise and he looks after me but he can still be cheeky enough to make me think when I am riding him. He can gallop fast enough to take the air out of my mouth and make me have tears in my eyes. When we go out hunting together he is ten years younger and he looks after me because he knows his job. He stands so I can open gates and doesn’t mind me shinning up the leathers with my knee to get back on. If I start to fall off he senses it and slows down or stops so I can pull myself back up. Once I fell off over a jump and ended up by his ears but he stopped and lifted his head up so I could slide back into the saddle. My teacher said that it didn’t count as falling off!! He loves jumping so much he even jumps the thistles.

I know he is old now but I hope that one day when I’m too big for him my brother and sister can have fun on him too. I think I have been very, very lucky to be taught by a pony like Blue. He is my best, best friend.

Molly Clayton, aged nearly 8, Brompton Ralph.

Sophie and Toffee

I have often thought that my best horse purchases have come from within a 15-mile radius of Ralegh’s Cross. My 15hh coloured cob Toffee was without doubt the best purchase I ever made and came from Timberscombe, thus fulfilling the theory.

Toffee was a cob who thought she was a thoroughbred. She was strong, proud, opinionated. In public she grew another hand and knew that every eye was on her. Even people who didn’t like cobs liked Toffee. She had a generous character and whatever was asked of her she did without exception. I cannot recall a jump she ever refused, a river she didn’t plunge across, a trailer she wouldn’t load into or a tractor she wouldn’t pass – or a pheasant that made her shy.

I will always be grateful to Toffee for getting me back into hunting after 20 years out of the game and the birth of four children. She and I hunted with five local packs of hounds over the years and she never once let me down. She qualified too for the Pony Club area championships – there she was, a coloured cob from Exmoor with the cream of Pony Club ponies.

Toffee did senior camp year after year with my own and other children whose mounts had gone lame. She was a fun ride, prancing around the warm-up at hunter trials. Cross-country pairs were her speciality and she gave many a child confidence when following her large, black-and-white behind.

When the hills of West Somerset grew too steep for her, I sold her to a lucky friend over in the Cotley country where the rolling hills suit her age and type better. It is a privilege to have owned Toffee and I honour the memory of her huge heart which carried me over many a fence and up many a steep hill.

Sophy McIntosh, Brendon Hill