In the Stableyard
Betty Howett WORDS by Cindy Cowling PHOTOS by Andrew Hobbs
I
can safely say that for the first time ever I am looking forward to winter, as the weather may actually improve! It has been an incredibly difficult year for making hay, silage or straw to bed stock on when they come in around November time. That said, we have still managed to have some fun with the horses. Ellen’s little rescue mare Polly has blossomed beyond all recognition and has rewarded her hard work and patience by becoming a fun, all-round pony and Quest, my homebred threeyear-old, who currently stands at 16.3hh, went to Vicky Stevens in Brompton Ralph to be long-reined and ‘ridden to the village and back'. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and came home very grown-up! I enjoyed that special moment of riding a horse I’d bred, having waited years to see if I’d got it right. I was delighted and if he is anything like his mother he will be very exciting. I was also incredibly fortunate to spend time with a very special lady. Betty Howett is one of just a handful of people who hold the ‘Fellow of the British Horse Society’ title, the highest BHS qualification possible, as well as being an FEI judge and a national
and international trainer. Belying her 85 years, Betty is still riding and teaching. I met her at her beautiful home in Porlock, where she told me about her life. "It was during the war, when I was a child, that I bought my first pony from a local farmer at Bampton Fair. I hid the pony in the garden shed so that my father wouldn’t find out. The pony had a fuzzy tail (obviously a weanling) but I didn’t know that then, or that ponies need ‘breaking in'. As there was no petrol, my father bought a pony and trap which meant that we then had two ponies. I had a bicycle and so gave rides around Uphill for pocket money." Betty’s pony rides developed; with three horses and two ponies she gave beach rides to the ‘Yanks’ at Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare. Betty’s brother-in-law was a Cavalry officer at the time and she would cycle every day from Weston to Burnham-on-Sea for a lesson! "I got engaged, but never married and went instead to Sir Edward Berhen’s competition centre in Surrey. It was the first time I had been away from Somerset and although I loved my
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