Hunter of a lifetime Jimmy, who has an “extraordinary jump”

The Wynnstay field master’s horse with an extraordinary jump, who terrified most people who rode him

‘He would jump all round the farm, clearing giant oxers from a walk’

Lord daresbury on Jimmy

FOR Wynnstay followers, butterflies increased whenever field master Lord Daresbury MFH was on Jimmy. “They knew they’d have to jump all the biggest places!” he says.

Jimmy’s ability emerged when he came second in a fouryear-old class at Hickstead with Keith Shore, Cheshire whipperin and “magic rider”, from whom Peter Daresbury buys all his horses. “Patently, he was a very high-class horse,” he says, “but not without complications. He was difficult to steer and I couldn’t hold one side of him.”

It was when Peter added fences to the equation that Jimmy, who was of unknown breeding, but probably 7/8th thoroughbred, proved his

worth. “However strong he got, he always steadied to jump,” explains Peter. “Everything went into slow motion. I knew he was never going to go too fast.”

Peter’s wife Clare recalls when their son Thomas, then

16, exercised him because “the girls on the yard wouldn’t ride him”. He took off and “flew a barbed-wire fence beautifully”.

Another day, when thenhuntsman William Wakeham’s horse went lame, Peter handed him the reins.

“I remember seeing him tearing down a field looking terrified,” says Clare. “He got off and said, ‘Never again!’”

Hedges, ditches, walls, gates, wire — Jimmy took them all in his stride. He went in “traditional tack”, a gag and a standing martingale “tighter than you’d ever normally see. It never affected his jumping”.

Indeed, so much did Jimmy love jumping that he would frequently indulge in the pastime of his own accord.

“He’d jump all round the farm in summer. We’d watch him stroll along, then visit the cattle, clearing giant oxers from a walk,” says Peter. “My heart was in my boots the first time he did it, but he always came back. You couldn’t keep him in!”

Huntsman Richard Tyacke rode him once, when Jimmy took a hedge beside a tiger trap, not at Richard’s behest.

“I was glad to get off him!” he admits. “Next time I was offered him, I said I’d rather walk.”

One obstacle proved Jimmy’s astonishing scope beyond all doubt. Peter was following Richard towards a giant hedge with a brook behind that they never jumped, through which Richard had found a gap.

“Jimmy saw Richard on the far side and took off, from about two strides away. He sailed over everything — my heart was in my mouth!” When Richard returned to build a fence, two 12ft rails wouldn’t reach from take-off point to landing.

A “hell of a character”, Jimmy was put down last year after 21 seasons, but neither Peter nor Richard will ever forget that jump.

NEXT WEEK

the tynedale’s joint-master, Caroline Dickinson