DISMOUNTING WITHOUT PERMISSION
MAJOR DICK HERN was chief instructor and at the end of one of his jumping courses, the pupils found that the cordon around a fence that had been cordoned off had been removed and the stinging nettles cut down. One particular pupil was riding a pony of 14.2hh.
All the riders were, by now, pretty tough and there was a great air of excitement and electricity running through the group as they planned their way of jumping this fence. There was, at the time, a rule that anyone who “dismounted without permission” would put 1/- (5p) into the charity box. The group joked about how much money there would be in the box at the end of the lesson. The students were told how to tackle the fence and then sent off in turn. There were refusals and runouts but no falls.
When the turn came of the pupil riding the pony, she “set the pony alight”. The little mare was well aware of how nervous the pupil felt and because of this, she hesitated on the take-off side and pancaked on the top of the brush fence, front legs
