#horse and hound

[grandmaster-anne]

Happy birthday Princess Anne! We dig into the archives to celebrate *PICTURES*

By Madeleine Silver | Published 15 August 2015

Princess Anne may be The Queen‘s only daughter, but with three European Championship medals under her belt, the 1971 BBC Sports Personality of the Year title, an Olympics to her name (Montreal in 1976) and a stint as the president of the FEI (1986-1994),  this horsewoman is an icon of the equestrian world in her own right.

On her 65th birthday today (15 August 2015), we’ve dug into the archives to celebrate Princess Anne’s status as equestrian royalty — from her competition days to watching the next generation in action.

Princess Anne in pictures

1971

Princess Anne and Doublet on their way to an eventing European Championship individual gold medal at Burghley in 1971

1973

Princess Anne and Goodwill at the European Championships in Kiev 1973

1976

Princess Anne makes her Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976 with Goodwill, in front of an impressive crowd for the dressage. She was the first member of the British royal family to compete in an Olympic

1981

Princess Anne and  Stevie B at the 20th fence of the 1981 Burghley cross-country course

1981

Stevie B and Princess Anne take a tumble in the water at Burghley in 1981

1983

The Queen and Princess Anne in the royal procession at Ascot in June 1983

2010

In July 2010, Princess Anne presents Major Moylaw with his prize at the Great Yorkshire Show

2010

Princess Anne at the National Pony Society Championships in 2010

2011

The next generation: Princess Anne helps Zara Phillips officilally retire her European and world champion horse Toytown at Gatcombe in 2011

2011

2011 Burghley Horse Trials winner William Fox-Pitt receives his prize from Princess Anne, who won the title herself 40 years earlier on Doublet

2012

A proud moment: Princess Anne and her father Prince Philip watch Zara and High Kingdom in the dressage phase of the London 2012 Olympic Games in Greenwich Park

2012

Princess Anne presents Zara, and her team mates Nicola Wilson, Tina Cook, Mary King and William Fox-Pitt, with their silver medals at London 2012

[reitsportportal]

London International Horse Show 2023 : Britischer Sieg durch Charlotte Dujardin und Imhotep

Charlotte Dujardin (Foto: Thomas Reiner) Charlotte Dujardin (GBR) auf Platz 1 im FEI DRESSAGE WORLD CUP™ FREESTYLE presented by Bret Willson Dressage International Ltd supported by Horse and Hound Auch in diesem  Jahr begrüßte das Londoner Publikum die Reiterinnen und Reiter zur fünften von insgesamt 11 Etappen des FEI Dressage World Cup. Nach der vierten Station in Madrid liegt Patrik Kittel…

[allwaysafeatfan]

Ses i november!

[vesubia-jugorum]

Sandor Clegane and Stranger

[canisalbus]

hello!! i actually sent the anon ask about hozier a little bit ago!! not anon this time though because i was out and saw a sighthound that looked like it was a living relative of a pterosaur. anyway im not the greatest artist ever but i drew a rendition of the spindly guy to show you ! (don't be fooled by my artistic abilities, it was a very pretty horse)

.

[thelien-art]

Nahar; Steed of Orome

White in the sun, and shining silver at night 1 - the sleeping earth trembled at the beat of his golden hooves 2 - the fire that was stricken from the hooves of Nahar was the first light that returned to Valinor 3

 J.R.R. Tolkien; The Silmarillion, "Valaquenta: Of the Valar"

J.R.R. Tolkien; The Silmarillion, "of the Beginning of Days” 

J.J.R. Tolkien; The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Darkening of Valinor"

[blossomhead]

a rare smile from our dear ser yniol <3

(i heed your call for more portraits of ladies @the-kingshound)

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

additional work doodles on stolen printer paper ft. Jiang Cheng meeting various dog breeds

cuz I feel like it would be a hoot watching this guy react to the ecclectic variety of pooches the world has to offer

[jasmancer]

Hey yall!! Introducing one of my favorite pieces of the last few years, Sea Oddity: a repeating pattern of hand drawn and watercolor rendered jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, nudibranchs, and sea monkeys. (repeating watermark added just to be safe <3)

I uploaded it to Spoonflower last year as part of the assignment I made it for, and now it's publicly available to purchase on there as well as on my brand new Society6 shop! If you want a little sea critter print or some fabric to make a sea critter sewing project, this might be the perfect one!

[ratinayellowbandana]

Hound "baby boy" of Ill Omen for prompts!

first off, thank you for carrying this whole ship on your back. you are our strongest soldier and we appreciate you.

second, even more thanks for sending this my way! I hope this is something like what you had in mind!

if anyone else sees this and would like to toss a little prompt my way, feel free :)

wc: 934

cw: body horror…kind of? it’s just canonically what the good boy looks like

~~~

Imogen loves Laudna. She does. Quite a lot, in fact.

Because it is a fact. 

It may as well be written in stone. In the stars. Recorded on one of those dusty scrolls in elegant script and stuck on a shelf in some stuffy library for the next bored student who may happen across it and learn of two witches who saved the world.

Laudna, it must be noted, is a woman of many quirks. 

And Imogen, it must be noted, adores her for them. 

They are just as much a part of Laudna as the angle of her nose, the brightness in her eyes. As are her projects, macabre and scrounged as they often are, and so Imogen adores them, too. 

(If it takes her a moment to come around, Laudna must never know. Each new creation, presented to Imogen with all the glee of a child in a sweets shop, will only ever be met with enthusiasm. Laudna, she knows, has spent too long squirreling away the odd parts of herself. Imogen is determined to recover them.)

“Come here, darling,” Laudna calls, and the flesh-and-bone creature that scared the everloving fuck out of Imogen the first time he burst from his maker’s chest trots happily to her side, tongue lolling from a fleshless snout. 

The hound twines between Laudna’s legs, and she lifts her skirts to allow him through. He leans heavily against the inside of her knee, and Laudna beams. She bends at the waist to wrap the creature in spindly arms. His back arches, and Imogen can hear the vertebrae curving, clacking, as Laudna scratches behind his one intact ear. The ichor-tipped remnant of a tail begins to wag, shaking them both with the force of it.

He spots Imogen several paces away, and his green eyes glow, peering at her curiously.

Laudna has stopped her scritches, and the hound tilts his big head. Laudna looks up, meets Imogen’s fond gaze, and her lips split into a wide grin.

“Go on,” she pats the creature’s sides encouragingly, “say hello if you like.”

The hellhound bounds forward, released from his command. 

Imogen recalls the day he learned his tricks.

Laudna had found Imogen lounging beneath a copse of trees one afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to sink, casting the forest in dappled shades of orange and gold. The festering hound loped diligently at her heels. His paws colored the leaf-strewn ground iridescent black in their wake. 

“Look!” Laudna had said, chest puffed. She turned to her newest creation and pointed one finger. “You’ve been so obedient all afternoon. I’ll see about giving you something from my collection if your other mom approves of your skills. I should have a deer leg that will suit you nicely.” She contemplated for a moment. “Ready?” 

The hound stretched into a bow, muscle snapping over exposed bone, yawned, and shook. Drops of blood and ichor spattered the clearing, but Imogen hardly noticed, too caught up in Laudna’s casual statement. 

She had said it nonchalantly, as if she hadn’t just gifted Imogen something extraordinarily precious. As if Imogen’s senses hadn’t suddenly gone askew. As if she hadn’t just sent Imogen’s worldview slip-sliding into something new and dangerous and so welcome that it felt like a homecoming. Her mind spun until she was almost giddy with it. She wondered, then, how something said so simply could feel so significant. If Laudna understood what she had done. 

She had appointed Imogen the caretaker of a fragment of her soul. Of a creature that had been born of her, born from her. Crafted from the essence of her with whispered words and a desire to protect. 

“Imogen?” Laudna had said then, “Are you ready?”

And Imogen had glanced between Laudna and her hound, who sat on bleeding haunches and looked expectantly at his mother, and it was all she could do to swallow the creak in her throat.

“Let’s see what you can do.”

Now, as the hound nearly bowls her over, Imogen cannot find it within herself to be mad at him. Not even at the dark stains on her dress. They’ll come out with a prestidigitation or two. She knows from experience. 

She falls back in the grass and stares down twin emeralds. A broad tongue laps the side of her face, and she laughs, trying to dodge a cold, wet nose against her cheek. Her hands come up to cup the sides of his muzzle. 

“Hi, baby boy,” she coos. She rubs at his ears, and he presses harder into her palm, groaning loudly. She can feel the vibration in her chest.

Laudna scolds, “What have I said about knocking people over?” Her hands rest firmly on her hips. “Honestly, Imogen, you could at least discipline him. How will he learn?”

Imogen rolls her eyes, shrugs. “I’m the fun mom. He comes to me because he knows he can’t get away with anything when you’re around.”

Laudna huffs. “I’m sorry that I want our son to be civilized.” 

“Where’s the fun in that?” The hound flops to the ground, sprawling over Imogen’s outstretched legs, and she lets out an oomph of surprise. “Are you going to join us down here?” 

Laudna sighs and settles beside Imogen, resting her head on Imogen’s shoulder. She runs her hands over the creature’s exposed belly, avoiding the biggest of the perpetually oozing wounds. His jaw unhinges happily. His tail thumps a steady rhythm against her shin.

Imogen presses a kiss to the top of Laudna’s head, and Laudna relaxes into her.

A soft smile spreads across Imogen’s lips.

[ohmy-zabrak]

Sandor Clegane has horse boy energy. Catch him crying into Stranger's mane and shit

[grandmaster-anne]

The H&H interview: The Princess Royal

By Eleanor Jones | Published 5 December 2019

In this exclusive Horse & Hound interview, the Princess Royal shares moving insight into her involvement with Riding for the Disabled, a charity for which she has been patron since she was just 19 years old. She passionately relays the good she sees horses doing for people — not only those benefiting physically and emotionally from riding, but also those volunteers who report greater wellbeing as a result of their commitment to helping these riders. Princess Anne also divulges that her opinions may not always have made her popular, but she has fought for this cause that is so close to her heart. She also talks on how, with her mother still riding at 93, she really has no excuse not to carry on herself....

Half a century ago, the Duchess of Norfolk approached the then 19-year-old Princess Royal about riding opportunities for people with disabilities. Previously there had been various separate groups, but 1969 marked the formation of the national Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) — and those behind the move wanted the Princess as their patron.

“I said, ‘I don’t know anything about disabled riders — but I do know a bit about horses, and I’m delighted,’” she says. “My father always recommended not taking on too much, but to pick something I might be able to contribute to, learn about it and keep things simple.”

And it could be said that the work of the RDA has remained simple as the charity celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

“In some ways, what we do hasn’t changed at all,” Princess Anne says. “The observation that being on the back of an animal, small or large, can make a huge difference to mental and maybe physical wellbeing is as true today as it was then.”

The Princess brings up Lis Hartel, the dressage rider who was Danish national champion twice in the early 1940s. She contracted polio at the age of 23 and was paralysed below the knees, but went on to win five more national titles — and two Olympic silver medals, long before the Paralympics.

“When the RDA started, apart from those original groups, individuals, some of whom had seen Lis win her medals, said: ‘Good lord, we can do that at home!’”

Princess Anne cites the “enormous” benefits to those early participants; giving a new perspective on life, and movement to those who could not move.

“Even just being able to look down at people rather than always looking up,” she adds. “You can only really ask the people who have been part of it about the difference it makes.”

Some benefits can be measured, she says; children who become able to walk, or sit unaided, those who are visibly “getting better”.

“It’s not a eureka moment, but bit by bit they become capable of doing something they couldn’t do before,” she explains. “Of course, scientists could say it might not have been to do with the riding because they might have been doing physiotherapy too — but most of the physiotherapists recognise the contribution.”

There are also the mental benefits of riding, carriage-driving and just being with horses — the “focus and link people get nowhere else”, the communication, teamwork and building relationships. This year, the RDA released its research into the “dual benefit” of volunteering; the fact that by enabling the RDA groups to run, and its clients to have access to horses, the volunteers also enjoy significant positive effects.

“It’s being part of a group, which you might not otherwise be,” the Princess explains. “A lot of people say, ‘I’d be no good at that because I don’t know anything about horses,’ but that’s irrelevant; you can teach that.”

Princess Anne describes the RDA’s formation as a “bold move”, as there were far fewer opportunities for people with disabilities than there are today. The medical profession did not encourage such activities, not convinced the potential benefit outweighed the potential harm.

“There are so many opportunities now,” she muses. “Perhaps the RDA set that ball in motion and helped educate a lot of people.”

The Princess believes the real challenge in the RDA’s future is a “numbers game”, ensuring continuing access to enough volunteers and horses to cater for all those who want to access the service.

She adds that centres such as the Ian Stark Equestrian Centre in Scotland, where horses who do other jobs also take part in RDA sessions, show one way the problem could be combated.

“The horses do RDA sessions once a week and they know that’s what they’re doing because the handlers leave the headcollar on under the bridle; you can see the difference in how they behave.”

The Princess talks about the individuals who have created evolution in the RDA and the improvements in communication that allow riders who are both deaf and blind to participate fully. She also credits the training and support of volunteers that does not just tick boxes but ensures the individual rider — who is key to this — is supported. She speaks of her pride at seeing the British para riders rise to such stellar global heights.

She also touches on the way horses are used in therapy in other ways, such as in the prison service.

“For some time, we’ve tried to include offenders in the RDA [as volunteers],” she says. “I did get slightly grumpy when one lady bringing a group of offenders talked about assessing whether it was safe enough for them and I said: ‘It’s not for their benefit!’ That didn’t go down too well, but it does help both groups, and that’s the point.

“For so many young and senior offenders who have failed their families, they’re making a difference, which is something they didn’t think they could ever do.

“I think that’s true for many volunteers too; they really see they’re making a difference. It’s not only that without them the group wouldn’t exist — what it does for them is equally important.”

The Princess’ life has been intertwined with horses from birth. As she sits in a small room in St James’s Palace, cosy against the raw autumn day despite the cardboard on the ground floor telling of a recent flood, she is a stone’s throw from the Household Cavalry’s London base.

“Horses were always there,” she explains. “I started on ponies before I had a conscious memory. I’ve had more experience with horses than anything else, and if I was ever going to do something in the competitive world, that was it.”

Princess Anne says she at first assumed she might play polo, but that, having competed in a couple of Pony Club hunter trials and one-day events, “I was given a horse and sent to a trainer”, and her career path was assured.

Of her achievements in top-level eventing (see list, below), the Princess says her individual European gold medal-winning ride on Doublet at Burghley in 1971, at the age of 21, is not necessarily the highlight.

“I think perhaps it was almost too soon,” she explains, adding that she had only really started eventing competitively three years previously. “I was hugely more impressed with myself with the medals in 1975 because by that stage, everything that could have gone wrong had done, and I’d started again.

“Getting to the Olympics too — it was in bite-sized chunks. We had to get them past the trot-up, then through the cross-country — I don’t remember the cross-country at all!”

Princess Anne also raced, remembering coming third to a horse who later won at Cheltenham.

“I saw the horse in the paddock at Cheltenham and thought, ‘What’s that doing here?’ I was that close to him!” she laughs, adding that perhaps she should have raced more, as it “hugely improved my riding”.

“I rather regret that,” she says. “I didn’t hunt until after I’d started eventing either, which would have helped; the racing definitely did.”

With much recent talk of equestrian sport’s need to maintain its social licence to operate — essentially the ongoing acceptance of its practices by stakeholders and the public — the Princess says she believes the long relationship between horses and humans means “horses would be almost as lost without human contact as we would be”.

“Remember what that relationship is — and what would happen if it didn’t exist?” she says. “Some organisations seem to think we shouldn’t have any animals as part of our lives, and I don’t think that’s realistic, on the basis of that historical relationship.

“We all have a duty to be responsible for those animals, as we have for being better educated, and getting our message across. And when we see the advantages of that relationship to humans who are less capable, you’d have to be pretty unfeeling not to think that’s a genuine relationship that has every right to exist.”

In terms of horse welfare, the Princess says each horse’s wants and needs are different and must be taken into account. She gives the example of The Queen’s horse Goodwill, her Olympic ride, who had to be competed from the field; and another of her horses, Columbus, who did not like being turned out.

But she believes that modern routes into horse ownership, without the grounding of a horsey family or knowledgeable riding school, are “probably the most dangerous”.

“I think being introduced to horses by those who understand them is the best way, but if you start from scratch, a child saying ‘I want a pony’ and the parents buying them one, it can be more difficult for them — much more.”

Another welfare issue is preventing disease, and the Princess urges owners to consider vaccination. She is hopeful a strangles jab will be on the market soon, and that it is used.

“It’s rather similar to how people have forgotten the impact of human disease,” she says. “I was in Hong Kong when they were working with the Chinese on a vaccination programme and they were losing hundreds of horses. In the western world, people didn’t lose horses to flu. That really brought it home; it does kill horses.”

The Princess has to leave at this point, as she has another engagement. She is in the heart of London, although her own heart may be in grassier, more open spaces.

And does she still ride herself? She laughs.

“Well my mother still rides, at the age of 93 — I don’t think there would be much excuse if I didn’t.”

Princess Anne’s eventing achievements

1971 European Championships individual gold, Badminton Horse Trials fifth, Doublet

1973 Badminton eighth, Goodwill

1974 Badminton fourth, competed as an individual at the World Championships, Goodwill

1975 European Championships team and individual silver, Goodwill

1976 Rode on the British team at the Montreal Olympics, Goodwill

1979 Badminton sixth, Goodwill

[ladystoneboobs]

[Sandor Clegane, to Beric Dondarrion:]"Say, make my horse a knight. He never shits in the hall and doesn't kick more than most, he deserves to be knighted. Unless you meant to steal him too." -Arya VII, aSoS

confirmation that stranger, the hound's vicious hellhorse, was classier than tywin lannister's warhorse, and that tywin's horse is especially unworthy of knighthood.

[ross-hollander]

The worst part about working with the big merc units:

Eridani Light Horse. No matter how innovative the stratagem, no matter how novel the tactic, they will hear it and nod and patronizingly rattle off how it's just what Commander Blorbo did when they served under him at the Battle of Glup-7, where his entire force was slaughtered to the last.

Northwind Highlanders. As it turns out, enough Death-from-Aboves in a short enough span of time will, on more developed worlds, set off earthquake alarms, and you'll have to deal with those shredding your ears like a cheese grater until somebody finally turns them off.

Snord's Irregulars. Not the looting. They have that down to a science; it never interferes with a mission. No, it's how they eat up operational bandwidth for video calls to 'the Old Snord', because even with Rhonda running things now it's not an Irregulars operation without Cranston back-seat-driving for everyone over the comms.

Wolf's Dragoons. The pervasive identity crisis that ensures that Clanners will scold you for working with chalcas stravags, and Spheroids will side-eye you for working with a bunch of can't-believe-they're-not-Clanners.

Kell Hounds. The drive to actually build up some kind of 'company legend' for themselves beyond 'yeah, they're decent merc fighters' propels them to adopt strategies even Malvina would stop and reconsider before using.

[browsethestacks]

The Legion Of Super-Pets

Art by Mike Maihack

[sad-endings-suck]

Me: *is sad*

Me: *Remembers that both Dany and Sandor are horse girls.*

Me: *is less sad*