Who's the Jackass?
While filming "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" with Herman's Hermits in the UK, we had to do some location shooting in Manchester, as we were passing a nice little grove, I saw a donkey, a pony and a horse. (sounds like the intro to a joke or a quiz) I had been doing so much business stuff that I welcomed a chance for some adventure. I took off my suit jacket and went into the field to play with the animals. I guess I didn't care that there wasn't a bit, bridle, saddle or any form of control for the horse, other than hanging on to the mane and neck for dear life! With my appetite whetted I found a 'hunter' stable and spent the weekend learning to ride English style and jump.
Riding Challenge
That whetted my appetite. We had a couple of off days during the shoot and this was a different time and a different world...1965. Meaning, there was nothing to do in Manchester as it was a weekend and everything and I mean everything was closed. In those days if you didn't get something to eat by 5:00PM, on Sunday you didn't get something to eat so I decided to learn how to ride horses, English style. We drove by a stable that trained hunters , jumping horses. I went in and asked if I could get lessons and they said they were closed for the weekend but since I was a foreigner and looked totally ridiculously American with my blue jeans and cowboy boots, they relented and started my lessons. (At some point I will go into the story of my first lesson in Hyde Park which was the worst experience of riding of my life---'talk about ball buster'.) This girl told me to get on the horse without a saddle and before they would teach me anything I had to be able to ride bareback with just a bridle. After a while she put me on a saddle and taught me within the hour how to cantor--which, your butt feels for weeks. On the second day she had me taking these little step over small jumps. I was getting ball busted by the horses and the girl told me that the horse knew that I didn't know what I was doing and when I went up for the jump the horse took another step and then came up and whacked me in the butt and balls (they banned balls on that Memory Lane piece). She said that I had to kick the horse at the time I was going up so the horse would know that I meant business and after the horse knew I wouldn't have to kick again... It worked.
Learning to Jump And on the third day, after I went thru these jumps they gave me a little yellow ribbon in celebration of my learning. I had done the circuit of jumps with no problem and asked my driver to please take a video (8mm) of me jumping. He leaned over the fence with the camera as we approached the jump that you see the horse stop at. His leaning over spooked the horse and that's is why he stopped. Luckily I stayed on...I wish I remembered the names of the poeple at that stable, the girl visited me in London a couple of times. They were terrific.
I never realized how much horseback riding has been in my life. When I started that memory lane chat I started seeing all the shots of me on horseback from Kyoto, Japan to Rome, Italy and of course, riding with Keith.
My first date with my ex was horseback riding for the first time for me in the hills of New Jersey. That is another story.
Jumping the Big OnesHow Embed YouTube Video by VideoLightBox.com v1.11