Post by Elaine on Oct 27, 2009 17:43:57 GMT
While he was never renowned for his punctuality, it was well after ‘moving off’ time on Tuesday morning when Johnny O Donnell, who also happened to be the local farrier, arrived at the meet in Killbeg. It was not the first time Major Mac had discovered that his horse had a loose shoe just as Johnny was loading his hunter and this did little to improve Johnny’s humour that morning. Johnny had a bit of a reputation for being contrary sometimes, but he was a renowned and much valued follower of the hunt. Johnny’s horse Billy was built in a fashion, which was appropriate for a horse who had to carry a sixteen stone owner. Billy appeared to have a magical quality of actually being able to eat barbed wire. Well, whatever he did to it, it never caused a problem for the rest of the field after Johnny and Bill had ‘made’ their gap.
It was now well into February, the hunting season would soon be drawing to a close and the last ‘visitors’ were making their appearance. The word spread amongst the regular followers that morning that Melissa Humphries the first lady Mayoress of Ballyvogue and her husband Dr Sean Humphries would be joining the hunt that day.
Luckily for Johnny scent was a bit scrappy that morning and as he arrived, hounds just started to hunt. The Master was working hard to get his hounds to follow a very broken line and when they checked in a small field by a narrow little road it was Johnny who jumped off Billy to open the gate for the Master to go in and put the hounds “right”. As the Master re-emerged out onto the road he thanked Johnny and followed his hounds down the lane.
Johnny quickly closed the gate and just as he put his foot in the stirrup to mount a very inpatient Billy, a small group of ‘late arrivers’ including the Lady Mayoress and her husband happened to catch-up with the field. Seeing the Master gallop down the small road and unaware of Johnny’s difficulties in re-mounting, Dr Humphries galloped straight past the struggling Johnny, in hot pursuit of the Master.
Displaying a grasp of language which a person might easily acquire visiting some of our less prominent racing yards, Johnny briskly enquired as to who the ‘person’ who had just galloped past might be. Some of the followers explained that he was the husband of the rather famous lady mayoress. Johnny utilising the same language, then went on to explain to the growing crowd that he cared little as to whom the gentleman might be married to and he expressed not a little annoyance at the Doctors lack of courtesy to someone trying to mount his horse. Having eventually succeeded in lifting his large frame back onto Billy, Johnny set off in hot pursuit of the miscreant Doctor.
It took a while for Johnny to catch up with the field as scent had improved and hounds got a nice run, marking to ground after about twenty five minutes. It was quite frosty that morning and a cloud of steam quickly began to rise from the group of horses congregated beside where the fox went to ground. However some older followers who witnesses the incident still swear that the steam which rose from the particular area of the field where Johnny and Dr Humphries were having what appeared to be a rather one-sided conversation was decidedly different, they reckoned that it was more reminiscent of the clouds of steam which emanated from the stacks of the steam locomotives leaving the Limerick Junction on their way to Cork back in the nineteen fifties.
J. Heney
It was now well into February, the hunting season would soon be drawing to a close and the last ‘visitors’ were making their appearance. The word spread amongst the regular followers that morning that Melissa Humphries the first lady Mayoress of Ballyvogue and her husband Dr Sean Humphries would be joining the hunt that day.
Luckily for Johnny scent was a bit scrappy that morning and as he arrived, hounds just started to hunt. The Master was working hard to get his hounds to follow a very broken line and when they checked in a small field by a narrow little road it was Johnny who jumped off Billy to open the gate for the Master to go in and put the hounds “right”. As the Master re-emerged out onto the road he thanked Johnny and followed his hounds down the lane.
Johnny quickly closed the gate and just as he put his foot in the stirrup to mount a very inpatient Billy, a small group of ‘late arrivers’ including the Lady Mayoress and her husband happened to catch-up with the field. Seeing the Master gallop down the small road and unaware of Johnny’s difficulties in re-mounting, Dr Humphries galloped straight past the struggling Johnny, in hot pursuit of the Master.
Displaying a grasp of language which a person might easily acquire visiting some of our less prominent racing yards, Johnny briskly enquired as to who the ‘person’ who had just galloped past might be. Some of the followers explained that he was the husband of the rather famous lady mayoress. Johnny utilising the same language, then went on to explain to the growing crowd that he cared little as to whom the gentleman might be married to and he expressed not a little annoyance at the Doctors lack of courtesy to someone trying to mount his horse. Having eventually succeeded in lifting his large frame back onto Billy, Johnny set off in hot pursuit of the miscreant Doctor.
It took a while for Johnny to catch up with the field as scent had improved and hounds got a nice run, marking to ground after about twenty five minutes. It was quite frosty that morning and a cloud of steam quickly began to rise from the group of horses congregated beside where the fox went to ground. However some older followers who witnesses the incident still swear that the steam which rose from the particular area of the field where Johnny and Dr Humphries were having what appeared to be a rather one-sided conversation was decidedly different, they reckoned that it was more reminiscent of the clouds of steam which emanated from the stacks of the steam locomotives leaving the Limerick Junction on their way to Cork back in the nineteen fifties.
J. Heney