Talk to any foxhunter, and he’ll have a story for you about the best mount in the field. Time after time, it’s not the boldest staff horse or the most sure-footed guest packer that he’ll describe, but a shorter and scrappier fellow: the ideal hunt pony.

Nearly every hunt has one of those special animals that becomes the envy of everyone in the field: game, athletic, smart, forgiving, with an instinctive understanding of the sport. Those extraordinary individuals become hand-me-downs, reserved and spoken for years ahead of time.

“That pony’s got to be able to get across a groundhog hole or a bridge or whatever else is in the way, on his own,” said Iona Pillion, who has been producing hunt ponies and young riders in Northern Virginia since the 1960s. “If your pony can’t do that brilliantly, you don’t want to put your little darling on it.”

We tracked down a few of the legendary first mounts who have left a legacy of capable, confident foxhunters across the country.

The Most Famous Pony In The Valley

It may have been nearly five decades ago, but Nancy Donnan Coleman still remembers the day that launched her children’s riding career like it was yesterday. She’d been on the lookout for a suitable mount for her children—four under the age of 8—and all she’d found were runaways.

One day she looked out her window and saw aman walking a tiny butterscotch and cream pony around her yard. Coleman marched out and politely informed the pony dealer she wasn’t interested, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She finally agreed to keep the pony a week, but at the end of the time that barely-broke 4-year-old had found himself a permanent stall in her barn.

“He didn’t know anything, but he was so sweet,” recalled Coleman. “The kids taught him to do everything, and he was fantastic. They joined Genesee Valley Pony Club [N.Y.], and he became the games champion. He showed, raced, jumped cross-country, everything. To this day my four children still have horses.”

Coleman’s children took turns aboard the reliable 12.2-hand fellow with Genessee Valley Hunt (N.Y.), and Freddy earned a reputation for jumping any fence and galloping through any terrain without a second thought.

“I remember there was a well-known man from Buffalo hunting with us on this big, beautiful white horse,” recalled Coleman’s son Greg Donnan. “He said something to me about buying the pony. I told him I’d maybe trade him his big horse for my pony. Everyone got a chuckle out of that.”

After Donnan and his siblings outgrew Freddy, Austin Wadsworth, MFH, and John Chanler, whipper-in, went in together to buy the pony for their children. Martha C. Wadsworth had Freddy first, until 9-year-old Andrew Chanler demanded that his father deliver the pony to him. Freddy took Andrew from barely posting to helping his father whip in.

“There was no coop he wouldn’t jump, no ditch he wouldn’t go through,” said Andrew, Geneseo, N.Y., who passed Freddy to his sister after he outgrew him. “I remember one time we were out when Austin Wadsworth was hunting the hounds, and he was trying to collect hounds. But they were in a covert and they weren’t coming. He said, ‘John, you go get the hounds out. Andrew will stay with me and help keep the hounds here.’ I felt like a big-shot because the master said I could help. I could crack my whip off him and the whole shooting match.”

Freddy then went to whipper-in Ted Kinsey for his son Nat, then on to Thorne’s home, where he took her three children from leadline to first field. Eventually, after 30 years hunting, Freddy retired to the Chanlers’ farm, where he remained an ideal companion and the king of the property. He died in 2001, at the age of 40.

“I feel so lucky to have been able to ride the most famous pony in the valley,” recalled Andrew, who now whips in for Genesee Valley. “My kids are 7 and 5, and I think all the time, ‘How am I going to duplicate Freddy for them?’ ”

A Dependable Teacher

For decades, Nancy Dillon has been showing up with trailer loads of ponies every Saturday at Piedmont Hunt (Va.) fixtures. But one of those charges—Looking Glass—has the distinction of teaching the better part of the field their way over a coop.

Looking Glass, by Cymraeg Rain Beau, found his way to Dillon when he was just 3. Nineteen years later, he’s carrying Dillon’s grandchildren first flight.

“He was a lot of pony at first,” recalled Dillon, Philomont, Va. “You couldn’t catch him, and you had to turn him out with a lead shank. But after he was broke he’s been great ever since. He can trot or canter a four-foot fence whenever you want him to. He’s taught kids who have now graduated from engineering school and have kids of their own.”

Despite his spectacular breeding and lovely form over fences, Looking Glass found his niche in the hunt field, rather than the show ring, never having been a fan of jumps that were “flowered up,” as Dillon put it.

“He’ll jump anything in the hunt field. He’s a wonderful jumper, just like all the Rain Beaus,” she said.

According to Dillon’s daughter, Daphne Alcock, Looking Glass can win a team chase one day, then gallop cross-country in a packed field with a novice foxhunter the next. Alcock trusted Looking Glass to take her oldest daughter, Hayley, across tough country in the first field when the young rider was just 8.

“I’ve never seen him do anything common,” said Daphne. “He doesn’t pull, and when a kid tries to override him he does let them know. But he always tries to please, and he always wants to take care of the kid who’s on him. Even the kids who aren’t gutsy feel like they can do the world on him.”

Like all good ponies, he has the heart of a teacher as well.

“He’s smart enough that if you get him to a jump really badly he won’t do it—not in a bad way, but to stay safe,” said Hayley, who has since passed the reins to her sister Nancy. “He was my first first flight pony, and he taught me an awful lot.”

Nancy, 9, has been hunting Looking Glass this season, and she credits the pony with giving her the confidence to jump anything.

“He’s really good over the scary jumps—and we’ve jumped big walls uphill and downhill,” she said. “He really does it all himself. Last year when we were out hunting in the woods a pack of deer came out and one of them jumped over his butt—he didn’t even spook!”

Looking Glass has acquired legions of fans among former students who have graduated to much larger mounts.
“I started hunting Looking Glass and the rest ofthe Dillon pony fleet when I was 6 years old, and now 15 years later I’m out in the hunt field watching the same ponies take care of other kids,” recalled Piedmont member Malcolm Dilley. “It’s really gratifying and impressive that Looking Glass has been able to stay as confident as he has for so long.”

An All-Around Winner

Joan Rich didn’t meet the most influential pony of her riding career until she was much older than most pony jocks. Trainer Sabine Newman convinced her to try out a brown-and-white pinto pony after a 25-year hiatus from the tack when Rich was an adult with children of her own. That mount carried her around a novice horse trial a few weeks later and reignited her love of horse sports.

Newman found Xena as a homely prospect in a cow field while looking for a “couch with legs” to use as a foundation for a lesson program. Luckily for her, that couch turned out to be a jumping machine, with heart to match her innate talent. Rich fell for the pony, and when Newman returned to her native Germany, Rich bought the pony for “the cost of her bridle.”

Within no time at all Rich felt as if she’d never left the tack. She earned her colors with Long Lake Hounds (Minn.) thanks in part to driving trailer loads of juniors from her home in Menomonie, Wis., to meets two hours away, and became the joint District Commissioner for North Star Pony Club (Wis.).

“Combinations, water, ditches—nothing fazes her,” said Rich of Xena. “She’ll let the hounds run between her legs. The kids have done some junior whipping-in off her. She likes to go off after the stray hounds, and she has all the speed and all the heart to do it. She goes first field, and she can hang with the best.”

Xena partnered with Rich’s daughters Isabelle, Ingrid and Hayley for foxhunting, Pony Club rallies and ratings, jumper derbies, horse trials and horse shows—including an appearance at USEF Pony Finals.

“We’d go to Lamplight [Equestrian Center (Ill.)], and here we are from Wisconsin, looking like rednecks with this ugly pony next to the princess hunter ponies,” said Rich. “People would look and take a step back. Then we’d come out of the in-gate at the jumper ring, and people would run up and ask if she’s for sale.”

For fun Rich had their plain pony stand for an American Warmblood inspection. Xena wowed the judges over fences, earning 10s for jumping and a brand on her hindquarter.

But Xena came to Rich with two quirks. The first, the penchant to bow when tapped on the shoulder, could pass as an entertaining trick. But the other causes problems if a rider’s not ready.

“She has this knack for laying down when she doesn’t want to go,” said Rich. “You can pull and kick all you want, but she’ll just lay down and graze. So at the checks she has to keep walking.”

The only regret Rich has about her plain looking pony is that she can’t clone her at 16 hands.

“There are all these gorgeous horses, and here I have a big-headed pony, but she’s simply the best,” said Rich. “She’s like an underdog who jumps in perfect form every time. But we just loveher so much, and she’s added so much to our lives.”

An Unexpected Present

It was clear from the start that the pony Nellie Hanagan brought home from a sale for her young daughter wasn’t going to work. That mare turned out to be a “wacky, loony thing.” Hanagan would have sent the pinto packing immediately, had it not been for a suspicion that what she’d thought was a wormy belly might be a pregnant one.

Sure enough, a few months later she gave birth to a beautiful palomino foal. And that filly grew up to be one of the best ponies Potomac Hunt (Md.) had ever seen.

Hanagan’s daughter Lela broke that filly, Spinner, when she was just 6 and Spinner was 3.

“Lela’s a good horseperson, but that just shows you how fantastic that pony was,” said Hanagan, Dickerson, Md. “I helped her get the tack on and led her around, but within two to three weeks she’d made a pony. Spinner went hunting for the first time when she was 3 and never looked back. Whatever you want, she’ll do.”

Over the last 14 years that’s included babysitting novice foxhunters, whipping in, driving, eventing and participating in every possible Pony Club activity. In 2005 she won the North American Junior Field Hunter Championship with Charlotte Goodman aboard. Lela’s sister Catherine, now 17, still hunts Spinner when her mount throws a shoe, and the golden palomino has taught plenty of Potomac youngsters the ropes.

“She’ll jump anything you point her at,” saidNellie. “She’s not afraid of the other horses, she’s not afraid of the hounds. On several occasions the masters have come on something really trappy and want a lead and say, ‘Catherine, get that pony up here.’ ”

One of the most memorable hunts for Spinner came when Potomac had a joint meet with Elkridge-Harford Hunt (Md.). After 31⁄2 hours over big fences the field came trotting down a huge hill toward a railroad tie fence at the bottom. Catherine, then 8, was aboard second-to-last, with Nellie bringing up the rear.

“This was one of the only times I’ve ever really been afraid as a mother,” said Nellie. “Spinner goes trotting slowly up to it, and he soars over it like it’s nothing. I can just see everyone’s faces on the other side, shocked. I find out later that all they could see was Catherine’s head. Someone on the other side said, ‘That pony must hunt with Green Spring [Md.],’ and one of our older members turned around and said, ‘No! That’s a Potomac pony! That’s our pony!’ ”

The 13.1-hand wonder earned such a tremendous reputation that a fellow Potomac member recruited Spinner’s dam to breed to their stallion. That offspring, now 11, has also become a fabulous hunting pony.

“Spinner takes such good care of everyone that’s ever ridden her,” said Catherine. “You sit there and do nothing, and she does it all.”

Exactly What A Pony Should Be

When Iona Pillion came to the United States from England she worked at the legendary Farnley Farm starting outstanding young ponies. So when the time came for her to find a pony for her own daughter, Sara, she knew firsthand how tough it would be to find just the right mount.

Sara’s godmother, Marguerite Taylor, reminded Iona of the pony who had taught Sara to canter when the child and mare were both just 4. Iona was sure the pony would be out of her budget, but next thing she knew she was driving to pick up Farnley Tambourine.

“She wasn’t a brilliant mover, or a top show pony, and [at just over 13 hands] she was badly sized,” said Iona. “But she never argued, and she just did. She never bucked or did anything ugly. She was exactly what a pony should be.”

Farnley Tambourine (Downland Drummer Boy—Farnley Belladonna) hunted in a snaffle and could jump the moon. She showed Sara the ropes in Blue Ridge Hunt (Va.), then became one of the top all-around ponies in Iona’s stables. She taught legions of young people how to hunt, ran in pairs races and won a class at the Upperville Colt and Horse Show (Va.). She helped inspire a love of horses in horsemen like Sara Davis Miller, Molly Ashe, Patrick Huber, Molly Ohrstrom and Jessica Lohman. Her last rider, Eleanor Rose Hytla, even wrote Tambourine a birthday card, which Iona has preserved as a keepsake.

“That was a fantastic pony and an amazing jumper,” said Ohrstrom, The Plains, Va. “Back then there were lots of bad ponies who would buck you off, but Tambourine was like a Cadillac, just a luxury children’s hunt pony. Growing up our big game was counting how many jumps we jumped out hunting. With Tambourine you always knew you were getting to the other side. If there’s a pony who deserves a birthday card, it’s Tambourine.”

One of Tambourine’s most memorable moments came at a Pony Club rally at Morven Park Equestrian Center (Va.). Tambourine jumped through the window to escape her stall rather than spend the night confined, and Iona found her placidly grazing nearby in the morning.

Iona tried to replicate Tambourine, but the mare would never get in foal. Now 38, the pony still wanders around Iona’s farm, with “a dippy back and no teeth,” but to Iona she’s queen of the farm.

“I still remember Sara learning to canter, bouncing along beside me on that wonderful pony,” said Iona. “You could say canter and she would—to the end she had this wonderful soft canter. There will never be another one as good as Tambourine.”