View from the Muck Heap: A collection of pony memories (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781523949380)

Prince Igor Smith - dream pony or infernal nuisance? Well, he was bought as a suitable pony for Jane, who was just getting back into riding after a break of some years, and her daughter Susanna, who required a nice docile beginner's pony. True, he started off fairly quietly and obediently, but, unfortunately, not in the way he meant to go on. Matters weren't helped by the fact that he developed a complaint in both of his forelegs a few months after Jane and Susanna bought him, but, with expert help and advice, this has been kept in check for the best part of the last ten years, largely because he wears special shoes, because he is never overworked, and because he is never asked to trot on hard surfaces which would just exacerbate his condition. However, he soon learnt how to exploit this situation and found that it fitted very well with his own natural inclination to do only the things he really wanted to do and to lead his owners a merry old dance. In short, they are never entirely sure whether his behaviour on any given hack, or, in his own words, "lark in the park" is to do with genuine stiffness in the joints or a desire to make a thorough nuisance of himself and to cause maximum embarrassment. A subject of great debate after most hacks out is "does Prince deserve a carrot or not?" - a matter, which, by the way, is always very close to Prince's own heart, as you will see. There are a few things, though, which are absolutely certain: he was born in the year 2000; he is 14.2 hands high; he is a New Forest Welsh Section D cross (possibly); he is bright chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail; Jane and Susanna will have owned him for ten years next February and... ...they think the world of him! Prince has written extensively about his life and exploits in two other books, but he has his own very special reasons for producing this third volume of distilled pony wisdom.