Skip to main content

Horse Tales

 



There was a solitary mangosteen tree near my home. The tree used to remind me of Wordsworth’s the   ‘Solitary Reaper.’ 


A pony from nowhere used to wait below the tree every night. We guessed it must be a runaway from the Turf Club which was 3 km away from my home. However we had our doubts as to whether                                                                                                                                                                     this was a pony and not a horse as there was no reason for the Turf Club to own a pony, when their business was in horse racing.  


One night one of my neighbourhood young men, (who was not so smart) climbed the tree with a rope, made a sling, threw it around the neck of the pony and hung to it. The pony was too strong for him and dragged the young man for a few meters before the loop on its neck gave way freeing the pony and the struggling young man. It then dawned on him that the pony was indeed stronger than him. The next night he changed his strategy. The rope was tied to the branch of the tree and when he threw the loop on the neck of the pony it tried to run but was restrained by the rope tied to the tree.  He fed the horse with grass cut from the juicy grass from the banks of the nearby stream and some boiled chick peas.The pony seemed to relish these dishes and the young man continued to feed the pony with this diet for a few days while he got closer to the animal. One day he brought a saddle and a stirrup and managed to put it over the pony - he then placed the bit in the mouth of the animal and walked the pony around in circles on the field. After a few days he got on the pony and rode him for a distance till the pony got used to carrying a human on its back. Then he realised he could make some money if he could offer pony rides to the children in the kampong. This enterprise went on for a while until one day a naughty child used a sharp object to hurt the pony. The pony buckled and threw off the poor child. That put an end to the pony rides as the pony was given a bad name of hurting children.


When we had politicians who loved horse racing to other religious events, our race courses used to be a hive of activity during horse racing days. I was a young man who loved theses racing days as it provided us with an avenue to earn some pocket money.   We found part time jobs selling tickets and ushering horse racing enthusiasts into the Turf Clubs to witness horse racing. Even the Kedah State had a race course  where a Gymkhana used to be staged once a year. We used to lay bets using three and four digits. The horses used to carry numbers one to ten which would represent  the three and four digits to be decided by the winning horses on the last race for the day. One day my three digit was selected as participating in a race.  A horse was carrying my number and if that particular horse won within 10 digits, I would be entitled to a prize money depending on which position the horse arrived at the destination. As luck would have it, the horse carrying my number came out first. I had a prize money of RM600.00 which was big money then and came in handy as I was to be married soon.


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


Images are for illustrative purposes only, and are sourced from the web. Please drop us a note if you are the owner and wish to be credited.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first car

  After my Higher School Certificate examination, I was appointed as a labour officer. This job paid well enough that I could finally afford a car for work. It involved a fair amount of travelling, the allowances for which could well cover my petrol bills. This first car was a second hand Volkswagen 1200, reg. AF 1085 in white. However I had just learnt driving and was not confident in taking out the car for my duties. So for the first few weeks, a friend of mine agreed to be a co-driver while I learnt to drive in my neighbourhood.  Once I gained confidence, I told my friend that I was confident and he need not assist me while I drove around. The first day of independent driving, I reversed into a child’s tricycle. Fortunately the child had abandoned the bike in my driveway and went away to look for other pursuits that drew her attention. There was a dent to the rear of my vehicle    that would require some money to have it fixed back into its original shape.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pigeons always look for variety

One of my female pigeons left her nest and moved over to my neighbors pigeon Coop where she had taken a fancy for a male pigeon. I spoke to my neighbor and told him I shall trap my pigeon later that evening. But my neighbor like a budding lawyer told me “possession is 9/10th” of the law and since the pigeon was in his coop it is rightfully his. Now when I feed my pigeons I usually give a loud whistle for them to attend to their food. I told my brother to spray some green peas on the ground. My house was about 5 houses away from my neighbors where my pigeon had sought refuge with her boyfriend. When I gave a whistle my pigeon with 3 other pigeons left my neighbors coop to peck food at my coop. The neighbor was stunned seeing his 3 pigeons heading to my house. He mellowed and asked me to allow him to go over to my coop later in the evening to trap his birds. I used his same words and turned down his pleas despite his apologies. In the evening when the birds got into the coop I caught hol...
Post a Comment
Read more

SENIOR CITIZENS AND THE QR CODE

Age is certainly catching up for me and my friends of my generation. Technology is moving fast and I find we are no longer able to fit into the fast paced modern age. The other day Ben, my friend and I set out to Bukit Damansara to meet up with an Investment banker. Both of us are retirees. I am in the 80's while Ben is a lot younger. We have been residents of KL for a long time, used to Pusat Bandar Damansara area as we had worked in that area many years ago. We decided to take a Grab to go to Bukit Damansara. As we got into the car and buckled up with the safety belt, the driver told us to scan the QR code a small piece of plastic stuck to each side of the window. It took some effort as the sticker was slightly bigger than a postage stamp while we are used to a big placard attached to the back of the front seat. It was quite a challenge to scan it as the car was in motion through some humps and bumps. To our surprise Pusat Bandar Damansara wasn't the place we knew. Our office...
1 comment
Read more