Brownie the Runaway

[george]

Almost four years ago now, some of us from the forum arranged a horsey day out. We met up at a riding stables for a group hack, and I got bolted with by a very small, fairly old, and extremely energetic horse called Brownie

At the time, we did discuss the possibility of getting Julips made of the five horses we'd ridden out together, I remember Elli asking me to take marking-reference pictures of her piebald 'just in case', and we'd speculated on which moulds might suit them. I don't think anyone ever did get round to ordering these possible portrait ideas, but when Astudyinscarlet's second hand connemara came up for sale last week, in the right colour and the very mould I'd mentioned as the best match for my horse that day, I decided it would be really good to have a Julip of her after all.
It was such a memorable experience : the first and only time I've ever jumped a ditch at a gallop, as well as being an absolute miracle I managed to stay with her all the way as we charged headfirst at other horses then after some sharp-angled manouvers at high speed, leapt completely out of the stubblefield and off into the countryside...and still able to laugh about it with the others when we eventually got back, rather than being traumatised

Of course, the Julip's white markings weren't an exact match already, so I spent a few minutes with the photos and a paintbrush, then gave her a hair trim, and here she is, Brownie, the runaway horse a few of us can never forget



And here's some more, with the real one too - she looks so innocent and placid!





The connemara is perhaps a bit chunkier than the real Brownie, but the other choice would've been family horse, and I've already got a chocolate brown one of those, so this was the best option, I think. The body colours are a really nice match, considering they're a co-incidence rather than a special order!





The real Brownie's mane was a bit lighter, but not enough to need to rehair her model self, I think after a trim they're close enough (I didn't even trim as short as I should have, cos I wanted the mane to still lay flat and neat, any shorter than this and mohair has a tendancy to just stick up like a punky mohawk styled stripe of fluff, rather than hanging downwards nicely )



I had trouble figuring out her front leg marking til I saw a front angle, with the sharply pointed V up her shin



(This looks very weird, I'd just dismounted and my feet and legs were suffering, hence the strange pose for a few seconds while they get used to being back on solid ground and not bracing for dear life, hahah)





And her head, with the spotted pink nose, and some roany speckling to the stripe and also above her eyes where she's going a bit grey.

[helen1983]

Oh she’s beautiful Georgie! What a little minx  I’d forgotten about your adventure!

[george]

She looks so gentle and calm, too, you'd never suspect she'd be the one to take off!

[astudyinscarlet]

She looks really good. That almost makes me want her back. LOL
It's weird I never took to that model that much though, it's one of my favourite moulds and favourite colours but in reality somehow the combination never quite clicked for me. She looks lovely being a little bit more personalised though.

[george]

Ahh, I'm glad you like her little makeover, it's amazing how relatively small changes alter the look of a horse completely, she didn't look like Brownie when she came out of the bubblewrap but she does now

[helen1983]

Jul 31, 2020 16:28:46 GMT george said:

She looks so gentle and calm, too, you'd never suspect she'd be the one to take off!

Ahaha isn’t that always the way 

[juliporiginals]

What a good match to the real Brownie, I have to say she does look a picture of sweetness and innocence in real life! lol

[samantha]

Oh what a fabulous story, and how perfect to finally have the Julip Brownie find you! 

[george]

Here's a fuller version of the bolting adventure which I wrote up in an old forum post at the time...

When we got to a stubble field it was time to go. The staff riders taking us out started to jog a bit, and as each horse came toward the corner they started to trot, and I assumed as we rounded the corner we'd pop easily into canter and go along the edge of the field.
But Brownie popped not into canter but into a very forward GALLOP. She took not a bit of notice of me trying to steady her, overtook two horses, and ran up alongside the staff leader - I shouted across my apologies for getting kind of in front and did manage to bring her back to a canter and then trot as we turned down the length of the field, but as soon as I told her she could canter again, GALLOP happened again, and we bombed off up the field at the front, absolutely flying and with zero control over the speed. Thankfully Brownie did listen to being turned, so at this point it was only a running-off-with rather than a real bolting, and we did a nice galloping semi-circle and back the way we came, and toward the end of the field she steadied up a bit and we ended the canter with some actual cantering, before trying to head back to where the other horses had stopped.
We got on to the grass track, and were carrying on reasonably calmly, when Josie suggested another lap of the field. Elli didn't want to as she had an ankle problem at the time, and I'd not felt in control at all in the first gallop, so I said I'd wait with her while the others went for their second canter. To start with Brownie seemed ok with this idea, both horses stood calmly, and she wasn't pulling or dancing or being at all I HAVE TO GO WITH THEM, then all of a sudden she just decided she was going, and we went from a standstill into yet another gallop.
Only she didn't run the same way as they had, so after a couple of hundred yards of zero control headlong hammering gallop, we were running at the other horses head to head like some sort of really kamikaze cavalry charge of one horse hurtling toward the opposite army all alone, heh. I was thinking 'she's going to slam the brakes on and spin round when she reaches them!' and having a minor panic about this cos falling off at speed onto pretty solid ground didn't seem at all good, but Brownie decided to do a sort of hairpin turn of her own accord (I had nothing, I may as well have been pulling on a leadrope round her neck for the amount of reaction I got pulling on the bit), and just keep on running in front of the others.
I thought we might have to circle right round the field til she gave up wanting to run, but she had other ideas, and totally ignoring any efforts to hold her straight or haul her round, she swerved out of the field, over a water pipe, and on to the grass track between fields, all still at a ridiculous headlong gallop and taking not the slightest bit of notice of me. At one point there was a hollow across the track, about a foot deep and four or five feet wide, not a full-on ditch with water at the bottom, but clarly enough that she thought she couldn't just gallop over it, because a few feet away her ears locked on and I just thought 'she's going to jump it', and had about half a second to prepare for the biggest, fastest jump I've ever sat. She took an absolutely massive leap, the sort with the head down and the knees up, I've never jumped from a gallop before, never big, and never felt so much sheer power in the jump of the horse, I hung on for dear life with a fold-from-the-waist cos there just hadn't been time to stand up and forward into a normal jumping position, and we both landed in a bit of a heap, her head went down and I fell a bit forward on to her neck, but the relief at even still being on the horse after that was enormous
And she didn't even pause in her gallop stride, we carried on bombing along and only when eventually the ground got rough and she had to be careful not to trip did we come back to a canter, which I managed to pull down to a trot, and eventually into a joggy sort of walk, at which point I looked back to see how far we'd come and saw the very welcome sight of the staff rider coming to fetch me.
We made our way back to the others, and then carried on along more grass tracks - thankfully Brownie was either tired out or just satisfied with the amount of running off she'd done, and didn't try it again

[eldabee]

Oh boy, no wonder you needed a moment to steady yourself once you got off 😱😂🐴

[helen1983]

Oh my word! That sounds absolutely terrifying! My worry pot husband is sat next to me and I daren't show him this post, otherwise he won't let me ride again

[elli]

Once we knew you were ok it was honestly one of the funniest things ever 😂 My horse was an idiot and kept walking backwards into a ditch but we were just sat chatting one minute and then next you’d disappeared 😂 The others hadn’t even noticed straight away but I just saw you flying off into the distance 😂

[sarahb7538]

Bloody hell, that does sound so scary!

Amazing that you stayed with her!

The Brownie look a like is fabulous

[george]

I'm amazed I stayed with her, my riding may not've been very effective for actually stopping the horse but wow did I feel like a good rider just for still being on her

[kits]

Elli is right, we came back from our gallop across the stubble and it was all.... wait where's George??? Such a relief you were okay!

I like your Julip Brownie! My dapple grey mare was very pretty, I'd like to get a portrait of her one day but she's a way down the list yet.

[revjen]

That does sound like an incredibly memorable experience!