Bounty Hunter II, the skewbald horse who jumped round Badminton Horse Trials with Caron Myles, was put down last Tuesday (6 December) at the age of 31.
“He was a feisty, determined little horse,” Caron told H&H. “He was a quirky Irish horse – so wary and untrusting of anyone and I often wondered what on earth I was wasting my time on, but he was a lovely horse in a lot of other ways.”
Caron first came across Bounty in 1995 when she and her sister Tina went to try a horse in Kent.
She said: “We didn’t like that one, but we saw Bounty in the next-door stable. He was a very nervous four-year-old who had just come from Ireland having been sat on a few times. We thought he’d be a nice riding club or Pony Club type to produce and sell on.
“He proved too nervous and tricky for that, but when I did some pre-novices [now BE100s] on him at the end of his fifth year, he proved bold and brave. His dressage and showjumping were difficult because he was so tense, but he loved cross-country and was jumping for fun.”
At the end of his six-year-old season, Bounty tried to take a stride out of a two-stride double across country at Weston Park and fell.
“About two months later, he started headshaking really badly,” said Caron. “We had everything investigated and it turned out he had chipped a tooth, but he remained a bad headshaker, with rain and wind irritating him more than sun. I had to take him back to the beginning and almost re-back him.
“I got him going again and we did two Blenheim Horse Trials, in 2000 and 2001. He was strong and he jumped the string into the crowd in 2000. In 2001, I went there on crutches – I’d gone over on my ankle and strained the soft tissue ligaments. But we jumped round clear and fast and qualified for Badminton. He was quite a tricky horse with the headshaking and being so strong, but I knew he was so brave that if I was going to ride anything at Badminton, it would be him.”
Caron and Bounty Hunter completed Badminton in 2002 with a clear jumping round across country.
“Badminton was my local event and he flew round the cross-country. Everyone loved him because they could see how gutsy he was, even if he was never going to win rosettes at that level,” said Caron. “I was so glad we finished and he was sound, happy and well.”
After his retirement from eventing, Bounty hunted with six different packs – the Beaufort, Berkeley, Heythrop, South and West Wilts, Western and Mid Devon – and Caron’s ex-husband Duncan Hume hunted hounds from him at the Western.
“He paraded hounds too and I led our daughter Tilly off him out hunting – he was a fantastic horse to lead a pony off,” said Caron. “He loved hunting and was much calmer than eventing.”
Caron said her main memories of Bounty Hunter will be of “just persevering”.
“He wasn’t an easy horse – he jumped out of every field I tried to keep him in and most stables. He even jumped out through a weave grill at the age of 26 and he once jumped over the breast bar of a trailer. You couldn’t worm him with a syringe or trim his feathers, and he had to be sedated to have his teeth done.”
Caron said Bounty’s condition had deteriorated over the past few months and particularly in the past couple of weeks, so she made the decision to have him put down.
“It turned out he had a tumour and a small twist in his gut, so he probably would have had agonising colic within days so I feel relieved I made the decision,” she said. “He loved water, so I took him to the stream on the farm on his last day and he splashed around with a big smile on his face.”
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