Just returned from a holiday in FredPuli's neck of the woods. Mrs Ritzmar, her brother & his wife & myself stayed in Diss, visiting Stowmarket, Felixstowe, Cambridge & Newmarket, etc., etc. Now hitherto, my interest in things equine has been marginally less than sitting watching a dead budgie gathering dust, but the museum in Newmarket has miraculously changed all that. 45 years ago Mrs Ritzmar had a horse (born & lived on a dairy farm, you see) and liked to ride. Seeing her clinging precariously onto a bucking bronco (albeit a mechanical one) in the Museum was an hysterical sight for sore eyes. Her later comment, "It really gets your leg muscles here" also caused much merriment, when we remembered how fit we used to be when Harold MacMillan was PM, and how sadly we have deteriorated in nearly two generations...

A fascinating part of the country, full of history & interest, we also saw the oldest living Suffolk Punch (I was heartbroken to discover that it is not a wonderful local potent drink) and enjoyed excellent food and great hospitality. I recommend most highly!

See here! This is Remus being re-shod, 27 years old, at
www.eastanglianlife.org.uk/

I take it you didn't go on the bucking bronco Ritz. Now that would have been a sight for sore eyes.

Glad you had a good time though!

Even without having ever seen Ritz, it feels weird to try to imagine him on a horse. Can Ritz ride a horse?

So what is a Suffolk Punch?

quote:

Originally posted by jusork:

So what is a Suffolk Punch?

The Suffolk Punch is a breed of heavy horse used in ploughing and as a general farm-horse. It has a square heavily muscular shape compared to the Shire horse, which seems quite leggy in comparison and which was to largely supersede it. Remus, in the link above, is a very old example of the breed (and rather thin in consequence of his age: younger horses are of much heavier build )

[Dialect note:The Shire was so named because it came into Norfolk and Suffolk from the shires, the local term for anywhere beyond these eastern counties of the of England (East Anglia).So it was 'foreign'. Anyone foreign is from 'the shires' That's because 'foreign', to locals, meant counties ending in -shire such as Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire lying to the west of them (there's only sea to the east of 'em)]

Ah, thanks, Fred. Do you know where the Suffolk Punch gets its name, too?

Jusork:

quote:

Originally posted by jusork:
Ah, thanks, Fred. Do you know where the Suffolk Punch gets its name, too?

Punch was once a name for a short, stout, stocky person. It comes from Punch (Punchinello) the character in commedia dell'arte and the Punch and Judy puppet show. He is built like that. So the horse, which is indeed, short and stocky, was so named.And, of course, it was first bred in Suffolk . 'Short' is a comparative term: it's a bit shorter than the Shire, Percheron or Clydesdale but is still a pretty big animal. The square build of the horse makes it look shorter than it is.

Ritz rode a horse into Petra in Southern Jordan a couple of times whilst working in the Middle East. These old nags travel at a pace where snails hurtle past to overtake on both sides, and tortoises whizz towards one at some relative speed, apparently close to that of light. Therefore yours truly felt quite safe up there just ambling along (camels, which move both legs together at the same time on the same side, sway like a boat and make you feel seasick---ship of the desert???)

No, Jenny & Jusork, I did not go on the bucking bronco. I found it much funnier to watch my wife than I would have done, had the others been laughing at me instead...I am strange like that...

Thanks for the extra information, Fred! I knew about the Punch/Pulchinello thing, but not the 'shire' bit, nor the 'short & stocky' part. I always imagined Pulchinello as a kind of Groucho Marx character. Sadly, we felt that Remus was not long for this world, although he seems happy enough.