Horse Lost on firing range!

Thanks for that link, Soba. I've been meaning to add the Donkey & Dog to my 'Favourites' for some time now, so that's saved me the exhausting business of Googling it up! :lol:

Yes, the whiff of dead fish is getting a lot stronger - as the snows melt away and no corpse is revealed, the story begins to sound stranger and stranger. As I say, if nothing of poor Zim's found, then it could be that a passerby decided to take him and keep him. But all told, it's a rum old affair at present.
 
Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time." Holmes: "That was the curious incident."
 
I'd be happy if the pikeys had him, to be honest. Perhaps they'll put him in a sulky, and he may well enjoy that a bit more, no doubt with a new name, like 'Beachcomber'?
 
I've been told with some confidence that "the pikeys have him"!
I've been asked to correct an error in my previous post; apparently the term pikey has caused some confusion, especially in regard to the Sharps. The sentence in inverted commas should read "Some other pikeys have him" :p
 
Quite liked this report:

Racehorse trainer Philip Sharp is hardly a conventional sort – the seven "wives" and 17 children attest to that.
So when one of his prized horses got loose on a military firing range, army rules and regulations weren't going to stand in his way. Despite the risk of unexploded bombs or artillery fire and a warning from military security, he sneaked on to the 22-square mile range at Camber Sands, East Sussex, spending almost three days searching for his 10-year-old gelding, Zimbabwe.

But to no avail. A week after throwing his rider on the beach, and trotting off over the dunes and on to the range, Zimbabwe is still missing, presumed dead.
A furious Sharp, 50, is ­taking legal advice. He claims the Ministry of Defence prevented police from going on to the range, even though officers were at the scene 11 minutes after the horse ­wandered off last Friday.
He also claims they then prevented him and a local posse of helpers from organising a proper search, and delayed looking themselves until it was too late.
Had they acted swiftly, he believes, Zimbabwe could have been caught, and would now be back in his yard at the ­oast house near Battle, East Sussex, which Sharp shares with his seven "wives" and 14 of his children, the latest additions aged one month and three months.
"The army even saw the horse on their own CCTV and still they did nothing," said Sharp.
"I think he is probably dead now. That range is full of unexploded bombs, ditches, swampland, old blown-up debris.
"I spent hours on Saturday with my son searching. And again on Sunday with local helpers, until we got caught. I said to the men at the gate 'You're not going to stop horse people looking for this horse, even if they are going to get blown up'."
It was not until late on Sunday that Sharp, a follower of Messianic Judaism, said he was eventually escorted on to the site to carry out a search.
The following day the army had up to 100 men out looking, but it was then too late. "Why didn't they do that on Friday ­morning? They could have just gone and caught him. Now I've lost a horse," Sharp said.
"He is quite a famous horse, and worth a few thousand. But it could have been a £5m horse on there, or an old nag. The principle's the same."
The MoD said: "We want to do whatever we can to help find ­Zimbabwe and have searched our land every day since the horse was reported missing."
 
Still no sign of a fully tacked-up corpse? The MoD quite unable to find a whacking great lump of horseflesh anywhere on their land? It really doesn't bode well for our troops' equipment, does it?
 
Honking great smell of rotten fish coming from somewhere!

About as much truth as the "Frost free" conditions we apparently had at Horseheath on Saturday!
 
Last edited:
It was my first point to point Helen and if there was no frost there then I'll eat my hat - the turf was frozen as I walked to the track, only about 30 runners across all the races including a 2 runner match.
 
I didn't realise you were there IS!

Yes ground was very firm, we arrived just before noon & saw horseboxes pull off the course, a lot of moans & groans which I think was more aimed at the info given on the "Official" sites etc

If you get the chance try going to High Easter, its a lovely course, next meetings are 27th march (1pm) & 17th April (1.30) its my favourite EA track, especially now they hold them nearer the end of the season as the weather is a little kinder!
 
Still no sign of a fully tacked-up corpse? The MoD quite unable to find a whacking great lump of horseflesh anywhere on their land? It really doesn't bode well for our troops' equipment, does it?
You would have thought the buzzards would have finished it off by now?
 
Back
Top