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Tales from the Archive: Prince, The Jumping Carthorse

The Exmoor Society Archive holds many beautiful paintings by Hope Bourne. This is one of the larger watercolours and shows Prince, a Shire Gelding who she painted in 1946.

The back of the frame includes a description written by Hope for ‘Milton and Shipton during the War’. The painting was donated to the Exmoor Society by Hermon and Pam Puddle of Milton under Wychwood in Oxfordshire, where Hope and her mother lived before her she moved to Exmoor .

“Perhaps the highlight of the show [the first Wychwood Horse Show, Oxfordshire in 1944, in aid of War Charities] was Prince, the jumping carthorse. Prince is a real feathered carthorse and a worker. But he happens to be a wonderful jumper and usually carries off the prizes in the open jumping at all the local shows, to the delight of the spectators with whom he is a great favourite.”

Also in the news
Next month, Routledge Books will be re-publishing two classic books by Ann and Malcolm MacEwen. National Parks: Conservation or Cosmetics? (first published 1982) and Greenprints for the Countryside? The Story of Britain's National Parks (1987).
Gile Roberts, an Exmoor Society member whose family have lived outside Dulverton for many years, joined our Meadows Day celebrations this year and was inspired to write this essay for us. 
Thank you to everyone who attended our 2025 AGM. It was great to meet up with members and to celebrate the winners of our annual awards and competitions.