From the Top Shelf - The Horsemasters

Image courtesy of Zelle

The selection for today is a bit unusual; it isn't about consensual spanking - but then again, maybe it is. It's a passage taken from a well-loved and often read book from my childhood: The Horsemasters by Don Stanford. It chronicles the lives of dozen young people who are on a sixteen week course to become proficient horsemen and women at a famous English riding academy. The book was turned into a made for television Disney movie starring Annette Funicello as Dinah, an American pupil who is afraid of jumping.

The school was the perfect setting, in my young but perverted mind, for some kinky action with its cadre of stern teachers, strict demerit system, and clearly-defined punishments for failure to live up to the exacting standards of the school. Alas, the kink was all in my mind, but one scene stands out early on in the book. Dinah is giving her assigned horse, Cornish Pastie, his morning grooming while Mercy, the stern dominatrix head girl watches. (Her oh-so-appropriate name was changed to Janet for the movie.) Dinah's grooming kit includes an item never mentioned in any of my Pony Club handbooks, and I've never seen one, although later on in the book there is a scene in which the pupils all try to make one. It's a hay wisp, made from a long braided length of hay that's doubled over and sewn together, and used for an activity known as strapping. Have I captured your interest? Use your imagination as you read on:

Dinah lowered Corny P.'s last clean foot to the floor and slipped past him to toss her hoof pick back into the grooming kit and pick up her hay wisp.... Dinah turned quickly to stand square to Cornish Pastie's shoulder; he flinched and braced himself as she drew back the block of plaited hay and blinked as she hit him with all her strength, drew back and hit him again, rhythmically. Mercy Hale came and stood silently at the back of the stall, and without looking at Mercy, Dinah continued to strap Corny P., putting all her weight behind each solid blow on his  neck, his shoulders, his legs and quarters and back. Corny's ugly old black face wore an expression of sheer bliss; this, to him, was a luxurious massage, it toned up his circulation and turned all his fat to hard muscle, and it felt good.

Mercy turned away and left without saying a word, and Dinah eased up a little in the force of her blows; her arm was beginning to ache, and before she was finished, it would feel as though it were dropping off... and then, before she had quite finished, Mercy was banging on the feed box again, calling in her high, piping voice,

"Yards, please, yards, everybody!"

Dinah gave Corny P. three final solid bangs on his rump.

There! I'll bet many of you forgot that a horse was involved in that scene.