By PJSD
Gail Dunn, a true countrywoman, has died aged 86 following a brave battle with cancer.
Gail rode from an early age, joining the Barlow Hunt branch of the Pony Club in the late 1940s. Gail passed the prestigious Pony Club A Test in 1956.
At 17, she won the British Horse Society and Pony Club scholarship to the Porlock Vale Riding School. Gail, one of only two nationally to win the scholarship in 1956, attended the three-month residential course; they were selected as likely to make valuable instructors for the Pony Club.
Gail’s riding achievements included going to the Pony Club eventing championships twice in a team of four girls. A trainer from another team referred to them as the “powder and paint” girls as they wore make-up and lipstick but he soon realised there was a bit more to them than he thought, rechristening them the “mud and go” girls!
In the 1950s and early ‘60s, Gail competed at Chatsworth Horse Trials and various competitions throughout the area, including with the Hallamshire riding club. She always boasted that her summer winnings paid for her hunt subscription that winter.
She was trained by Captain Eddie Goldman, formerly of the Swiss army, based athis renowned training centre in Cheshire.
In 1993 Gail was presented with the Cubitt Award for 20 years of volunteering for the Pony Club.
Gail was a subscriber to the Barlow Hunt for over 40 seasons and knew every single blade of grass in the Barlow country. In her later years of hunting she became known for her hill-topping by being always there and everywhere. In more recent years she car-followed with various local packs of foxhounds and harriers, and went to Exmoor for spring hunting.
For many years she was on the local committee of the British Field Sports Society/Countryside Alliance. Volunteering, catering and commentating at hunt events and horse shows were a forte. She also performed at the legendary Barlow Hunt reviews and concerts, for which she dressed up in colourful outfits as various characters. She loved to perform and the sound of her own voice. She will be missed.
She is survived by her children Amanda, Paul and Jemma, and grandchildren Ben, Adam Toby and Rosie. Both Paul and Toby followed in her equestrian footsteps as hunt masters.
