Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1162395
member Holly Pulsifer, an authority on com- bined driving and author of the book Coaching on the North Shore of Boston. "Who were they? What's their story?" The exhibit features a litany of bridles, reins, halters, and stirrups from the North Shore's most notable horsemen and women. There's also a selection of artifacts from the Patton family, including the general's partici- pation pin, and ultra-rare elements like the King Cyrus Cup, a trophy commemorating a 1970s visit to Iran by Myopia Hunt Club polo players at the Shah's invitation. There's even a hands-on children's section, where they can learn to ride sidesaddle or braid a horse's tail. In the process of putting together the exhibition, the committee found meaning in what might have easily become forgotten ephemera. After receiving Gray's call, Neil Ayer—an erstwhile equestrian whose father developed three-day events at Ledyard Farm in Wenham—sorted through scrapbooks, documents, and dusty archives, emerg- ing with gems like a 16mm reel featuring a steeplechase held in 1927 on Bradley Palmer's property, storyboards from The Thomas Crown Affair's polo scenes, and a trove of other pictures and documents captured by his father and grandfather. "To me, it was personally satisfying to be able to share these images and materials in this context," Ayer says. "A lot of these things wouldn't have seen the light of day otherwise." Winifred Perkin Gray is the chair of the committee that developed the exhibit. By design, Equestrian Histories is an evolv- ing exhibit. Noon says the museum intends to add a slate of programming and launch a second iteration of the exhibit in spring, right in time for the dawn of another equestrian season. In part, that reflects the desire to delve into aspects of equestrian life crowded out by space constraints on the exhibit. But it's also necessary, since equestrian life on the North Shore, while not the force it was in the 19th century, isn't firmly in the past. Myopia Hunt Club, for instance, hosts open-to-the-public events throughout the summer as well as a popular Thanksgiving Day hunt (where riders chase a bottle of scent, rather than a live ani- mal) departing from Appleton Farms. No matter how much time elapses, eques- trian sports are a fixture of the North Shore. "There are many senses of tradition in the area, and equestrian is one of them," Ayer says. "People admire it as a touchstone of the past. Yet it's also something with a pageantry and a form to it that's happening right now." wenhammuseum.org 97