Many times, while Brigadier Friedberger was at Porlock examining the students he gave Jimmy ‘a lesson’ in the school. Jimmy soon found out that the Brigadier had one particular ‘thing’ that he looked for in all his examinees, that was the ability to gallop a horse at full tilt up the field and stop dead.

With this knowledge Jimmy taught all his classes of Working pupils just this. One particular exam day when Brigadier Friedberger had finished examining Jimmy’s class Paddy Burke came out of the school with a face like thunder declaring that he couldn’t understand why all Jimmy’s class had passed.

Diana Tuke, a pupil at the time, (who went on to become a successful author of many Equestrian books) tells how she became a pupil at Porlock and was among those to celebrate the first 100% pass.

‘My first experience of Porlock was the all day Pony Club (West Country Branches) visit to see the 1952 Olympic Horse Trials team in training. After Savoyard’s accident we were sent to the Village while things were sorted out. We all found it a bit shattering and little was I to know that in two and a half years time I would return to jump the fences we had just seen. In October 1954 Porlock Vale Riding School agreed to take me for the last three weeks of the 15-week Horsemastership course.