Fired up by hunting
The Royal Artillery Hunt’s newcomers’ weekend is a wonderful introduction and helps to safeguard the future of hunting, says Rory Knight Bruce. Photographs by John Eccles
Even after 200 years of hunting in Britain, sometimes an idea comes along that’s so good you wonder it has never properly been attempted before. As in so many things, it often takes the military to provide the thinking, leadership, logistics and location.
So it was that more than 30 riders of all ages and abilities assembled in early October for a “newcomers’ Hunting Weekend” at the Larkhill Barracks near Amesbury on Salisbury Plain. It was laid on by the civilian and military Masters and members of the Royal Artillery Hunt (RAH), today the only military pack and, with its associations with the King’s Troop and Honourable Artillery Company, one infused with a sporting and soldiering history.
When Major General Johnny Frost blew his hunting horn on Arnhem Bridge, immortalised in A Bridge Too Far, it was, of course, with the horn he had used to hunt the RAH when stationed there in the early part of the Second World War. As Joint Master Lieutenant Colonel Angus Cameron pointed out, in one of the several highly informative talks that punctuated a morning’s autumn hunting, rides across the Plain and a crack at the cross-country course, the regimental “zig-zag” red tie was also worn by The Major in Fawlty Towers.
One of the great secrets of hunting is to get right the balance between the seriousness of the sport – its etiquette, standards and traditions – and the absolute principle that it should be welcoming and fun. As we gathered on the Friday night at the Malet Arms at newton Tony, a fine, old-fashioned sporting inn off the A303, between the two “in country” sporting estates of Cholderton and Wilbury, it was time to “meet and mingle” and to settle a few nerves.
Among the newcomers were six young members of the King’s Troop under the wing of Captain Julie navarro and riding instructor Thomas Jenks; a judge, Alastair Sharp, and his QC wife, Anne Hussey, who had flown in from Hong Kong; Judy Skelly from America; two girls from Kent who worked in the City; and Paul Dowsey, who organises social events for the hunt. We also met civilian Master Pippa Grob, whose tireless enthusiasm and meticulous planning are behind much of the RAH’S activities, including this weekend.