Teaching horses to hunt
Beanie Sturgis, four-star event rider and field master to the Duke of Beaufort’s, is an expert in introducing horses to the hunting field. Here she offers some tips for doing it successfully
WE get many young or tricky horses here to get going out hunting. They come for a myriad of reasons: to freshen up, overcome napping, get braver or just to see more of the big, bad world. The majority of problems seem to stem from the same reasons — boredom, not enough work and too much food.
Ideally I like to have two weeks minimum to concentrate on each new horse. It means they can go out hunting three or four days a week, just for an hour or two, quietly getting to know the form. Going straight out and galloping about on a Saturday usually ends in tears.
Personally l never like to take a nanny horse — they need to be independent from the start and not rely on a “mate”. In the long run, this is better but can prove quite a palaver to start with!
POTTERING ABOUT
ALLOW plenty of time to get to the meet early; riding into a field of 100 or so horses will fire up most animals. Quietly standing or ambling about and letting the atmosphere of hounds, horses, quads and footies come to you is much less stressful. And pick your meet. Going to a slippy concrete farm yard or a tight pub car park is a bad plan. You will need space to get out of the way for everyone’s safety.
I aim to potter about on midweek hunting days for as long as it takes and would hardly ever get into a canter. Similarly, a lot of horses completely forget how to jump with all the action around them (some never know in the first place, which you soon find out!). Most will be unfamiliar with overgrown hunt jumps and pokey places, so pick your fences.
When your horse is standing quietly, give it a pat and release the contact so they can look around and relax.
SPECIFIC ISSUES
BUCKERS: I like to have a nice steady jog to the meet, preferably including around a large ploughed field, to quietly tire them and get their backs down.
Rearers when queuing: this is usually impatience; they expect to gallop off when through a gate. Plan your route. Quietly keep moving at the side, circle if necessary until you have a safe space to get through. Under no circumstances let your horse gallop off willy nilly in the next field; instead, pull out to one side and walk or trot along quietly.
Even better, wait for the last people to come through and wait while you or they shut the gate.
That will regain Brownie points with everyone else that you may have lost earlier!
Bolters: see buckers (left). Don’t dismiss taking the shoes off those ones until they start to slow up.
TACK
I TRY to keep tack as simple as possible. All ours go in cavesson nosebands and standing martingales. We have only had one horse go better in a flash than a cavesson. Most of them rub flashes on their knees or other people, or can start plunging when the soft part of the nostril is restricted for such a long time.
A standing martingale doesn’t interfere with the mouth and is also miles easier for leading them back to you if all the above doesn’t work and you end up disembarking.
PATIENCE AND TIME
THE first three or four days are usually fairly uneventful as most horses are clueless about what is going on. Days five to eight are often the most white-knuckle ones, and from then on it should
‘A lot of horses completely forget how to jump with all the action around them and most will be unfamiliar
with overgrown hunt jumps, so pick your fences’
EVENTER BEANIE STURGIS ON INTRODUCING HORSES TO HUNT JUMPS
be pretty civilised. You just need to invest your time and effort for the first two or three weeks, don’t give up, and then reap the rewards.
If this all sounds too much for you, invest your money in a professional’s time and effort for the same result. On the day when you can stay with the hounds on a horse you have “made” yourself while they have a screamer of a hunt, it will all be worth the effort.