Goodnight

Columnist Tessa Waugh’s hunting diary, plus our weekly cartoon “The Final Straw”

‘You find yourself asking after horses when they’re not there, as you would about someone’s wife’

WHAT a difference a year can make. This time last year Jim had just arrived, but I ended up doing all my autumn hunting on the children’s ponies — Custard the wanton palomino, who has moved to pastures new, and Rusty the 12.2hh power pack. Jim had to be nursed through a dodgy back and when I finally got on board he did everything wrong — napped, reared, bucked, and nutted me while descending a steep hill. I would have got rid of him except no one was interested. Funny that.

Scampering around our home patch with the hounds this morning, I counted my lucky stars I persevered. Jim loves hunting, totally gets what’s required and, after a year, we’re finally a team.

It is so different from last season when I would prance about uncomfortably, casting doleful looks at everyone else on their sensible hunters, wondering if that would ever be me.

IN a small hunt like ours, you get to know the horses as well as the people. Seeing them weekly, their characters and idiosyncrasies come to light and are as rich and diverse as their riders. They are far more than just conveyances, but a vital part of the scene and you find yourself asking after them as you would about someone’s wife or child.

There are a couple of people starting out with new horses this season and everyone always shows an interest — “Is that the new one?” they say, scrutinising them quizzically as if they might, at any minute, sprout wings and take flight.

Jeremy, a new subscriber, rocked up on Saturday on his flashy, new liver chestnut — the equine equivalent of Usain Bolt.

“He seems alright at the moment,” he said with uncertainty. No one riding a new horse ever dares tempt fate, with a “yes, he’s great” after just one morning on the job. Christine, who rides one of the College Valley’s quirkiest horses, piped up: “I’m dreading having to replace Mole.”

For the hills you can’t beat him and he’s brilliant at gates. But he sometimes performs his own “manoeuvres” and, topped with Christine’s exasperated expression, it always makes me laugh.

“If you can handle Mole, anything else will be a breeze,” quipped Anna, standing nearby.

It’s the uncertainty that’s the killer with a new horse. Good luck to anyone starting out with a new one this season.