Goodnight Tessa Waugh’s hunting diary, plus our weekly cartoonist, “The Final Straw”
At a youthful renewal of her home meet, Tessa Waugh calls for children to earn some respect by using their sprightly vigour to help out their fellow riders and do the gates
‘Some hunting people see children as a scourge, up there with creeping
urbanisation’
IT was our meet on Saturday. Time to get baking, or not as the case may be. If you come to our meet you will get a sausage roll or two and a good glass or more of whatever grog. This is miserly compared to what’s on offer elsewhere.
At most College Valley meets you can expect a smorgasbord worthy of a Women’s Institute tea party. Perhaps it’s a northern thing. Added to the mince pies and sausage rolls that were standard where I grew up, there will be sandwiches on trays the size of flatbed trailers, enough homemade cake to make Paul Hollywood blush, mini pasties and buckets of chocolates for your pockets. If you consumed the full complement of “meet food” every week, you’d struggle to find a horse to carry you.
We have a meet here every season.
Someone usually takes a photo or two and
they are always grim on examination; muddy underfoot with a few dishevelled farm implements as a backdrop. A suitable caption might be “hunt descends on peasant dwelling”. This year, however, there was a festive air. The sun shone, there was no wind and — shock horror — there were lots of children out.
“Brings the average age down from 60 to 25,” remarked our master and field master, who is also master of the positive spin.
I’M sure there are some hunting people who see children as a scourge, up there with commercial shooting and urbanisation. I think I did before I produced my own. In a jumping country they can wreak havoc, but they do have their uses.
Our hunt secretary has mounted a campaign to encourage children to do the
gates and I think this should be rolled out across the country. Years ago, as soon as you were competent, you would be yelled at to rush ahead but it doesn’t seem to happen now. If you ask a child to get off they usually give you a look that says “leave me alone, nutter” and stay resolutely on board, meanwhile someone five times their age is mid-dismount.
It’s our fault that they can’t compute. Nowadays you can get to your teens without being asked to help out hunting, which is mad really because, let’s face it, most children are better equipped to help. I considered this as I watched a 10-year-old catch a loose horse on Saturday. It’s empowering for children to do these things; they can be useful out hunting but it is up to us to educate them.