Where's the stirrup cup Chris?
With the eventing season finally at its end I have decided there are two things I must do; eat more and go hunting. So far I have had a pretty good crack at both. I couldn't believe my luck to have been offered such a lovely horse to ride with the Blackmore Vale Hunt. Royal Auclair looked like any other large ferocious horse when we watched him on YouTube that morning running second in the Grand National in 2005. He had to be part crazy to run and finish a race like that.
About to canter off down the road
However to my surprise he was a plain little chestnut all of 15.3 and the sweetest horse I have sat on in a long time. Unlike the other hunters who couldn't stand still with excitement, he stood patiently while the hunt gathered. Although who would blame them with the hounds bouncing around with excitement and everybody drinking copious amounts of Port and Whiskey at 10 in the morning! After the riders were suitably warmed up, 50 horses set off at a canter down the bitumen road. It didn't take long before the hounds found the trail that had been laid the night before and we were properly off.
For those of you who don't know much about hunting you may have thought that it is a bunch of gung ho Englishmen all hell bent on getting their adrenaline fix by jumping large fences and hedges with no sense of self preservation or a hint of an eye for a distance. Well it is exactly that ... And more!
And we're off ...
Royal Auclair was an absolute star and I had so much fun. My day was made so much more pleasurable by the fact that my horse was so well behaved. He didn't jog or get hot. He was perhaps the fastest horse there and yet didn't get strong. And we were still able to jump hedges bigger than anything I have seen in a 4****. Shame I didn't come across him when he was younger.
The journey home is underway and we are now in Singapore … see you in Adelaide!
