Apres Hunting

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tootsietoo

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My favourite bit of the day I think. If you've had a bad day then you're glad to be home, a good day, and it's time to relive the drama and excitement all over again, in your head whilst in the bath, or even better, in front of a fire with friends!

My biggest essential after hunting is a can of coke (must be full fat) in the car. I don't drink it often but I'm so hungry and thirsty at the end of the day it really hits the spot on the way home. I might also stop at the farm shop for a twix and a bag of wotsits. After the horse is washed and bedded, a hot bath with g&t & black pepper kettle chips. However, now I've got the ankle biters, I'm a bit concerned that my hot bath will be postponed by 2 hours while I feed and bed them too. Must butter up hubby.....

That's it really - it seems that junk food is my main requirement!

The best way to spend the evening after the hot bath is with friends who have also hunted that day and you can discuss every draw and run and hedge ad nauseam without boring everyone to death!

What are your little peccadillos after a hunting day?
 
A bottle of lucozade, pull on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and then the pub for tea and chips after hunting with the mink hounds, a good time to catch up on the gossip and have an informal debrief with the boss on how the day has gone.

Winter generally involves chucking the bike in the barn at kennels or in the garage at home, heading home to get my muddy clothes off and then straight into bath. If I have friends over we normally hot foot it to the pub first for beer and supper!
 
With you on the Coke!! Flapjack is pretty good too - anything for a sugar rush really...

I get home and sort out horse, clean tack and boots, then lorry. Afterwards a roast dinner or spag bol, glass of red, and evening in front of the fire/tv.
 
I have a mug oh tea in the truck before I drive home.

Once horse is put away I love nothing better than, cheese and biscuits and fruitcake, pork pies then cake and chocolates with tea (then wine/port) with friends. reliving the day, and other hunting memories!

I love hunting suppers!
 
Darkly_Dreaming_Dex said:
After the boys have been put to bed,me and OH have:Hot bath, G&T then usually friends join us for whatever has been in the slow cooker all day plus red wine :D
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that sounds just what i do! but its usually port or sloe gin etc - not keen on the old G&T's
although i always have a flask of tea for the way home and usually a ham roll or something :)
back in the days when when i was a hirling nanny we'd often take the clients to the pub for a drink or three whilst the driver and grooms sorted out the horses :) nowdays its just me, my mare and my truck and trailer - so drinking waits until we've got home safe n sound ;)
 
just a thought - what about horses after a day?

do you all stable your horses? for all the hunt yards i've worked at over the years the horses have always been stabled - my mare now lives out 24/7 365 and i'm def a convert - she comes trotting up to me the next morning happy as larry and seems to have far less problems with filled legs/stiffness etc etc. with her in a 7.5acre field i also find her fitness is maintained easier

other than that - i'll often put an extra layer on - ie fleece - the night after a comp/hunting etc but keep feed etc the same - she has ad lib hay anyway in the field
 
I like to be able to turn them out for an hour or so before bringing in to clean down, wash off and feed up. BUT.... Ron doesn't want to go out and just stands by the gate making me feel mean! So he is washed off, and rugged up, and given electrolytes, left with hay for an hour then I go back out and feed up, top up the hay and water and check he's the right temperature.
 
I love the idea of the hunter living out, but I don't think I could make it work for me as he couldn't have a paddock to himself, so I couldn't control his and the others hay intake very well, plus our land is so wet he would probably have cracked heels and the farrier would be most unhappy about his soggy feet. It's a shame as I think it would be a really healthy way of keeping a hunter.

I just get home, wash off completely straight away, rug up with two coolers and then keep an eye on his temperature and how he's drying off and adjust rugs accordingly. It's such a benefit of having him at home - when I kept the previous one at a yard, I would be hanging around for ages til he was dry! Then just normal feed at the normal time. I am lucky he is a bit of a fatty, so no worries about dropping off weight after a hard day or two!

I don't do bandages after hunting. Does anyone reckon it helps with soundness?
 
Mine have always been hunter clipped plus living out 24/7 so i always wash off at the meet with lukewarm water ( my Mobiwash is fab :) ) then rug up with fleece or thermatex depending on the weather. By the time i get home they are dry so i brush off, turn them out while i put the lorry away. Feed and check 30 mins later. If all ok then home :)Now i finally have stables i will pop them out on our return for 1/2 hour then bring in. I like the idea they can have a proper pee and roll before going to bed :D
 
Judgemental said:
Deliver horses to yard. Wash boots. Food must be simple such as kidneys on rice. Don't drink (never, well perhaps a very occasional whisky) . Used to write diary, not much point nowadays. Visit horses. Bed + Book by 10:00 pm.
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KIDNEYS!!!!!

Frazzles for me, and bottle of ribena (cant do carbonated drinks, they make me burp)

Then home for bath and whatever food is put in front of me...apart from kidneys!

As for ned - finish hunting, shove rug on top of tack, go home where they get sponged off with lukewarm water, legs washed off with cold, then either turned out (cobby things) or stabled - I always feed a bran mash with epsom salts or electrosalts after hunting, no idea why but it is what I was taught to do so I do it :) Will bandage depending on horse - always leave horse with soaked hay (no idea why I do that either, just what I was told to do so I do it) and feed as normal the following morning. Horses dont get day off after hunting they go for a stretchy walk and usually get the Monday off.
 
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cooler rug over saddle, put horse in trailer (travelling back in tack is a relatively new habit, learnt from this forum ;)

Dig out coke (yes, it's fab after a day's hunting), demolish a chocolate bar (I can scoff a whole mars no problem) and if really famished maybe find a packet of crisps or a sausage roll!

Back at yard, wash off with luke warm water, pop on fleece and turn out rug and leave horse in paddock for a roll etc while I put down a big fluffy bed, lots of water (making sure it's not too cold - add in some hot to take off the chill if necessary) and get his usual feed ready. If it's been a long hard day, I will bandage :)

Off home, give OH a blow by blow account, take glass of wine upstairs to shower if just smelly, or bath if aches and pains are surfacing. Eat dinner in pyjamas (doesn't matter if it's still before 7pm), in front of the telly :)

aaaah! what a perfect day :p
 
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