Potato!
Well-Known Member
Well I bit the bullet and took my 5yo hunting on Saturday 3 weeks after my disaster attempt at going to opening meet. I woke up on Saturday morning unsure if I should to go as the weather was awful as was the forecast of heavy rain and gales.
However as the meet was hacking distance and the at the time there was no wind I decided what the hell and tacked up and went. I decided not to plait due to the issues I had before and just tack up and go as we would be soaking wet by the time we got to the meet anyway. I think there were only 1 or 2 horses plaited so didnt look out of place. As I approached the village I saw a couple of other horses so walked up to the pub with them. Taio stood like a rock at the meet and was better behaved than a few of the seasoned hunters, I managed to get 3 glasses of mulled wine to warm up before setting off. There was only about 10 of us out as most had looked at the weather and decided against going. Taio actually walked away from the meet looking like he had been doing it all his life only bucked once when going into canter but didnt pull at all. I had decided to keep him in his fulmer snaffle to see what he was like before playing around with bits. We had a period of standing around as the fog was coming down and they were deciding which way to go as they didnt want to go too far out onto the moors also at one point the pack split and we had some above and some below us so we were standing around for 20-25 minutes, he was happy to stand and wait. We sated out until about 1pm when the weather was getting worse knowing we still had to hack home and Taio had dropped his little hint that he was getting tired but putting a small buck with his head down (he tend to do this when he is getting tired) So 3 of us left together and hacked home.
When it came to the point where I had to leave the two horses he was happy to be heading home and didnt mind leaving and I was able to hack home on a long rein.
Now this was his 1st time actually hunting but we did a hunt schooling day where there were approx 35 riders out for a mock hunt where he was also very well behaved (a few leaps and bucks but nothing bad). So i guess this was like a second time out I will also add that he had not actually been ridden for 3 weeks due to having 3 shoes on. I had people ask if Id consider selling him as they were all very impressed with him. But the answer was of course no.
Bring on next time
However as the meet was hacking distance and the at the time there was no wind I decided what the hell and tacked up and went. I decided not to plait due to the issues I had before and just tack up and go as we would be soaking wet by the time we got to the meet anyway. I think there were only 1 or 2 horses plaited so didnt look out of place. As I approached the village I saw a couple of other horses so walked up to the pub with them. Taio stood like a rock at the meet and was better behaved than a few of the seasoned hunters, I managed to get 3 glasses of mulled wine to warm up before setting off. There was only about 10 of us out as most had looked at the weather and decided against going. Taio actually walked away from the meet looking like he had been doing it all his life only bucked once when going into canter but didnt pull at all. I had decided to keep him in his fulmer snaffle to see what he was like before playing around with bits. We had a period of standing around as the fog was coming down and they were deciding which way to go as they didnt want to go too far out onto the moors also at one point the pack split and we had some above and some below us so we were standing around for 20-25 minutes, he was happy to stand and wait. We sated out until about 1pm when the weather was getting worse knowing we still had to hack home and Taio had dropped his little hint that he was getting tired but putting a small buck with his head down (he tend to do this when he is getting tired) So 3 of us left together and hacked home.
When it came to the point where I had to leave the two horses he was happy to be heading home and didnt mind leaving and I was able to hack home on a long rein.
Now this was his 1st time actually hunting but we did a hunt schooling day where there were approx 35 riders out for a mock hunt where he was also very well behaved (a few leaps and bucks but nothing bad). So i guess this was like a second time out I will also add that he had not actually been ridden for 3 weeks due to having 3 shoes on. I had people ask if Id consider selling him as they were all very impressed with him. But the answer was of course no.
Bring on next time
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