Hound exercise: talk me through it?

[palomino698]

I'm an old mum who thinks hound exercise might be a good idea before I think of taking DD's horse cubbing. The horse is 20, half Arab, has never misbehaved on the few times DD has hunted her - I'm a lot heavier than DD and fall harder, but she is braver than I am. I don't jump, and don't really ride very confidently at all. It's a long time since I cantered in a crowd, but my beloved safe old boy used to make it all so easy.

Round here harvest is pretty much complete, some fields have been disced, some ploughed, some stubble. Would they be mainly trotting? On or off road? How early/late do you set off, and for how long? Do you wear ratcatcher? Do you fall off... much?

 

[sonjafoers]

Hi palomino698, I'm not going to be much use to you because our Country sounds very different to yours (boggy,rocky moorland) but I thought I'd reply anyway!!

We set off at 6am and do a mixture of on and off road - but that's normal for us anyway. There really is no dress code, our Master wears her overalls and most of the field wear light jods and a sweatshirt. We are a small Hunt though and only have one Master who is also Kennelman/Huntsman!

We normally stay out about an hour and it's a warm up for Cubbing - which we have just started.

If you are a bigger Hunt you may have to wear Ratcatcher so it's probably wise to contact your Secretary to check.

I hope you go and if so have a great time

oh ps, I've not fallen off YET but have probably tempted fate by putting that in writing!!

 

[pinklilly]

We did 2 to 3 hours last year steady walking and trotting round the lanes, sometimes stopping for a bit and sometimes calling in somewhere for a coffee. It was pretty sedate really. I wore beige breeches with long black boots and just a normal work coat. It was generally just me and the 2 hunt staff though other people were welcome to come along and there was a couple of saturdays that were open to all and breakfast afterwards.

A different hunt I worked for was much the same.

We have started autumn hunting here now, I can't say I miss getting up at 3.30 to go to work to get horses ready to leave at 5.15 in the morning.

 

[palomino698]

Oh poor you, I am not at my best at 3.30am! Luckily the kennels are only 20 mins drive. I will try to find out when they expect to start autumn hunting - DD drove past hounds out with a cyclist today.