Baughurst 25th Nov 2007

There must be a jinx on rookie meet organisers! Poor Paul Appleford, organising with Ian Balding's assistance, seems to be worse afflicted than I was and may not get out until Christmas, while I was delighted to be back on board doing whip's duty. It was a surprisingly warm day. Very pleasant to be standing in the car park of the Wellington Arms at the invitation of the publicans, Jason and Simon. Port was served and many people came to admire our black and tans as we waited for clay pigeon shooting to finish on the first line.
At one o'clock we were away and must have given the shooters a wonderful spectacle as we hunted up the hill towards them and swung on past. This line takes in part of a old hunter trial course and the dog kennel with a bit of a drop on landing never ceases to cause dismay! Not to the hounds of course! Ian had kindly put in an escape route this year, and it was used! A varied assortment of horses were out; point-to-pointers, a polo pony and at least one dressage horse (mine!), so it is perhaps not surprising that the unusual fences cause some consternation! My boy doesn't jump. He flies!   

    
Whoosh...Where has he gone?

Two loose horses slowed the field a little in completion of this line!
Line 2 called for some accurate presentation as we jumped in and out of a wood and then through post and railed fencing with the top rail taken out, but the posts left at full height! Control was then rewarded with two nice hedges. Across the road, over some rails and we had a glorious gallop towards the sun with the surreal effect of glistening cobwebs zigzagging across the grass. A stout set of rails over a ditch only phased a couple and a new loop took us back to the pub.
A hack back towards the parking took us to line 3. I had suggested that keenness of hounds and lack of ability of whip made it essential that Ian delivered his words of wisdom to the field about this line at the end of the second rather than the start of the third. As it turned out, Derek, running again, had not got a good enough lead on us and we had to hold. Well John came forward from field mastering to help and the pair of us looked good enough for high goal polo in out flanking the break-away pack! We held them!! This is a fun line of hedges, boggy ditches and gymkhana-style fences through the woods. Robin, having accurately threaded his way through the partly dismantled post and rails of line 2, nearly lost his leg on two fences here! The last hedge with ditch and drop on landing always has its victims for those not attacking and this year was no exception! A perfect jockey's rolling fall as the pony knuckled over! It is great to sail effortlessly over on a flying horse and then watch those, maybe lesser mounted, make a good job - or not so good job! The falls are predictable from a few strides out!! Another confessed dressage biased rider beautifully showed how pace saves the day after a deep take off!
And so to tea at the Wellington Arms. Next outing to parade hounds at the Hennessy meeting, lead out past winners of the race and lead back this year's winner. Sadly, the politically correct BBC edits our red coated boys out of the coverage.