‘Hounds ran non-stop’
North Staffordshire, Norton Wood Farm, Shrops
THE last half-dozen of us rode back to the meet as the light was slowly disappearing. Luke Speed, known as “Speedy”, a falconer and relief milker who looks after the hunt’s steppe eagle, was there to let us through some wire. The cloud cover had not cleared all day and the ground was saturated underfoot.
Hounds and huntsman had every reason to look rather smug and satisfied, having successfully concluded their last hunt and produced a top-class day’s hunting. The horses were weary; they don’t have second horses at this small pack, but in no way had that curtailed the speed or length of the day.
We had barely stopped galloping and jumping since the start, all out of deep ground but virtually entirely on grass. The only cultivations were maize stubbles, cut for dairy cow silage.
The meet had been on a grassy knoll at
