‘Real drive and determination’
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
United Pack, Selly Hall, Shropshire
ONE of the great joys of hacking home with hounds is the time it gives you to ponder and rerun the events of the day. The enjoyment of hunting is as much the warm afterglow as the immediate thrill of the moment.
We set off across the hill in daylight, but by the time we hit the road to ride the last mile to the box, the sparks of light like fairy dust were spitting off the horses’ shoes. There was not a car on these tiny single-track roads, nor a noise from anything except livestock or ducks disturbed from the roadside pond. I wondered if there could be any more idyllic place to hunt.
The day had started in the same way, with a mile-long hack to the meet, a mixed pack of 16½ couple of hill hounds lolloping ahead of us all the way, nosing into every gateway exactly how they should without a word from whipper-in or huntsman. We met at Mr
