“I stopped counting at 30,” said a grinning Zoe Ireland, wiping mud from her face. She wasn’t talking about birthdays but hedges, and was close to having to shout over the din in the Tap & Run. The pub, nestled in the village of Upper Broughton, near Melton Mowbray, was packed, the atmosphere heady with the high spirits of the legion of ladies who had just taken part in the Quorn Hunt’s ladies’ day. A few hours earlier, the pub also thronged as the hunt’s joint secretaries, Naomi Sarfaty-Wells and Nicola Housley, welcomed some of the 200-plus game girls booked in for the day. Nervous energy had filled the pub, generated by excitement in some quarters and a degree of trepidation in others. This frisson was fuelled with close to 80 bottles of champagne and a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, served by some of the Quorn’s male Masters, who had swapped hunting coats for smart pinnies.
“The whole thing is such a treat: the breakfast and being able to ride around this playground of hedges,” said Sophie Judge as
