JACHTVERENIGING SOESTDIJK 19 November
Jachtvereniging Soestdijk, Manege Winterswijk, Netherlands
“WE’LL have herring after the first run, sherry after the second and beer after the third,” says Paul Paardekooper, a long-standing member of the Soestdijk Hunt in the Netherlands. Usually, hunting correspondents are regaled with tales of enormous obstacles and derring-do before a day’s hunting, so the prospect of fish and booze was rather intriguing, if not a little unusual.
We were having dinner with Gijs de Waal, his wife Sjanna and daughter Britta at their farm near Harfsen in eastern Netherlands. For the past 15 years, Gijs has been sole master of the Soestdijk, more properly known as the Jachtvereniging (Hunt Club) Soestdijk (JVS).
The JVS is one of six hunts in the Netherlands, along with the De Veluwe Hunt, the Royal Dutch Hunting Association, the Triple B Hunt, the Ma’goy and the Midland Hunt. I was in the Netherlands for a “double-Dutch” hunting trip, visiting the JVS on the Saturday, then the Midland on the Sunday.
The JVS mainly
