ON the first properly wet day in autumn a hardy bunch of spectators stood in a muddy field in Suffolk watching a group of four horses weave backwards and forwards over stout hedges. There were gasps as they thundered over a road crossing - the second part with a 2m drop into the field below - and cheers as the team galloped away up the hill over more hedges.
It’s a scene that the late Hickstead maestro Douglas Bunn would no doubt approve of, some 48 years after he created the first team chase at his famous Sussex showground.
The legend goes that the BBC wanted a different sort of equestrian entertainment for Easter Sunday’s programming. and Douglas suggested pitting showjumpers, eventers, even dressage riders against his fellow subscribers from the Mid Surrey Drag to jump as teams around the hedges at Hickstead.
“It takes a season to work out your plaee on the
