MONMOUTHSHIRE 13 January
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
@cfaustenl23
Gelli-Llwyd Farm, Monmouthshire
GOOD reports from the Monmouthshire had been leaking all season; a new team had bedded in well and was producing decent sport. Happily, the reports are true.
Our generous meet at Gelli-Llwyd Farm, just outside Llanvetherine, was hosted by Dilwyn Tranter and his partner Emma Powell, who hunts mounted. The hounds, a 40-strong mounted field and a host of supporters nestled in a paddock behind the farmhouse, out of which flowed enough food and drink to sustain a small army.
We were in opening meet country, a patchwork of small grass fields, valleys and woodland, cradled by a labyrinth of twisting lanes and stocked with hunt jumps, even a few decent hedges for the eager. The majestic Black Mountains, the theatre for great midweek sport, lay beyond, but in sight.
If subpoenaed by government enquiry, my pre-day WhatsApp from Charlie Dando - joint-master and huntsman, now in his second season - will be found to be wholly accurate.
“You'll be riding Dibble, a hunt horse,” it read. “He's a gent, but
