How leading hunting figures learnt to ride *H&H Plus*
Rory Knight Bruce finds out how some of hunting’s leading lights learnt their skills in the saddle
Hunting
Go directly to the latest hunting news from Horse & Hound
Although the majority of hunting takes place between September and April, the hunting calendar is a busy one.
The year ‘officially’ begins on 1 May, when mastership and staff changes take place. The summer months are busy with puppy shows, hound shows – culminating in the Festival of Hunting at Peterborough in July – and hunt events. Much time is spent improving areas of the hunting country and access to it, while in kennels it is often a frenzy of repairing, cleaning and painting.
Autumn hunting, when the young hounds are introduced to the hunting field, starts at the beginning of September.
Opening meets happen around the beginning of November, and then it is full-tilt until the end of the season, which may be as early as February in some areas and as late as mid-April in others, depending on the types of farming that take place there.
Since the 2004 Hunting Act came into force in 2005, hunts in Britain use a variety of exemptions under the law, including trail hunting, hound exercising and the use of a bird of prey.
Horse & Hound covers all aspects of hunting, reporting on days with packs across Britain and Ireland and giving you behind-the-scenes access to hunts of all types, from foxhounds to beagles and harriers, staghounds, bassets and minkhounds, as well as drag hounds and bloodhounds.
The hunting world is a rich and varied one – discover its history and culture with H&H.
-
-
From artists to horticulturalists: meet the huntsmen with hidden talents *H&H Plus*
-
10 hunting people I wish I’d known *H&H Plus*
-
Long-serving hunt staff step down from their roles, while others are on the move *H&H Plus*
-
No horses, just wonderful hounds: why everyone should experience Fell hunting *H&H Plus*
-
Super-safe ‘super-ponies’ — hunting’s gold-dust conveyances *H&H Plus*
-
Charge over leaked webinars ‘will fail’, hunting bosses believe *H&H Plus*
-
‘Help us bring them home’: five basset hounds stolen from kennels
The two and a half couple of working bassets, belonging to the Westerby Basset Hounds, were stolen when their kennels were broken into overnight on 17 February
-
‘We had one of those magic days’: meet Ireland’s hunting linchpin *H&H Plus*
-
‘Mourn, but no tears’: the final resting places of hunting heroes *H&H Plus*
-
Councillor’s attempt to ban trail-hunting on five acres of land fails
-
John Holliday: women in hunt service — why the old guard shouldn’t raise their eyebrows *H&H Plus*
-
A proper cracker: a pre-lockdown day out with the North Cotswold *H&H Plus*
-
Hunts’ hacked details leaked online by activists *H&H Plus*
-
How to blow a hunting horn: you need teeth, but no raspberries, please *H&H Plus*
-
The Eggesford: welcome to enviable old-fashioned hunting country *H&H Plus*
-
Daniel Cherriman: ‘It didn’t take long for the inevitable consequences to sink in’ *H&H Plus*
-
Your hunter is fit and raring to go, but what to do now we’re in lockdown? H&H investigates... *H&H Plus*
-
Cranwell Bloodhounds: ‘A blur of galloping and jumping’ *H&H Plus*
-
Mike Felton: the legendary MFH with a twinkle in his eye *H&H Plus*
