‘Hounds ran non-stop'

Horses barely stopped galloping and jumping all day in this oasis of delectable hunting country

- FRANK HOUGHTON BROWN

THE last half-dozen of us rode back to the meet as the light was slowly disappearing. Luke Speed, known as “Speedy”, a falconer and relief milker who looks after the hunt’s steppe eagle, was there to let us through some wire. The cloud cover had not cleared all day and the ground was saturated underfoot.

Hounds and huntsman had every reason to look rather smug and satisfied, having successfully concluded their last hunt and produced a top-class day’s hunting. The horses were weary; they don’t have second horses at this small pack, but in no way had that curtailed the speed or length of the day.

We had barely stopped galloping and jumping since the start, all out of deep ground but virtually entirely on grass. The only cultivations were maize stubbles, cut for dairy cow silage.

The meet had been on a grassy knoll at the back of Paul and Emma Parton’s Norton Wood Farm, from where there was a superb view of this old-fashioned bit of hunting country. The hunt supporters had put on the meet as the Partons were away, and they had a similarly hospitable welcome arranged for us when we returned to the boxes.

We were the last of a field of 40 or so riders that had started the day, many of whom were visitors, but such was the allround performance of the hounds, huntsman, and field-master that most had said their goodnights much earlier, totally fulfilled from an action-packed day.

It hadn’t been a flying scent, but a holding one, where the hounds could still hang on to the line with lots of help from their excellent huntsman David Seels, in his 11th season at the North Staffordshire.