Hunter healthcare

A season plagued by rain of biblical proportions can take its toll on your hunters. Preparation is the key to survival, finds Madeleine Silver

- Madeleine Silver

STRUGGLING to lift his hunt coat, soaked with rain, at the end of the day has been a familiar predicament for the Heythrop’s joint-master Simon Lawrance this season. For the first time, the coach and former top-level eventer, who runs a hunter livery yard in Oxfordshire, has resorted to putting on his Ri-Dry mac at second horses on the foulest days. But there is a saving grace.

“People always say to me, ‘Oh, was it an awful day?’, but for some brilliant reason I don’t really seem to think about the weather,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for such a long time and if you waited for nice weather you’d never get on.”

Instead, says Simon, preparation is the secret to enduring relentless rain and keeping his hunters happy.

“I decant pig oil and sulphur into a garden spray bottle, and put that on their legs and under their tummy — it means the mud doesn’t stick as well and it acts as some kind of lubricant,” he says.

“I also tend to put the horses’ tails up when it’s really wet. But I check that they’re OK with it at home first because I have known some to react quite badly. You don’t want to get bucked off at the meet so it’s worth doing it before when you’re exercising.”

Feeding R-Oil, a cold-pressed rapeseed oil, is another must for Simon.