Celtic Silver takes top RoR hunter prize

Four former racehorses show off their talents in their second careers at the RoR Racing to Hunting Challenge final

- OCTAVIA POLLOCK

North Staffordshire, Staffs

IT has long been suspected that great horsemen have a streak of madness in them and the latest Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) Racing to Hunting Challenge final, hosted by the North Staffordshire, proved it. The winner was sporting a broken foot and the runnerup a broken collarbone, but both skipped around the hedges and rails without the slightest hesitation.

The four finalists - two had to pull out at the last moment made a smart picture in their green RoR saddlecloths against the mellow red brick of the farmyard where we met, hosted by senior master Ann Hartley. She, too, was defying injury, not long back in the saddle after breaking her knee in an innocuous but nasty accident at the end of last season.

"I dropped my phone after taking pictures of a trespassing dog walker," she explained. "When I got on a bank to get back on, my horse joined me on the bank and my foot slipped."

Returning to her family farm three decades ago, Ann was invited into the mastership.

"I keep trying to wriggle out of it," she laughed, "but they won't let me!"

With longevity of service increasingly rare, I doubt they ever will.

The rest of the mastership is equally strong. Rick Hampton was described as Ann's guardian angel - "he is always there when I need him" - and Jonathon Jarrett has deep familial connections with the area. His brother, Rob, has hunted the hounds for four years and, despite the potential for brotherly rivalry, it's a successful arrangement, with a kind of shorthand between them.

Rob looks after the breeding of this old English pack and has already found success on the flags, with Pudding 20, a "little rascal", the brood bitch winner at Peterborough, the first North Staffordshire for 70 years.

"I've been trying to get them a bit more athletic," he explained. "They were getting a bit heavy in the shoulder."