Rupert

This beautiful master's horse hates quad bikes and is "scared of his rug" but is dearly loved by both Nigel Peel and his son Jamie

- Octavia Pollock

AS a certain Rupert Campbell-Black causes hearts to swoon, another Rupert has already won the hearts of the Peels.

"He knows he's beautiful," says Nigel Peel, former huntsman of the North Cotswold and the Thurlow. "He should be going down the Mall, he's the right colour - black."

Nigel's son Jamie, now jointmaster of the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray, agrees, but notes: "There's not a hope in hell you'd get him in that environment!"

For Nigel's last four seasons hunting hounds, he rode Rupert, finally finishing with him as second horse on the last day before the world locked down in 2020. Working hunter producer Libby Cooke had found him in Ireland - as she has many others - for Nigel.

"She made him and got him going. He proved to be one of the best horses I've ever ridden; we jumped some amazing fences," says Nigel. "I didn't know how he'd cope with the drains in the Thurlow country, but he treated them as if they weren't there."

He remembers him as "so easy to ride and very comfortable, I could sit on him all day. He adored the hounds; I could let the reins go and he'd follow them".

Nigel only remembers coming off him once, when out on a ride alone.