It's nearly time...

H&H's hunting editor Catherine Austen - and her horse are keen for the new trail-hunting season to start

THE blackberries are thickly clustered, the skies are hanging heavily and there’s a real nip in the air at night now. My horse is bored out of his brain with walking and trotting round the roads; he puts his mind in neutral, creeps downhill and can barely be bothered to spook.

That is, until I let him have a canter on a stubble field this morning, whereupon he ripped the reins out of my hands and bounded off with glee. When I eventually managed to pull him up, he bounced home like a horse half his age. Old hunters know exactly what the score is. In his mind it is time to stop messing about and go hunting.