Horse_amp_amp_Hound__06_February_2018

with pleasure
from home was not easy that
morning — husband Will is
master of the Haydon — but she
tries to get down to the Bedale
several times a season. On his
feet was Laura’s partner “Robbo”
Robinson, chairman of the hunt
supporters’ club, off games due
to a broken leg, and Ron Dobson,
who pointed out his wife Vanessa
Fleming, the former master of
the Badsworth and Bramham
Moor, looking the business on an
immaculate grey.
Ed Page MFH was our field
master on another quality grey
and, while Tim went off to draw
the Fairbairns’ Bungalow Wood,
we set sail across the first field,
over a set of rails and up a small
hill to a wall. It was not a big
wall, but it evidently had a bit of
drop. Kick, kick, kick I went, but
the person in front stopped and
Phoenix and I ground to a halt
by his bottom. Not great. I had
another try, but Phoenix put the
brakes on again. Then someone
fell off and we melted down
through a gateway to join the rest
of the field, who were lining up for
another rail.
“Can I go behind you?” I
squeaked at the lady beside me.
“Follow my husband,” she
said, pointing to former master
Stephen Swires, a dashing jockey
type in a red coat.
Kick, kick and over we go
before heading off around some
field margins. Everyone was
cantering on as if we were on the
hunt of the season. Phoenix took
a bit of a hold and we thundered
past a couple of people in a less
than dignified way, getting filthy
in the process.
“I hope you had your Weetabix
this morning,” quipped Andy
Wilkinson, one of several regular
visitors from the East Durham as
he caught up with me on the road.
POPULAR FOR THE
JUMPING
THERE were no trails in
Bungalow Wood, so Tim and
his hounds headed a mile or so
by road to the hunt covert at
Marriforth Farm. It was good
to see a familiar face in the
form of Vanessa Fleming, who
explained that this is one of the
Bedale’s harder bits of country,
although it is popular for the
jumping. The Page family own
several farms in the area that are
laid out with plenty of timber
and newly laid hedges, but their
farms are intermingled with
others where the larger fields
are not so welcome and shooting
dominates. We were stopped in
our conversation by the cheerful
IN KENNELS
Chairman:
Robert McKenzie Johnson
Joint-masters:
Robert Ropner, Tim Coulson
(huntsman), Jo Lambert,
Matthew Penrose, Ed Page
Hon secretary:
Nick Thomas, 07973 886487
Kennel-huntsman:
Mikey Francis
note of hounds speaking through
the covert and watched as they
took a line out across a grass field,
leaving the field to take a route via
the road with hounds out of sight.
We get a glimpse of hounds
at No Man’s Moor Lane, where
there was an upright rail to jump
onto the road. Lettie Thomas,
daughter of the secretary, was up
from Leeds having recently taken
up hunting again. Her friend Alice
Milverton told me she was riding
her mum’s “happy hacker” and
tried to get home once a month
from London for some hunting.
Two well-mounted 12-year-olds
told me they go every Saturday
and provided sufficient evidence
Right: Susie Penrose with
Bedale joint-masters
Matthew Penrose and
Robert Ropner