Hunting was fairly eventful. We unloaded the four horses at the meet, all got on and Dove just stood there. She refused to go a yard. So we swapped the saddles around and Doug got on her and Lucy got on Harry. Dove then set off at a brisk pace and got straight to the front (there was about 50 people out). She jumped a huge ditch, but then refused to jump a post and rail fence. The other three jumped it, but Harry over jumped and Lucy lost her stirrups (and worst of all her hip flask fell out of her pocket!) Harry then set off at break neck speed down a steep grass ridge and furrow field with Lucy hanging on around his neck. Somehow she managed to stay on board and thankfully Harry slowed down behind the other horses. Because Harry had got away from Lucy when she had lost her stirrups he thought 'this is fun - I can go as fast as I like' and proceeded to bolt happily past the whole field at every opportunity. Time to swap saddles again and Lucy went back on Dove who was behaving much better by now, although still not keen on jumping post and rails - the last time she hunted she was behind Harry when he crashed through a fence and fell. I'm sure she hasn't forgotten the experience. The main thing is that she still loves jumping the schooling fences, so it's no real problem. Dream was the star of the show and jumped everything I asked her to, even giving other horses a lead when they refused. Sadly a horse broke his leg over a big hedge. Thankfully the kennel man was right there on his quad and was able to put the horse down immediately when it was obvious that nothing could be done.
We got split up at one stage because Dove and Jake refused a fence and Doug stayed behind with them and headed back to the boxes. I stayed with the field until we got to second horses and then hacked back across the bridle path. I had my heart monitor and GPS watch on and was surprised to see that we had done 21 miles and had a highest HR of 184 with an average of 94, so it's all good fitness work for the horses, and although some of them were slightly badly behaved we were just glad that they were still in one piece and really feeling sorry for the man who had lost his horse and was going back with an empty horsebox.
Tomorrow Doug's sister, Gill, husband, Lochlan and their two boys are coming up from London to see us for the day. They flew in from Australia two days ago and are spending Christmas in France. The boys are desperate to see snow and may be in luck.