A hunting good time

I was back in Wales again in November I love going back to my old home and seeing all my old field mates.  But I was in for a surprise, as having arrived in the afternoon, I was groomed late into the night - all highly suspicious, especially when Mum turned up in the morning looking like we were going showing. I thought we had quit doing that showing malarkey?

Well it turned out we weren't showing, we were going down the pub at 10.30am in the morning! We met my friend Oliver at the pub.  I have hacked out with him before and his human Val.  We set off down the road together meeting other horses and ponies on the way. It wasn't long before we turned into a farm yard where there were a lot of fluffy Benji's running around, Oliver says they are hounds.  We had to stand around for quiet a while while the humans ate mince pies and sausages and drank mulled wine, not happy that I wasn't being given any, I threw my head around until Mum gave in and let me eat the grass. Well if they are eating I can't see why I couldn't. Little did I know that fuelling up at this point was a very sensible idea. 

Then a horse went past carrying a red man blowing a horn and the Benji dogs followed, then the rest of the horses, Oliver and I stayed towards the back.  We went across the road and everyone ahead was cantering off, oooohhh wait for me, Oliver was very calm and chilled and I was all excited so Mum struggled a bit to keep me calm, I could tell she was excited too. At the top of the track we all stopped and the red man and the Benji dogs disappeared. So we had to stand still while we waited for instructions on which way to go.  Then we were off in canter again, come on Oliver keep up we might loose them. 

It wasn't long before I started to get the hang of this hunting game, you have to stand still while the humans chat and if your lucky try to refuel with some grass and then charge off down the road, up lanes, around fields at full speed, before stopping again to catch breath, before speeding off again. Everyone was very friendly and at one point we were standing on top of the world with the most amazing views, watching the dogs running through the fern.

I had such an amazing day and I have got used to dogs running around me and horses cantering up behind me.  We were out a very long time and by the end of the afternoon it was starting to get hardwork cantering up the hills and Oliver is much bigger than me so I started to struggle to keep up, so I was pleased when we headed for home.  I think I turned into our lane at about 4pm ish, as I left Oliver I neighed goodbye to my new best friend.  He was amazing and such a good hunting companion, I hope I can go out again with him. 

I the trotted down the lane in a hurry to tell Dave and Vince about my amazing day and Mum was soooo pleased with I got a HUGE tea, I like this hunting game, my dreams are going to be full of galloping over the Welsh countryside tonight.

In fact it turned out Mum loved it too, so much so that in our 10 day stay in Wales we got to go hunting three times, yes three times, so I am definitely qualified as a hunting pony. I was hoping we would still go hunting when we got home but it turns out it is a lot more expensive here.  When we hunted in Wales it was only cost 2 bags of carrots but to hunt at home for a day would cost 25 bags of carrots, I'm not sure it was 25 bags of carrots of fun, I think I'd prefer to keep the carrots please, Mum.