‘Happy are those who hunt to please themselves'

H&H’s Catherine Austen begins to rebuild her confidence with some Christmas hunting, and considers the importance of Boxing Day to the sport

- 

HAVING regaled you in rather melodramatic fashion with my crash and burn last week, I’m pleased to report that Molly and I are in one piece.

She was a bit sore and had some physio, and a much better jockey than me kindly gave her a jump in the school and she was foot-perfect.

I drove up to Northumberland a day later for a H&H hunting report and, while not covering myself in glory in the equestrian stakes — I kept repeating to myself, “Happy are those who hunt to please themselves, not astonish others” — I stayed in the plate and came home smiling.

It’s so silly after all the hunting I have done and the amount of times I have hit the deck, but this stupid fall had really knocked my confidence. The real issue was, what had it done to Molly’s? I knew I had to make myself go hunting on Christmas Eve. That had always been my plan so better to stick to it than wimp out, and it seemed important to bite the bullet and find out if there was a problem.