‘Hooray for the new season'

Finding lost spurs for Adam and preparing son Jack for his first morning’s hunting on the lead-rein is all part of Tessa Waugh’s first day out, as she tries to rein in her own nervous excitement

- Tessa Waugh

THERE is always a tremor of apprehension in the air around here before the first morning’s hunting. Once we have cleared the first hurdle and found all our stuff. I cursed when Adam sent me a message the day before asking, quite reasonably, if I knew where his spurs were. I didn’t have a clue, just a vague memory of putting them “somewhere safe” and congratulating myself on my fantastic organisational skills. The problem is that as time passes, “somewhere safe” quickly becomes a random hidey-hole only locatable by sniffer dogs.