Repairing, preparing and raring to go

Over the summer, hunts are a hive of activity: from horses and hounds to boots and buttons, everything must be shipshape for the Season ahead

- OCTAVIA POLLOCK

HAVE YOU looked at your boots since last Season? When did you last leave the ground? Have you spoken to the farmer whose rails got broken? Summer still has that sun-soaked feel of carefree months untroubled by early starts and endless mud, but whether you are hunt staff or an occasional follower, it is a crucial time for repairing and preparing, laying the foundation for a successful Season.

"People say 'what do you do all summer?" exclaims Percy huntsman Robert McCarthy. "There's plenty to do, rearing three or four litters of puppies, grass to cut, painting, taking youngsters out on couples, staff on holiday, then before you know it horses are back in." He walks hounds out twice a day, keeping them ticking over. "We start with a quiet April, but we never let them right down. The more hounds are out of kennels, the better. We might meet sheep or stop for a chat with a farmer - it all gets them used to things."

The Percy are on bikes in May and horses at the end of July, a typical routine for building fitness. As Beckford says in Thoughts on Hunting, 'in the two preceding months [before the Season], a pack is either made or marred'. It's not all mileage, however: hound shows spangle a convivial calendar. "They generate more interest for everyone," notes McCarthy. "We do Peterborough, Blaston, small shows... They showcase hound welfare, good PR." The Percy were among the entries to the hunt-picnic competition at the Festival of Hunting, which, by the time this appears, I will have judged with this journal's Editor. McCarthy assured me the Percy's table would stand out, citing their tablecloths: the Union flags that fly above Alnwick Castle.