Hunting a new horse

The perfect hunter isn’t born, it’s made. Patience, preparation and persistence are crucial, as Abi Butcher is finding out

- Abi Butcher

“HAS hunted”. Two words that can make all the difference to the price of a horse – because hunting shows a horse can keep its cool, find its feet, has a level of confidence and reliability. But often starting a youngster can be downright hard work.

With youngsters there are no guarantees – of the last four horses I’ve ridden new to the hunting field, my latest has been the most surprising. The first three were four- or five-year-old, sharp ex-racehorses or part-breds who were terrible to hack but surprisingly steady out hunting. They jumped anything I pointed them at and quickly got the hang of where to go in the field.

But my current steed Winnie is a four-year-old Irish Sport Horse who has, since I got him in April, been the quietest and easiest youngster to handle. But out with hounds, he has turned out to be the most excitable, proving once again that with horses you never stop learning.

So in that vein, here are a few things I’ve learnt along the way.

Be persistent: there are few horses that won’t settle to hunting. I hear people saying time and again that their horses get too crazy when hunting, but that’s like saying you don’t socialise a dog because it’s antisocial. Most will settle but they need time and space to get used to something different – especially if they are kept in individual strip grazing and ridden mostly in a school.

Horses are herd animals and when they get together out hunting it is (to borrow