Callie Coles

Hunting may have skipped a generation but now this keen hunter is delighted to be passing on her love of the sport to the next generation

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GENETICS have been a major contributing factor in my sporting life, which revolves primarily around hunting. I begged and pleaded every day for nearly five years for a pony and my mother bought me My Lady the Dun Pony for my seventh birthday. The hunting gene had skipped a couple of generations. My mother never really hunted, my grandparents did as children but my great grandparents were both Masters; my great grandfather, Denis ‘Guvnor’ Moore, was also the huntsman of the East Cornwall. In me the dormant Moore hunting gene was wakened and I excitedly began to take Lady hunting on my own aged nine, hacking many miles to the meet, hunting all day and then merrily riding home in the dark, sometimes with a friend but often on my own.

My mother, who unhelpfully used to turn my alarm clock off on early autumn hunting mornings, gladly enrolled me at Hanford School for Girls who love Ponies, where, after making it to the dizzy heights of the hallowed riding committee, I didn’t have to go hunting alone anymore. Instead, I used to accompany the legendary headmaster Mr MJ out with the Portman hunt on Wednesdays in the Christmas term. It was the pinnacle of joy riding out with him at first bell for lessons after chapel while all my friends were at their books.