Recent Successes

Inter Hunt Relay

Karen Hague again organised our inter hunt relay team this year from sending off entries to coaching the members.

On 17 June the team - consisting of Laurence Leavy, MDH, Danielle Gowrie, whipper-in, Chris Hague and Joe Murphy - took part in the relay held in the main ring at the Cheshire County Show. They won the turn-out competition, and went on to be third in the relay. Congratulations to them.

The team had another outing, this time to the Peterborough Festival of Hunting on 16 July. As Laurence and Dani were the only two members of the original team who were able to compete, two new members were co-opted on to the side - amateur whipper-in Danny Carroll and Sophie Donnellan. Sophie has hunted with us since she was nine, but this was her first time on the team and she rode as the 16-21 year old rider required for the team.

The team would like to thank Jane Robertson for her great support, and the wonderful practice course that she put on for us on the Monday prior to Peterborough. After jumping round Jane's course, the team felt they could tackle anything!

Everyone got up very early on D day and by 5am the wagon was loaded and on the road. Four hours later they arrived at the showground. Dani and Sophie had managed to sleep all the way there; and as Laurence and Danny had made their own travel arrangements, this left Karen to keep husband Stephen awake!

There were 32 teams entered into the relay, and to our delight our team came second.  It would be fair to say that the horses and riders were all exhausted at the end of the day then there was a 4 hour journey home. And guess what, Dani and Sophie slept all the way home again!

Hound Showing

Whilst the relay was being held in Peterborough, Alan Richards, MDH and Wendy Mayo were busy trying to support everyone. 

Alan took up a ring side seat to cheer on our huntsman, Ray Shaw, who, as the relay team were leaving to drive home, had already clocked up two firsts and a second in the hound showing.

The fantastic results for the hounds were:
Farrier - 1st in draghound un-entered dog
Plimpsol - 2nd in draghound entered dog
Forrage - 1st in draghound un-entered bitch
Starlight - 3rd in draghound entered bitch
Monarch and Starlight - 2nd in draghound couples

This was a great achievement by Ray, ably assisted by Philip Wood on the day.

Congratulations to all concerned, these were two great days for our hunt.