I Want To Go Hunting

Pre-requisites

You will need a suitable horse, clothing and your field money or visitors cap.

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Your horse and turnout.

Your horse should be good in company, not liable to kick other horses, and preferably used to dogs. It should be reasonably fit and able to jump modest fences. For hunting it should be clipped and have it's mane either plaited or hogged. For autumn hunting it is not necessary for your horse to be plaited or clipped, it should however be clean and tidily turned out. 

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Your clothing.

For hunting, suitable clothing is a black or navy hunt coat, black top boots, white or fawn breeches, a white stock or hunting tie, a hunt cap or bowler hat. The dress code is slightly different for early season autumn hunting which takes place in September and October. For this you should wear a normal tweed or twill hacking jacket instead of a hunt coat. You should also wear a coloured stock or collar and tie instead of a white stock. A hunting whip has several uses: the leash can be used to keep hounds away from your horses legs, the crop can be used to open and shut gates, the whip can be used to make 'noise' when holding up a covert and of course it can be used as a riding aid. 

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Your first day out

If you are unsure of how your horse will behave it is often a good idea to make your first day an autumn hunting morning. Autumn Hunting is a lot slower and there is little or no jumping. This early season hunting is a good way to introduce a green horse to hunting. You should plan to arrive at the meet in plenty of time to get your horse out of its transport and yourself mounted with perhaps 10 minutes to spare before the published meet time. You should ask who is collecting the cap and offer your money to them. You should also get this person to point out who the Field Master is for the day. Introduce your self to the Master and tell him or her that this is your first day out hunting. He or she will introduce you to a more experienced hunt member to show you "the ropes" during the day.