Hunting with Mr.Stewart's Cheshire Hounds

Yesterday 4 of us went up to hunt with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Hounds and it was fabulous. I am now confident my red chestnut can jump the moon, 'cause he had to yesterday. The very first jump was a 3'9" railroad tie timber!. The girls and I went " oh, sh.." and watched as everyone in first field before us trotted two or three steps across the road , one canter stride and calmly jumped over. No fuss, no big deal, so we did the same. And the day progressed from there. Lots of really, really big jumps. Lots of line fences- I always thought that would be a big deal- but everyone just jumps them and all the horses just follow each other. So, if you ever want to get confidence jumping big stuff, go hunt with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Hounds because that is where all the lovely, big, quiet Thoroughbreds are living and packing their owners around! This was a benefit hunt for an injured jockey, Jake Chalfin, and there were 150 mounted riders. Three fields offered which was unusual for them. The Master announced the fields by stating, " First field will be led by Bruce Miller, second field will not jump anything over 3 foot, third field is slower..." We looked at each other and I asked the whip beside me , " How high is first field?" He laughed and held his whip up about 5 feet ! He kept laughing and said, " Go first, you'll be fine and it's safer!"  We did and we had so much fun. Yes, they were big but everyone jumped safely and that 3"9" first timber did not look so big when at the end of a 5 hour hunt we had to jump it back!  to get home. We had gone so far from the trailers that most people were either stopping at their barns as we hacked home, or calling spouses to bring trailer to them!. There were only 8 of us left to actually hack all the way back, jumping home. We called it a day after 5 hours. I did not want to keep jumping a tired horse, although Red was awesome. Never took a bad step. He may not be the prettiest jumper but when in doubt he just goes higher, so his hanging knees still clear that top rail! I was glad I had borium because the only crashes we saw were the slippery footing kind. Several people slid into big jumps and we watched one tired pony literally crawl over a big coop! About 75 % had dropped out by the 3rd hour just when scenting got better and by the final blowing home there were only about 20 riders who finished, including the Marlborough girls, Barbara, Leslie, Marie and our cohort, Phillipa!! We had to, we didn't have a clue as to where we were!  It was an awesome day and we can now go and hunt anywhere with confidence. Thank you Cheshire!