If you’re looking for something to do during the summer, inter-hunt relays are great sport, says Clodagh Blain
“FOR some hunt followers and their horses, the summer brings a new challenge when inter-hunt relay competitions get under way,” says Katrina Midgley, horse trials manager at The Game Fair, a popular fixture in the inter-hunt relay calendar.
Inter-hunt relays are fiercely competitive knockout competitions. In each round, there are two teams of up to four horses and riders competing against each other over two identical courses. The fastest team wins.
Nicki Watson, competition organiser at the Festival of Hounds at Peterborough, likens relays to “Pony Club mounted games with lots of shouting and cheering”.
Traditionally, team members are subscribers of their hunt. The courses are short with obstacles similar to those you might find out hunting, and the relay baton is commonly a hunting whip that’s passed between riders at the changeover. Some courses include a gate to be opened and closed. This can be particularly challenging with a loud crowd and adrenaline pumping.
Inter-hunt relays are a sport for riders young and old who want to have fun. Bobby Thomas, from the Carmarthenshire, recalls doing his first relay “before I could really ride”, but his team evidently learnt quickly as they went to 11 shows last summer, winning at nine of them. Often there is a small cash prize for the winners or appearance money paid to each hunt.
In the past, the winning team from the Royal Welsh Show qualified to compete at Dublin Horse Show against Irish hunts. Paul Smith from the Flint and Denbigh remembers his Dublin trip as “mayhem”, but “we competed in the main arena and loved every minute, despite getting thoroughly thrashed”.
EXCITEMENT APLENTY
THRILLS and spills are plentiful. For a hunter used to jumping in a group, completing a course alone in a strange environment is a challenge.
Matt Price, from the Teme Valley, sees the funny side after getting soaked in the water tray in consecutive years at the Royal Welsh.
“We practised water trays endlessly at home after the first year, but the atmosphere of the main arena is completely different,” he says.
The margin for error is slim. Rachel Thomas of the Llangeinor Pentyrch recalls galloping towards the changeover box, one hand on the reins, the other holding the baton outstretched, when her mare jinked and “practically jumped the steward”. Happily, no one was hurt.
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