Miss Emily du Luart
on the International Hunt Exchange Scheme
Emily du Luart
Emily du Luart is 17 years old and currently in her last year at school studying for my A-Levels in History, Geography, French and ICT. Emily has grown up with horses and have ridden for 15 years, and always had a very strong link personally with horses and hunting.Her mother rode at Badminton; her uncle is Sam Butler, who was heavily involved with the Countryside Alliance ‘Campaign for Hunting';and is still MFH and a Field Master for the Warwickshire Hunt, and her stepfather Lord Willoughby de Broke, is chairman of the Warwickshire having taken over from her grandfather, Sir Adam Butler.
"I was luckily enough to be given my first pony aged three and since then there has been no looking back. Hunting with the Warwickshire has always been a passion of mine, alongside competitive eventing, show jumping and dressage. My heart, however, lies strictly with hunting and eventing. Nothing fazes me: I have been jumping five-bar iron gates, rails and hedges since the age of seven, possibly even younger, but that’s the first I remember. For me a good day out hunting consists of jumping as many fences as possible, socializing and watching my sponsored hound, Goodness, working and enjoying herself with the rest of the pack."
Emily recently set up her own website: www.horsemind.com - a social network for horse riders, and says: "I'm looking forward to working with TMV, writing my own monthly column, and doing whatever we can to help repeal the Hunting Act."
As I write this I’m thinking about all the revision I should be doing right now, but have decided this article has to be more exciting than “the uses of satellite communication” or “the weather associated with the British Isles under anticyclonic conditions” – I really hope you agree!
This time in a month I will have just finished my last ever school exam, will be off on exam leave holidays, going to lots of summer 18th parties, and hopefully not too concerned about results day in August. But for now back to typing this.
Being half French and having half my family living in Paris, I have always been interested by other cultures and traditions. This is why I am particularly excited about the International Hunt Exchange which TMV are in the processes of setting up. My non-horsey father is always trying to get me to go hunting with one of the packs just outside Paris but the technicalities of horse hire, and who would look after me, always prove problematic.
The way in which the Hunt Exchange will be set up removes this difficulty and will allow anyone to have the opportunity to experience another way of hunting and country life. The only problem I would have hunting in France is lack of stamina, they don’t gallop and jump fences but trot for hours at a time - I don’t think I’d be used to this, but I’m sure the experience of another way of hunting must outweigh the potential issues? I don’t have any idea about the style of hunting in Holland or anywhere else in Europe, and the scheme offers the experience to anyone who is interested in finding out.
The Hunt Exchange will offer a brilliant, but also affordable way of enjoying a weekend abroad whilst doing something we all love… with the added bonus of it still being legal. Making new friends will also be a huge and fun part of the Exchange. The support we will gain for our cause from the Europeans we meet will be paramount in trying to repeal the ban on hunting in the UK. The more people who get involved, the more pressure that will be put on the Government, and this can only work in our favour. The Exchange will show how much good can come out of hunting and this will help to change the image that many people have of hunters as arrogant, self-absorbed animal murderers.
This November I am leaving the UK to go on my gap year in New Zealand and Australia and I’m already looking forward to hunting Down-Under. Although apparently (and I hope people have been fooling me), they only hunt coyotes in Oz. Australia may be a bit far-fetched for the Exchange scheme, but I will look forward to reporting back on how successful I am in finding packs to go out with, and whether it’s anything like what I’m used to - in a way I hope so!
The May Day Bank Holiday saw the running of the Warwickshire Hunt Point-to-point at Ashorne Racecourse near Warwick. It was lovely to see so many people there that I haven’t seen since I last hunted in February. The event always raises lots of money for the Hunt and provides a great afternoon of entertainment; the fallers always proving as popular to watch as the winners.
As usual I proved to be a useless gambler, losing far more money than I won. The situation was made worse by the fact that my sister won double what I lost, and refused to share a penny. Sadly I can’t remember the name of any of the horses running as I was too miserable to think about keeping hold of the programme at the end of the day.
I have been having mixed results with my Eventing at the start of this year, which is pretty normal I guess, but I am hoping that in the next few outings I can manage to get right the three disciplines involved - all on the same day. I currently seem very good at a different combination of two every week, but it’s the three together which will lead to be do as well as I want to.
My two horses that have been lame, Danny and Dazzy, are now back in work so I’m hoping they will stay sound and be competing soon. This will mean my top horse, Miss Piggy, won’t be the brunt of all my blame when things go wrong. I know it’s my fault 99% of the time but, as with everything, I always find it far easier to blame someone/thing else, than take responsibility for my mistakes…
So that’s all I have to report for now.
Ciao, Emily
Emily du Luart