Miss Emily du Luart
Warwickshire Open Day
Emily du Luart
Emily du Luart 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."
A lot has happened since I last wrote, most of it good luckily! I took my A-Levels in June, had my Leavers’ Ball, went on holiday to Croatia, Poland and France with friends, found a full time job and then today I got my results with the grades I needed go to Leeds to read History which I am thrilled about.
Horse wise, I haven’t done particularly much as Piggy has a lung infection, but she will hopefully be back in work for the start of the hunting season, which is good timing.
Earlier this month I went to the Hunt kennels at Kineton for the Warwickshire Open Day. It was a really warm day so the turn out was fantastic. There were many lurchers, terriers and novelty dog classes which kept everyone amused – especially the “greatest legs” class, as there was much commentary as to whether this should be human, canine or a combination of the two.
William with the Warwickshire bitch pack
My personal highlight was when the huntsmen William Deakin brought out all the bitch hounds for a run around garden for everyone to see. It was great to see the hounds looking so fit and well before the season has even started. My nine month old cousin should have been scared when three couple of hounds bounded over to him to try and steal his lunch, but he simply smiled and laughed which confirmed that hunting must be in the Butler blood.
Emily with Goodness
It was great to see my sponsored hound Warwickshire Goodness ’06, as I have not been able to visit her this season due to my hectic diary commitments. I spent quite a long time patting and stroking her, which was not uninterrupted by every other hound that felt a bit jealous. Goodness, who in the past has been described as: “not one you’d choose for your first XI”, has a lovely temperament and therefore should have lovely puppies next season.
At the Open Day there was also a competition to win a painting of a beautiful hound and all you had to do was pick the winning name out of a hat. My mum picked the name Daniel, and commented that: “Daniel is hardly going to be the name of a lovely bitch hound.” She was therefore pleasantly surprised, albeit feeling a little silly, when it was announced that she had won the painting and was presented it by Mrs Wingfield-Digby, MFH.
Emily’s mum receiving the painting
Later that week my stepfather and I went out to dinner with some people who are walking two Warwickshire ’09 hound puppies: Ailsa and Airwave, which are absolutely adorable, and I spent the entire evening playing with them in the garden like a small child. By the time the food was reading I was completely knackered and needing to sit down but I think they could have carried on for at least another hour. At 18 I’m clearly getting a bit old and unfit, how depressing...
I’m looking forward to the beginning of the hunting season and hopefully if the weather stays nice then the harvesting will be over soon and then we can get cracking. I’m particularly excited as I was meant to be going travelling at the end of October and therefore would have missed 80% of the hunting this year, but due to the realisation that there was no way I would be able to afford eight months abroad - I am now not leaving the UK until the end of December: two more months working - and two less months spending, should work out a bit more realistic.
These plans are likely to change again as I am very disorganised and wouldn’t put money on the idea of me definitely going anywhere further afield than the borders of Gloucestershire, however I really do hope this won’t be the case.
Emily du Luart