Some get it right. Stephen Hutchinson, MFH in a brave jump onto the road with the South Tyrone Foxhounds / Noel Mullins photo

I never cease to be amazed at the challenges of foxhunting in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. On a good hunting day, for many, it would be easier to ride in the Aintree Grand National. Such is the challenge of crossing this well-fenced countryside with its network of wire, drains, and hedges, that visitors seldom return a second time!

If there is any weakness in the hunt membership, it is that they have too many veterinary surgeons following and not enough physicians. In the course of this day’s hunting, every one of the vets was in trouble. Since Dr. Cathal Cassidy emigrated to New Zealand it has not been the same, particularly as he was a psychiatrist, which, given the cavalier attitude of the followers across the hunting country, is the branch of medicine most suited to the needs of the South Tyrone followers. In fact the horses look sounder than the riders.