Hunt riding

 

For experienced riders the autumn and winter time hunt riding can offer a suitable occasion to celebrate the end of the riding season and the beginning of the new hunting season. This traditional riding programme evoke the hunts of old times. Nowadays on these occasions the main task is not to kill a fox, a deer or a bore, but to ride along a 25-kilometre-long field which is made more difficult with some obstacles.

On the first day of this three-day-long programme riders get acquainted and make friends with their horses, and they can prove their being experienced at some easier obstacles. Of course, on the horseback hunt non-riders can also be present: they follow the riders on carriages.

 k_35.jpg (20883 bytes)
k_20.jpg (23569 bytes) The second day is for the hunt ride. Riders dressed in hunting outfit line up when the master of the hunt blows his horn and after he has announced the rules and has blown his horn again the riders get started following the rider who represents the fox. Leading the group of chasers go the master of the hunt and his two assistants who cannot be overtaken during the ride. The rout follows along the most beautiful and exciting scenery, through some 50-70-centimetre-tall natural obstacles. At about half of the route riders and horses take a break, and the riders have a pleasant lunch - outdoors. At the end of the second half when the master gives the signal the participants starts a 600-800-meter-long competition on an open field to catch the “fox” represented by the fox-tail fastened onto the shoulder of the leading horseman. In the evening there is a hunting dinner and ball when a “jury” is made up to judge the participants on the basis of the larger and smaller offences they have committed during the hunt. The punishment and penalty are usually served on the spot during the all-night-long happy ball.
On the third follow-up day there is a light ride for a couple of hours when the riders can say good-bye to their fellow riders and to their horses. These horseback hunts are organised in the wooded and hilly areas of Northern-, Western- and Southern-Hungary, or in the plains and at the waterfronts in the middle and eastern parts of the country. k_44.jpg (27740 bytes)