FOR me, autumn hunting is the best time of the season as the countryside is looking its very best. From the time the huntsman puts the hounds into the first covert at 6.30am and you notice some of the new entry looking around unsure of themselves, realising quickly it’s better to follow their elders. When hounds open in fine voice it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand. For those that hunt to ride rather than ride to hunt, it’s an opportunity to observe the direction the huntsman draws a covert and to get familiar with the calls on the hunting horn, and above all, to never smoke near hounds as their noses are a unique feature in their toolbox.

Fine food

But it is also a time that you can carb-load with all the fine hunt breakfasts that landowners situated in the hunting area host. I have sampled fine food in many parts of the hunting world. For example, in America, there is a tradition of tailgate hospitality with a wide range of food often ordered in especially from catering companies who specialise in this area.

In the UK, I have had the best of English breakfasts in Leicestershire and in Dorset. While in France after hunting in the vineyards and maize, we repaired back to the clubhouse of the Société la Renaissance for the best of local rosé wine and French cuisine.

In Australia, hunting in the early morning on a sheep station we visited a local village for an Australian brunch which can be described as creative, colourful and decadent.

At home I sampled a fine Irish breakfast on the east coast containing Catholic and Protestant sausages; the Protestant sausages coated with honey and sesame seeds and the Catholic sausages just plain!

On the west coast after a smashing morning out autumn hunting, the bill of fayre was ox tongue which we cut thick chunks of and pressed between slices of buttered pan with a coating of mustard. That was until the kennelman put his head in the door and informed us that he was collecting a fresh beast and that he may have another ox tongue the following day. Maybe the mustard saved us as the huntsman was over 90 when he passed away and I am still upright 60 years later. But somehow ox tongue has never had the same appeal since then!