As you can tell from these pages, I love to take photos when I’m hunting. I’m lucky that, for the most part, my horses are agreeable to the one-hand-on-the-reins method. Of course, hunting is unpredictable and this past weekend, I had a near miss that almost sent me flying.

We were halfway through the hunt and Zelda was being wonderful. We had just galloped through a nice big

open field and were walking down a causeway between two marshy areas. The hounds were bounding through the tall grasses and I thought “How pretty that looks,” and reached for my phone.

Just then, a hound leaped out of the tall grasses and landed under her feet. She spooked, jumped into the air and almost landed in the marsh on the other side. I also flew up into the air and by the luck of St. Herbert (the patron saint of hunters), I landed in the saddle. Zelda wasn’t trying to get me off, which she could have easily done right then, and my phone stayed in my hand! The only lasting damage was a pulled muscle in my back, but I feel like I got off lightly.

It was an overcast day, great for hunting. The hounds stayed on the scent and we had a small field which was perfect for watching them work. I was glad that I hadn’t brought Freedom; he has strong feelings about how a hunt should go and this one wasn’t fast enough for his taste. He would have danced and jigged and made my ride quite challenging. Zelda is a lot more easy going and willing to walk quietly when given the chance.