Hunting in Ireland

I just returned yesterday from a trip to Ireland. My daughter and I had the honor to hunt with East Galway and Galway Blazers on Saturday and then hunt with the Roscommon Hunt on Sunday.

Wow what an experience. We worked with Oliver Walsh on this trip. He was wonderful and his horses could not have been better. Totally sound and sane draft crosses.

We jumped ditches and huge stone walls. We were out 4 hours each day. Everyone over there went out of their way to be nice to us. :slight_smile:

I AM EXTREMELY JEALOUS :slight_smile:

Lets get a group together for next year. You would love it. Check out his website Flowerhill Equestrian

Photographic evidence please.
:slight_smile:

I hunted twice (years ago) with the Galway Blazers. It was my first experience foxhunting- what an initiation! I was on a 14h grey connemara named Billy who sailed over everything - even when he couldn’t see the other side! I’ll admit that before we got going on the first day I felt like vomiting I was so nervous. But after the first run I couldn’t have wiped the grin off my face to save my life. Oh the joy of a confidence-building horse, er pony. He had just enough brakes that I was 90% I wasn’t going to die. But we were jumping absolutely crazy stuff. The only thing I didn’t care for was riding on wet pavement - I hate that feeling when a leg goes sliding out from under you…

I’ve hunted with the Blazers numerous times, and a few times with East Galway. Good times. I liken the experience to falling through a TV screen into a BBC production. I keep waiting for Tristan or Seigfried to pop up at any time…

The photos for the Saturday Hunt can be seen at the following link:
http://eastgalwayhunt.com/index.php?mact=Album,m4,default,1&m4albumid=60&m4returnid=53&page=53
Be sure to check out the huge ditch in the beginning of the hunt.

Castles and stone walls and ditches…oh my!

Yes, I join the group of the extremely jealous! Thanks for sharing the link to the photos, that looked like it was the hunting experience of a lifetime!

These East Galway hunters look very liberal about turnout. I like that. Their hunt definitely looks like a community affair, which is what it would be everywhere if I were the Czar.

Add me to the group who decided that hunting in Ireland was a great way to get initiated… needless to say my breeches did not remain clean… After about 4 hours I’d had enough and decided to return to the pub… as I walked in a fellow who was sitting next to the fireplace was chatting about how it was ā€œreally only the Americans who fall offā€¦ā€ then he noticed my dirty breeches, then he noticed he caught his jacket on fire:lol: Needless to say we all had a good laugh over a few hot whiskeys.

I hunted w/ the Blazers - not sure I’m up for the East Galway but some friends b-i-l is a staff member of East Galway

wow

well…that ride looks like it would cure one of ā€œditch issuesā€ā€¦:lol::lol::lol:

I think i’ll post some of those in the eventing forum…:wink:

If they want more info about the equestrian centre have them email me or IM me. I would love to give Oliver more business.

Heh. I may have kinda sorta told my brother for vacation next year I’d go hunting in Ireland with him. He went on one of Willy’s trail rides and has ever since wanted to go back and do some real hunting. I have not jumped in ages. I was never a big jumping person to begin with. In fact thanks to doinng 90% of my jumping on green OTTBs with speed issues I’m a certified wimp.

Though if I could have a hunter like my school horse in college, Patrick, I might be okay. (He was a big BTDT TB hunter. 3’6" rolltop set up in the arena, sure, point him at it, see what happens, WHEE!) I liked him because he took more leg than rein. My own horse, Old OTTB, never really got the memo about the ā€œOTā€ part. If I had a packer who was as happy to slow down as speed up and who could be trusted to get himself over things if he had to, I might survive the experience.

Try Flowerhill equestrian centre. Oliver has great horses and he is the Huntsman for the Roscommon Hunt. Leahy has good horses also but I don’t anything about him. The hunt on Saturday had about 10 riders from Leahy’s barn. He usually hunts Galway Blazers and such. Either way you can’t go wrong. To get yourself ready practice 3-4 foot jumps up hill and down.
It was a blast and well worth the money to watch true hunting in action.

I rode in Kildare with http://www.abbeyfieldfarm.com/ and yes, the ditches can be quite the wild ride. LIE BACK was yelled at every opportunity. At the end of the hunt, it was the dirtiest clothed rider that got the biggest hug and mug of tea (with a little ā€˜splash’ of encouragement). Nothing like riding in Ireland with a 100 horses and riders all cantering along, takes your breath away. Ahhhhhhhhh, now I want to go back…

[QUOTE=danceronice;4725989]
Heh. I may have kinda sorta told my brother for vacation next year I’d go hunting in Ireland with him. He went on one of Willy’s trail rides and has ever since wanted to go back and do some real hunting. I have not jumped in ages. I was never a big jumping person to begin with. In fact thanks to doinng 90% of my jumping on green OTTBs with speed issues I’m a certified wimp.

Though if I could have a hunter like my school horse in college, Patrick, I might be okay. (He was a big BTDT TB hunter. 3’6" rolltop set up in the arena, sure, point him at it, see what happens, WHEE!) I liked him because he took more leg than rein. My own horse, Old OTTB, never really got the memo about the ā€œOTā€ part. If I had a packer who was as happy to slow down as speed up and who could be trusted to get himself over things if he had to, I might survive the experience.[/QUOTE]

Blazer country has less of the ditches and drains… interestingly enough sometimes some of the other places don’t have enough horses and call on Willie to provide…

So long as someone has a nice old sensible packer to loan out…I like to hear that people have gone hunting who aren’t super-charged 4’ jumper people who’ve come out without any broken bones!

I can not help but wonder, if that separated the wheat from the chaff :slight_smile:

From what I remember everyone made it over the ditch but the stone wall at the end was a hug stopper. We had to have one of the Staff members ride many horses across. Pretty humbling.