Getting ready to host hunting’s biggest week

It's a big week for Jayne Beattie and fellow members of the Otago Hunt Club.

The club, which is celebrating its 140th jubilee, is hosting Hunt Week which means horses and riders were coming from throughout New Zealand for a week of hunting and socialising in Otago’s hinterland.

It began yesterday with a hunt at Macraes, a barn dance will be held in the historic Cottesbrook woolshed near Middlemarch tonight, followed by a hunt at Black Rock tomorrow, the national hound show and hunt ball at Wingatui racecourse on Wednesday and a hunt at Barewood on Thursday.

Traditionally, the role of huntsman in a hunt club has been a man’s job but, in recent times, more women have taken on the role, including Miss Beattie (26), an occupational therapist at Wakari Hospital in Dunedin.

She followed in the footsteps of her mother Anne, now the club’s master, and Jayne believed they were likely the first mother-daughter combination to hold the role in New Zealand.

The Beattie family have been heavily involved in equine pursuits and Jayne was 8 when she first started hunting. She had hunted with Otago every season since then.

She was now in her third season as huntsman, the position involving controlling the hounds in the field on hunt day. Having previously been a whipper-in on hunt day — a role which meant assisting the huntsman to control the hounds — since she was 12, she had been involved with hounds for a long time.

She had also worked under about three huntsmen and she had learned plenty through that, although she admitted that stepping into the role was still quite different.

It was Miss Beattie’s role to ensure the hounds were all doing their job in the field and that all were accounted for. Blowing a horn meant any wayward hounds would return if they got out of bounds.

Usually 22 or 24 hounds attended a hunt and quite a lot of work was done with them before they were taken out on-farm; they worked on discipline and getting to know commands.

Asked how hounds differed from the likes of farm working dogs, Miss Beattie said they were "a dog at the end of the day" but their pack mentality meant they were quite different.

They got kennelled in groups of four or five and they could be like "kids at school sometimes" when the dynamics were not quite right. As huntsman, she got to know their different personalities and there was definitely a hierarchy among them, she said.

Miss Beattie would be exhibiting seven hounds at the hound show where the hounds would be judged on the likes of conformation and presentation. For some show newcomers, it would be a big occasion being in front of a crowd of people and also being among strange hounds.

Asked what she enjoyed about hunting, Miss Beattie said she enjoyed working with the hounds, being at the front of the field and seeing all the different countryside.

"It’s such a nice way to have the hounds doing their job, which is awesome, and also the social side of it. It’s not a competition to beat each other, you’re out for a good day out. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, everyone can have a great day out," she said.

As Master, Anne Beattie was ultimately responsible for the running of the hunt and her word was final on all occasions. Miss Beattie said she worked well with her mother and it helped that she had also hunted hounds herself.

Her mother was "a little less patient" than her eldest daughter, something that would come as no surprise to those that knew the inimitable Mrs Beattie.

Miss Beattie’s younger sisters Kate and Rachel would be helping out as whippers-in, while their father Ash was "always in the background" and doing any jobs that were required. It would be particularly special to hunt at Black Rock, the Beattie family’s farm.

Given there were 330 registrations and large fields were expected during the week, Miss Beattie said she expected the enormity of that to hit home when she saw all the floats and trucks arriving, and riding out would be "a very big thing".

But talking on Friday, as she still had a heap of jobs to do, being nervous about that was the last thing on her mind. She had spoken to several other huntsmen and they had given her some good advice — to "just ignore everything behind your mother" and focus on what was happening in front of her.

Miss Beattie had three horses for the week, some of which were off-the-track thoroughbreds, which she would switch between. There were also "quite a few" other Beattie horses loaned to riders for the week.

Anne Beattie said ferry issues had caused some problems with riders bringing horses south. Fortunately, there was a very supportive network across the various hunt clubs in New Zealand and a member of the Manawatu club had offered to accommodate any people and horses who were stuck.

The Otago club, which was in excellent heart, had "fantastic support" from the hunting fraternity which was very much a class-less society in New Zealand, Mrs Beattie said.

It was also one of the cheapest equine sports in the country with the opportunity to ride usually twice a week, for three to four hours, across farmland, she said.

Otago was very lucky to have such supportive landowners and riders did not have to be able to jump, as gates were available to ride through.

Members of the public were welcome to attend the hound show at Wingatui racecourse on Wednesday, with judging starting about 9.30am. About 40 hounds would start arriving this morning and would be housed at the racecourse until leaving on Thursday.

Like her daughter, Mrs Beattie said she had not had time to think about nerves — "I still have to mend my hunt jacket" — "it’ll be fine," she said.

sally.rae@odt.co.nz