'Point-to-Pointing'; Winter's Rural Sport
Spectators tend to wear warm country tweeds with boots, (it can get very muddy and cold at this time of year in the shires of England), and the family wicker picnic hamper bought years ago at Fortnum & Mason gets its first airing of the year, with thermos flasks of hot soup taking pride of place on the field menu. Shooting sticks and the olive green or dark brown jackets of Barbour, the Royal Warrant holders for outdoor leisure and sporting wear, are ubiquitous sartorial wear at these events.Hip flask filled with a warming whisky and cherry brandy mixture, (or something similar), is a popular addition to the Barbour jacket pocket. On particularly cold and wet days the spectators tend to squelch over to congregate in the beer tent, which may be the only available cover from the elements.
Icy winter winds and rain will keep all but the keenest away from early meetings. But as the sun brings warmer Spring weather the noble and gentle riders and local spectators emerge in their droves for the Saturday or Sunday p-to-p meetings. The Amateur races on the day's Card are called 'Bumpers' - because all the riders bump up and down on their tiny saddles. Many will fall off at the first jump, leaving a herd of loose horses to run ahead, reducing the field to a confusing and sometimes dangerous shambles. Performance of both horses and riders can be variable and this is probably the one and only occasion in the racing calender where a Barbour clad punter may know more than the bookmakers on the course.
The shapely Lady Ammonia Slekewithers, wife of the Master of the Hunt, will be riding her hunter Thunderthighs in the Ladies Open Race, (horses have to have been regularly and fairly hunted to compete). Her Ladyship has now had to replace her bowler hat with regulation safety riding helmet, and under new Jockey Club rules must also acquire a medical certificate before hurling herself and her mount at the jumps. Being lighter than her male counterparts she may capture the course speed record if she keeps her seat over that first jump. As Master of the local Hunt, Her bowler-hatted husband Sir Humphrey will be one of the course judges for the day's meeting.
Meetings are organized locally by hunt and P-to-P clubs and advertised nationally in the weekly magazine Horse and Hound and in
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