BALANCING THE HUNT

by

Leslie R. Karzen

   I’m balancing on a well-worn boulder zipping up my tall polished black hunt boots and buckling my spurs. The rain is relentless, so I’m taking advantage of this bit of sunshine and thinking, “forty years in the saddle hadn’t prepared me for Ireland.” Today is my second day foxhunting in Limerick.

It’s a large field. Hot horses pulling on the bit are being positioned by their nattily clad riders to jump a ridiculously wide ditch. Too many had come up short — landing hard, losing riders beneath the now crumbling edge.

My mount, Pegasus, has heart if not size, so I knew we had to take off strong and sure to miss the wreckage of slop and bad footing that lay ahead. An elegant man donning a red coat and a handmade Patey helmet followed me as I turned my mount around and trotted back to the waiting field. His horse bolted catching a leg in some wire. He was obviously cut, so I jumped off Pegasus, untied my ascot and began wrapping it around the wounded leg, securing it with my grandfather’s diamond stick pin.  He tipped his helmet in a thank you and gave me a wicked wink.  

Impressed, I softly brushed my mount’s neck with my hand, flicked the rein with my pinky, added leg and Pegasus took off. I closed my eyes and felt her body responding to me heading for what I knew was the sweet spot, the rest was up to her.

My mysterious man takes off next to me; so close we brush legs, almost locking spurs. The ground vibrated under our horses’ massive hooves kicking up clumps of dirt, flattening the lush cover and rattling whatever lived beneath.  

The next second I was airborne and the next second and the next. And then, Pegasus lands…three feet in from the jagged ledge. The horses that followed didn’t fare as well. It was a dark mashup of men, muscle, mud and mounts.

I look, but I don’t see my man.  My loss. I had secured his horse’s wounded leg with a round diamond stick pin that matched the 7 carats round diamond ring on my hand. He’ll find me, I think, but not wanting to burn daylight, Pegasus and I take off to catch the field trying to catch the hounds braying off in the distance.    

Copyright © 2020, Leslie R. Karzen, All Rights Reserved