Fox Hunting more Popular than Ever

More than 80 landowners, including the Duke of Norfolk, are to renew a legal attempt to ban hunt protesters from private estates.

Police are seeking greater access to hunts to prevent the four-year-old ban being flouted amid a surge of interest in the pursuit.
Since the ban came into force on 18 February 2005, the number of hunt members has increased by about 5,000, with about 50,000 regular riders, while the number of people watching the hunts has grown to 120,000. Total turnover of the hunts has grown from £155 million a year before the ban to at least £170 million.


The hounds are baying, the horses are stamping their hooves and the port is being passed around at Puckeridge Hunt. How's that, you ask?

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Classical Dressage

The lack of gentry sports at the Olympics is dismaying. Certainly most forms of English and Roman equestrianism should be permitted on the basis of their heritage. Chariot racing should take the place of beach volleyball, for example, so should polo, horseracing, foxhunting, combined driving and the fine harness.

Luckily though, dressage, eventing and jumping are recognized olympic sports.
Above: Just look at this dame on her horse! Excellent dressage turn-out, with braided mane, banged and pulled tail, trimmed legs and polished hooves. Rider wears a shadbelly and top hat, with white gloves, tall boots, and spurs.

An upper-level dressage horse at the canter.
A welsh pony in fine harness competition
Combined Driving: George Bowman in the dressage phase at Hopetoun National Horse Driving Trials Edinburgh, Scotland in May 2005.

Combined Driving: HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh exiting the water obstacle at Lowther Cumbria in August 2005.

An Andalusian at the collected trot.
An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot.
Olympic gold for Eric Lamaze of Canada on individual jumping.

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Trafalgar gets its Fourth Plinth

An Equestrian Statue of Elizabeth II will be commissioned in Trafalgar Square

LONDON'S TRAFALGAR SQUARE, to educate the uninitiated, is dominated by a monument, set on a 156-foot column, of Britain’s greatest naval hero, Horatio, Lord Nelson. Nelson died in 1805 during the final hours of his command in the Napoleonic Wars’ most significant naval engagement, when, without losing a single ship, Britain trounced the combined forces of France and Spain at Cape Trafalgar off the Spanish coast.

Nelson’s monument is surrounded by four plinths. Three are occupied by statues of Generals Havelock and Napier, and King George IV. The fourth plinth, its 1841 commission vacated for want of funds, remained empty until only a couple of years ago. In recent years the plinth’s fate had become the focus of heated debate, as a commission struck for the purpose mooted a variety of appropriate occupants (amongst them Princess Diana and the soccer champion David Beckham), but eventually designated it a showcase for British sculptors and modern art, with installations to rotate over periodic intervals.

Ultimately and thankfully that will come to an end now, as it has been announced that Her Majesty will permanently occupy the fourth plinth in memorial, most likely as the longest reigning sovereign in British Commonwealth history. Needless to say this is most deserving.

It is also long overdue. What I find most surprising about this is that there are no statues, equestrian or otherwise, of the Queen in the United Kingdom today, apart from the one in Windsor Great Park. In fact Canada by itself has more, especially with its two larger than life equestrians of our Queen in the capitals Ottawa and Regina.

Above and below, Her Majesty rides equestrian in Regina, Saskatchewan. The statue was unveiled by Her Majesty in 2005, to celebrate the province's centennial
A similar statue below was unveiled in Ottawa years before. Here she rides atop Burmese, her favourite horse, which was donated to Her Majesty by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1969

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The Household Cavalry

Members of The Household Cavalry, The Life Guards regiment, and their horses enjoy a break from ceremonial duties with a gallop in the surf along Holkham Beach, Holkham, Norfolk, 22 July 2008. The regiment is currently on a three week summer training camp at Bodney Camp.

Following the gallop along the beach, members of The Household Cavalry take their horses for a swim. The Household Cavalry, which consists of The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st The Royal Dragoons) in Britain (the Governor-General Horse Guards in Canada is the only other Household Cavalry regiment), provides The Queen's Life Guard daily and Sovereign's Escort on State occasions, mounted on horseback. The King's Troops, Royal Horse Artillery, whilst a mounted and ceremonial regiment of the Household Division, is strictly speaking an artillery formation, not a cavalry one.

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Tails and Toppers at Royal Ascot

Proper Toppers may be a thing of the past, but at the Royal Ascot races they are de rigeur. Read Royal Ascot: gentlemen prefer toppers

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall ride down the racecourse at the start of this year's Royal Ascot, 17th-21st June 2008. Royal Ascot is the high fashion event in the summer social calendar, steeped in history, tradition, heritage and pageantry dating back to 1711 when it was founded by Queen Anne.

The jewel in Ascot’s crown, Royal Ascot attracts over 300,000 racegoers each year, to view the splendour and colour of five days of the finest racing, fashion and glamour. The course is closely associated with the British Royal Family, being approximately six miles from Windsor Castle, and owned by the Crown Estate.

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