86 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



away on a small canal, where I felt sure the boar 

 must come for water. After a wait, just at dusk, 

 I saw my friend come down. He was several 

 hundred yards away. I galloped to him, but he 

 heard the noise and staggered up the bank. In the 

 dark I never found him, nor did I ever see him again, 

 though I searched for a week. I fear he 'must have 

 died. Poor beast, he and his hunt have haunted 

 me in my dreams. 



Hullucky was an unusually bold horse. I 

 suppose the frequent charges, his narrow escapes, 

 and my yelling for a spear upset him. An excited 

 rider is the devil. I rode Hullucky in the Kadir Cup 

 a fortnight later. But he funked, and was beaten 

 by a better man, but a possibly inferior horse that 

 had had no part in the run. It took him a month 

 to get right, but I am glad to say he has killed 

 several pig since in his old form. 



With a knife like Baldock's (see chapter on 

 " Gear ") I should have had no trouble. 



One of the best hunts I ever had lasted two 

 minutes. A big pig had been giving trouble, killing 

 one man and wounding others. I was at lunch 

 with Sir George Luck, then Inspector -General of 

 Cavalry, when I got word from my shikaries that 

 they had marked him down. I made hasty excuses, 

 biked to my house, got the first available horse, and 

 away. I found my men watching a field of wheat and 

 mustard, hip high. As soon as the line started the 

 boar got up in the middle of the field and ran along, 

 bounding above the crop to see what was happening. 

 His big black mass above the yellow and green crop 

 looked well. He saw me at once, and came straight 

 at me. I met the charge with, I thought, a rotten 



