CONSIDERING she has tackled the formidable fences at both Badminton and Burghley international horse trials four times each, event rider Natasha Wheeler is obviously up for a challenge.

But now she is facing possibly her most difficult yet, because the 30-something from Hartlebury, near Stourport-on- Severn, has taken over hunting the Worcestershire Hounds for the rest of the season.

This follows a serious injury to the Worcestershire’s professional huntsman Ian Starsmore in late November, from which recovery will take a while, and it will make Natasha only the third woman huntsman of a major pack of hounds in the UK.

She said: “It’s exciting, but very daunting too, because you know everyone is watching. All eyes are on you and I’ve no doubt I will make mistakes. It’s a very steep and a very public learning curve.”

For those who don’t know, the job of a huntsman is to control and guide the pack of hounds on a hunting day, both through use of the hunting horn and by using the voice. To assist there is a whipper-in. Both wear red coats and are usually distinguished from the rest of the riders by carrying white whips with white leather thongs.

Natasha has been hunting since she started riding as a child, coming up through the competitive ranks of the Albrighton Woodland Pony Club and on into the advanced eventing world, making her Badminton debut in 1994 on Discovery Bay.

In 1993 she joined the joint mastership of the Albrighton Woodland Hunt and served for six seasons.

After stepping down, she continued her association with the Woodies by acting as amateur whip to popular huntsman Austin James, which is how she began her introduction to hound control.

The pack, which is kennelled at Hurcott, near Kidderminster, is now hunted by its master Peter Swann, but when he was injured in a fall last season, Natasha stepped up to carry the horn for two months until he recovered.

She said: “I loved it, although hunting the Worcestershire is rather different. For a start I knew the Albrighton Woodland country like the back of my hand, whereas before I joined the Worcestershire mastership in 2006, I had only had the odd day with them. There was a lot to learn. There were whole areas of the Worcestershire Hunt country I had never even ridden over.”

In theory, the Worcestershire country stretches from Eardiston, near Tenbury Wells, across to the M40 as it sweeps south near Henley-in-Arden.

Although, of course, a lot of it has never seen a pack of hounds and even less sees them these days as the urban sprawl increases. By comparison, the Albrighton Woodland country is much smaller, covering north and east of Kidderminster until it reaches the industrial West Midlands.

While the Albrighton Woodland keeps about 25 couple of hounds in kennel, the Worcestershire has 37.

Natasha said: “I hardly knew any of their names.

Sam Staniland (the Worcestershire’s professional whipper-in) was a great help. I went to the kennels and he gradually introduced me. As ever, you learn the cheeky ones first, then the distinctive coloured ones, then the rest. You get to know the ones you can really trust and those that are sometimes a bit too enthusiastic for their own good. But it all takes time and I didn’t have much.”

At the time of Ian Starsmore’s accident, the Worcestershire hounds were suffering from the cough and were off hunting – Ian had his fall following a visiting pack from the North Ledbury, which was screaming across the fields just below Sailor’s Bank at Lower Broadheath, near Worcester – but they resumed a few days later and Natasha found herself trotting through Crowle village on the way to a meet at the home of former hunt chairman Peter Fletcher followed by a 14-and-a-half couple of hounds, all of which were virtual strangers to her.

She said: “Because of the tightness of the country and the number of roads, the Albrighton Woodland hounds are very biddable.

They have been bred that way and they stop quite quickly. On the other hand, the Worcestershire is a more free-flowing pack because it has more room.

The difference takes some getting used to.”

Fortunately the first draws looking for a trail were on the farm of a good local hunting farmer and it was a sound place to start.

By the time hounds reached the depths of deep and muddy Bow Wood they were steady and settled. The day went well. However, Boxing Day threw up an altogether unexpected problem.

Traditionally hunting’s biggest day of the season, the Worcestershire drew a mounted field of 140 riders and several thousand spectators to its meet at the Raven Hotel in Droitwich.

Natasha said: “It wasn’t until I was sitting with hounds at the meet that someone told me it was tradition that as we made our way from the hotel and up Hanbury Road, a man would emerge from one of the houses and offer the huntsman a full glass of whisky. You’re supposed to down it in one go – and I don’t drink. I protested, but in the end I had to give in. I was handed this whisky and I shut my eyes and just thought of Ian. I thought: ‘This one’s for you, Ian. For Heaven’s sake get better soon.’ I thought of him a few minutes later too, when I felt sick.”

The good news is that after fracturing the base of his skull in his fall, Ian Starsmore is now back home and making a remarkable recovery