Golden Button Challenge - Britain's craziest horse race

bad news for the down dunning time serving health and safety knicks for the country that brought you cheese rolling the Cresta run and walking slowly towards the enemy has come up with another semi suicidal sport and it has the innocent sounding name of the golden button it's a horse race organized by the lead free humps inspired by the old idea of the steeplechase where you race from church steeple to church steeple taking on any obstacle in your path it attracts crowds of hundreds in a field of more than 60 starters Grand National only has 40 organizer and led brie master of foxhounds David rivers is clearly nervous into the valley of death okay there is something kind of charged by Brigade about this isn't it it's probably the last place you could actually do that and it's amazing how it's captured the imagination because of it I mean you know there's obviously a fair amount of risk involved last year no riders or runners were hurt thank God no horses came back with any injuries at all so we were we were very fortunate the ground is incredible you wouldn't get grain bitterness on any racecourse in Ireland so from that perspective we'd you know there is an element of risk because it's slightly the unknown you don't know what the other riders are you can't read a forum guide I know there are some absolutely world-class jockeys amongst some total amateurs so how many other opportunities do you get to test your wits against Gary Carroll and the like you know we've got sand come on go see one at last year's probably the finest awesome women country here's a keen follower of the Ledbury weighing in I've done one point two point and I was too heavy yeah now read my hunt around baboon rings this is no no this is fantastic no this is the ultimate I mean these are the original point point so what I like about it generally is you can pick your own line these I mean the crown is spot-on it's all old turf has no C's all lovely brown like this near enough for miles of flat-out jumping all sorts of things as well as the horse race there's a running race straight afterwards over the same course and some people take part in both his local point to point jockey ed Bailey yeah that's right I had a good ride round said that plenty of energy for the running race but yeah the Irish love it around the lorries half the voices and all the noisy ones Irish I got a chance ride the horse I ride was in the Melton last week and the girl fell friend of mine the English girl was riding them she broke her hand so I only got called in at last minute to ride him so I sat on on tours therefore the first thing we're going to war that there's 20-something Irish in it and church the challenge we haven't we have a 90 lakid in in Ireland like yeah we hunt it we're gonna hunt Sunday again and for our still alive very good home Sunday there's a blood hound pack of farmers bloodhound pack I think about an hour from here tonight and we probably will before coach would do a Viraj still alive horse is alive and were still alive and the stuff saves me breaking my neck talking to an Irish couple earlier who said every time they've been hunting in Ireland since Christmas they've been people disappearing off I'm trying to find a hedge to jump just to get their horse ready for the golden button so and yes there's a massive take up from Ireland much quicker than we could ever have imagined really you can compare horses to cars flash racing horses are the Formula one speed machines national hunt horses are more like World Rally Championship the horse you need for the golden button is like something out of Mad Max and then there's Tito what can you say about Tito well he's ambitious yeah he's in the show we're not here to compete we're here to take over you gotta watch out for the little ones they're the ones with the big points you know this horse is is half cop and he's the other half is Arabian yeah he doesn't realize that he's only a little small horse he thinks that he's a big horse that she'll be out there with all the Toro breads and yeah he's opinionated and yeah he's a local Poli and he's here too - do we thing and probably if I stay with him and don't do a stupid I think I'll be there finisher dare belts I'm here because Niki Sadler who works for field-sports Channel follows the LED Barry she talks me through the parade panic I'll be sick I think if I was been so nervous especially some of these guys Nicki spots ray and Tito and they clearly have no truck with this walking around in circles thing I'm not walking at this point why I stand here to chill out it's amazing there are some quite small horses here small horse big heart I think it's fantastic really great but then there are some proper racing snakes and they look like there's some really great hunters too but I would imagine that only be you know 20 people max that are in it to win it yeah the horses make their way to the start so let's settle back and watch the race unfold [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] ladies better than sex no it's huge it was huge there was the loose horses carnage everywhere they were now it's brilliant he's just a machine he just likes being in front he just jumps he's just an absolute babe and that last was the incredible Yvonne Goss winner second year running so what happened to tato absolutely wipe me out English or Irish English bad lads there's always next year and the good news is that no horse was injured and the air ambulance came out and he wants to take a jockey with a broken ankle to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital so that's a result and can I say thanks to my filming team of Charlie rivers and Stuart's Du Bois both of them who have their own YouTube channels who put cameras on the fences and captured that beautiful drone footage for more about the Ledbury hunt go to Ledbury hunt dot-com

Channel: Fieldsports Channel

Views: 120,789

Rating: 4.5419502 out of 5

Keywords: horse race, amateur jockey, ledbury hunt, david redvers, steeplechase, yvonne goss, golden button challenge, united utilities, golden button, #ledburygoldenbutton

Id: aX7_oUtOKoU

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019