EVERY couple of years, some newspaper sends a colour writer to Badminton Horse Trials to be “funny”. Invariably, they tell their readers that half a million people were all wearing hats, Barbours and Hunter wellies. Isn’t it hilarious? People not only live in the country: they actually wear clothes suitable for doing so.

Hunter wellies are not a country icon because they make a statement. They are an icon because they do the job they are supposed to do. They keep your feet dry: and if you have much mud in your life, that’s a great start. They also fit properly, don’t fall off, your feet don’t slither about inside them, being proper rubber, they are soft enough to walk about in for long periods of time. What’s more, they are light.

They are more expensive than ordinary wellies: and very decent value for money, too. I write these words having just come in from feeding the horses, removing the Hunters on returning home by means of a boot-jack. This is a device for removing boots that most country people have by the back door.

Hunters are perfect if you have horses to muck out, and I do. They are perfect if you take a black Labrador for a walk on a winter’s day, and I do. I wear Hunters for hours of most days: because they work. Bit of a cliché, I know, but if you go for an original statement here, you end up with blisters and wet feet.

Hunters only start as green. After their first winter, they assume the colour of the country. They are wellies for people who get on with stuff, so I suppose we’ll all get on with finding something else, if we have to. I won’t get sentimental about Hunter’s potential passing, but I don’t yet know whether I shall be able to keep my feet dry when the current pair turns up its toes.

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