Michael Richard Farrin was born in to a farming family in the Atherstone Country on the 9th February 1943. He was the eldest of five children from Dick and Peggy Farrin. It was at the time that the legendary Captain Parry was Master and with a well bred pack of hounds on the doorstep it wasn’t going to be long before hunting was to become Michael’s passion. This was probably in no small part due to the experience he was fortunate enough to have when he was just eight years old. He was ploughing a field one day for his father when he saw what looked like a rather well hunted fox running down the hedge side in front of him. It wasn’t long before the Atherstone Hounds were there in full cry and going like the wind. Michael leapt from his tractor ran back to the yard, tacked up his pony and in no time was up with them and in hot pursuit. At the end of the Hunt he came home, put the pony away and returned to his plough. Only to find the tractor was still running! What a wonderful introduction to the chase, for somebody who later in life was to become one of the finest huntsmen in England! It probably also demonstrated that farm work was not necessarily going to be his forte in the future!
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