Martha, Lady Sitwell, on 10 years of hunting sideways — and why you’ll never see her in a pair of stretchy breeches. As told to Flora Watkins

I had a bad belly-up at 13, hunting a young horse. I broke my back and neck, and my horse, whom I adored, was fatally injured. I didn’t ride again for many years, then got married and was taken to live in Northamptonshire where I didn’t know anyone. It was really lonely.
I’d be walking my dogs and the hunt would come hooning past — they were all so smiley and friendly, I thought, “You have to man up and get back on a horse.”