ANY book that leaves its reader all the better for the experience is one to be treasured and Noel Mullins’ third and latest book, The Irish Hunter, is a truly smashing publication with over 500 great equestrian photographs.

Mullins, who has previously written Horse Tales & Hunt Talk and The Origins of Irish Horse Fairs & Horse Sales, spent three years writing and compiling this book which draws on his huge archive of photographs, taken over two decades, from all over Ireland, Europe and America.

The result is a book of brilliant colour, action and movement with a wonderful mix of factual information about the Irish horse world and hunting scene but that strikes just the right note in bringing to the fore some of the great characters, both human and horse.

The essential concept of the book is to pay tribute to the great horse that is the true Irish hunter, renowned in the field for temperament, soundness and for finding that essential “fifth leg’’ to carry his rider with the greatest degree of safety possible across country.

One of the striking images in the book is of stag hunting carved into the Kells High Cross dating from the 9th century, illustrating the historic significance of hunting to Ireland and how it has been bred into the native horses down through the centuries.

The diverse Irish countryside can throw up everything from stone walls, steep banks and deep drains, not to mention wire, baths, church pews - in short, everything bar the kitchen sink - to rider and horse and the book celebrates the extraordinary ability of the good Irish hunter to take it all in his stride.

The book also features the Dublin Horse Show and the iconic Connemara Pony Show as well as outlining the origins of horses in Ireland and the early breed types, following how they evolved into the horses we see today excelling at hunting, show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, endurance and a myriad of leisure/pleasure activities.

With forewords by hunting stalwarts, chairman of Horse Sport Ireland, Professor Pat Wall and Hugh Leonard, chairman of the Traditional Irish Horse Association, the tone is set for a great journey through the eight-part 200-page tome which also includes sections on side saddle and Ireland as a nation of horse dealers and the National Hunt racing scene.

Noel, who first hunted with the Galway Blazers at the age of eight, has been submitting hunt report and photographs to The Irish Field for over 30 years. His abiding interest in hunting, its people and packs, throughout Ireland, France, Italy and America, come to the fore in this publication which is bound to thrill and delight its readers.

(The Irish Hunter is available at www.noelmullins.com or www.noelmullinsbooks.com)

I.H.