Learn how to tie a stock properly

Steps explained...

1. Place middle of stock at throat, then wrap round neck and bring both ends back to chest.

2. Make a simple right-over-left knot. Secure knot with safety pin.

3. Place left side on chest, fold up and over shoulder.

4. Bring right end over and back through fold.

5. Pull ends to make second knot.

6. Either fold down ends neatly over knot and fasten with stock pin on to shirt.

7. Or arrange each side as shown, allowing top of second knot to show within triangle. Fasten with stock pin on to shirt.

Advice from the experts

Show producer Robert Oliver. "I have a things about stocks. They are a very useful piece of attire - as protection and potentially as a bandage. You need to pull them really tight, whichever shape you are tying. "Remember that they are there to protect your neck and, as such, they should be as tight as you can bear.

" I had a hell of a few years ago and went to hospital with my stock still tied. The doctors sasi it saved my neck. The correct position of the pin should be horizontal, although some hunt servants wear them vertically."

"You also need four safety pins, one for each side of the neck to keep the neckband in place. For the two ends that cross over, you need two again."

"For a four-pleat stock, tie it in the same way as a normal stock - they just fill out more - the art is in pinning it back to your hunting shirt"

David Tatlow's head groom Hannah Wain warns against tying stocks in a rush: "I get six horses and ponies ready for a day's hunting, then we head into the house for a bacon sandwich. By the time I've helped David's grandchildren with their stocks, I always seems to be the one not dressed and stocks are impossible to get right when you're running late."

Neat tricks: Starch the stock when ironing - it makes much easier to handle.

To create creases in four-fold stocks; fold in half lengthwise to iron, then fold each side to the crease and iron again. Tie in the same way as normal, unfolding the pleats after the knots round the neck have been tied.

Extract from Horse & Hound.