The Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt had their opening meet at Apperley Court today. This part of their country is within the Gloucestershire cull zone so some of our sabs were out early doing some sett-checking to ensure their was no damage to setts, etc.

With it being another wet day, the scenting conditions weren’t fantastic for much of the afternoon and with us being out, the hunt went inland and tried to stay away from us, meaning their car support were left on nearby roads without much to look at… Martin Bingham (aka Turkey) kept driving by us and grinning and it was only when another supporter pulled up on his bike and had a go at him for drink-driving that he decided to go home. We believe it was a slight exaggeration on the part of the guy on the bike, but Martin was apparently “upside down in a ditch” and all the cars on the road had to stop for him until he got his vehicle out. He was told to “get home!” because the other hunt supporter didn’t want him getting picked up by the police… Surely the most responsible thing would have been someone parking up his 4×4 for him somewhere safe and giving him a lift home and not just allowing him back on to the main roads to drive all the way back to Longhope! The police were called to inform them. Once the other supporter realised who we were, he wasn’t quite so happy to talk openly about what Turkey had done as he didn’t “want anything to do with you people” as he yelled at us when we asked if he was ok at one point.

Cotswold Vale hounds are rather well-known for rioting on deer, regardless of which huntsman is with the pack at the time, although the hunt do try to call the hounds off when they do so. Still, we made sure we caught a deer on film when it ran away from where the pack were and were glad when the hounds weren’t following directly behind. Soon enough though, they had picked up on its scent, but did not give chase. Around the same time, a fox was spotted by one of the riders who, seemingly unaware of our presence, shouted “Tally-ho Back!” and raised his hand to show the huntsman where the fox had run. Another fox then ran past the rider and a couple of the hounds showed an interest. Luckily at this point, other hounds appeared to pick up on the scent of the deer again which confused the pack and the hunt did not give chase to either once sabs had made their presence known in the field.

Nick Hodges and Ben Hughes were obviously getting bored at this point as they hid up behind a nearby tree and started getting spades out of the box on the quad-bike, giggling like school-girls when a sab made her way through a bramble-filled ditch to go and check up on them. “We thought the others might be stupid enough to come through there, but we didn’t think you were that stupid. Would you like a lift back on the quad?” The sab chose to go back through the ditch… In other news, Nick Hodges has grown some interesting facial hair recently.

The hunt packed up as it started to get dark and the roads started getting really busy and they hacked back to the horse-boxes along the busy road… Not the most intelligent thing to do now was it Simon?! All-in-all not the most eventful day, although we did lose them on and off through the day, so perhaps they were having a jolly old time somewhere else…