An interesting day out with the Ledbury Hunt today who met at the Robin Hood in Castlemorton, right by the Malvern Hills. Soon after arriving at the meet (and having to do the job of the whippers-in for them, keeping the hounds off the road and slowing down cars) we were joined by Bath Hunt Saboteurs and Bristol Hunt Saboteurs. The hunt set off first for the Common, back to an area where they encouraged the hounds on to a fox just a few weeks back.

This time, however, the hunt headed right up in to the hills, trying to put some distance between us and them. Foot sabs went inland, some checking on known setts in the area and two 3C sabs decided to keep an eye on the quadbikes (one which had terriers on it). We caught up with them quickly and some of the guys called the others, telling them to “get the dogs out and f**king get out of there” (or something along those lines…). The other quad soon returned and they sped off back down the hill, sabs finding a badger sett when they followed the tracks back.

The quads came back for a second go just as we were leaving the area, so back up the hill we ran, stopping a second attempt to flush / dig-out. Meanwhile, Bristol and Bath sabs were keeping an eye on the hunt which had gone back down towards the Common. Once we were sure the quads weren’t coming back yet again, we started to make our way back to the hunt, hoping we’d made the right call to leave. Suddenly, hounds were speaking and seemed to be coming towards us. Getting to a good vantage point, one sab noticed the fox first and ran to cover his line with citronella spray, the other filming and informing the rest of the sabs. The fox gave himself a decent headstart, hounds being stalled further when they reached the citronella, but huntsman Mark Meladay soon encouraged them on to where he thought the fox had run, telling the sab with the spray that he would knock him the f**k out.

And so back into the hills. Another 3C sab radio’d through to say she’d head up to the area where the terriermen had gone for the sett with another sab whilst the rest headed into the hills with us. Terriermen were once again spotted in an area, so one of us climbed a hill to flush them out, ensuring no more dig-out attempts were in play. Meanwhile we believe the fox gave hounds the slip and they were now drawing an area right by the British Camp, hoofprints all over footpaths next to signs stating “no horseriding on this footpath”. Locals, families, walkers and bikeriders were commenting on the hunt, in particular the sinister appearance of masked men speeding around on quadbikes with no number plates…

Some more drawing took place back down near the Common once more and there was a small discussion regarding public vs private land (FYI the Ledbury still haven’t apologised to the landowner in Eldersfield whose land they trespassed on on Christmas Eve) leaving a 3C sab with a bust lip, but very little more happened with regards to chasing foxes from then on, hounds not picking up properly again. The hunt packed up around 4 o’clock, supporters and terriermen obviously feeling frustrated as they threw a container of urine over the 3C driver as she picked up her car, burning her eye as it was highly concentrated, just as the hunt were about to pack up…

All in all a pretty decent day, good teamwork and good calls made. Thanks to our friends from Bath and Bristol for coming over for the day, it was a good’un! To give us a hand getting out to the Ledbury more often, share or donate with this link: paypal