Back out to the Ledbury Hunt today (Friday 5th February 2016) who met in Hasfield and always interesting to see that they haven’t changed their ways at all. Once again we were joined by close friends North Shropshire Sabs and were pleased to have had some good information passed to us by anti-cull people active in the Hasfield area during the recent badger culls as all local knowledge really helps.
Towards the start of the day, whipper-in Tim Pearce-May’s girlfriend ‘Han Clift’, said something about being put online in the past, but it was obviously something that made little lasting impact as we don’t remember mentioning her before. She doesn’t want to be put online. So she probably shouldn’t have blocked the sab car on the road whenever she saw it today, driving at less than 5mph whenever she did decide to move. The agreement is that if you don’t do anything naughty, you don’t get put up online. She already knew that…
Hounds were speaking on and off all day, sometimes losing the scent, sometimes going for long chases, a couple of times marking to ground – once in an area they were not supposed to be in (surprise, surprise) and it got to an embarrassing point where it took a long time for hunt staff to call the hounds back out. Charlie and Oscar, the terriermen, were around for the whole day (on public roads, no number plate), terrier in tow. Well, terrier in box. Once hounds were (finally) gathered and moved on from where they had marked, they gave chase across the road, sab in pursuit, and lost the scent in a farm… Oscar had to try and push a lone sab into a puddle to make himself feel like a big man. Poor thing.
The drain under the road in Tirley where a fox ran to shelter during cubbing and which we found blocked with rocks at the Ledbury Opening Meet in November was once again blocked – this time with a great slab of stone. Another drain at which we found terriermen with a terrier marking a fox earlier this season had also been blocked at one end with a stave.
In the Corse area, sabs saw a fox running to safety across a road and sprayed the area with citronella. We believe there was a brace of foxes, however, and sabs stayed with hounds to try and ensure the other was not killed. Other than a little silliness regarding the exciting proposal to let our car tyres down (the idea seemed less appealing when the car camera was spotted – footage heading to the authorities soon) and some rather funny insults – “go home you prat” being a favourite for the day – we didn’t have too many issues.
As always, we can’t guarantee a no-kill day as it can only take one hound and a matter of seconds to kill a fox or the disappearance of the quad bike for more than 5 minutes for a life to be taken, but not a bad comeback to the hunt after a couple of car-less weeks. Don’t worry Mark Meladay, we’ll make sure to come visit every week until the end of the season now!
