Lots of action with the Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt this Christmas along with our Welsh Borders mate. On Christmas Eve we attended their meet in Sandhurst and, despite some trouble from some locals (who were also annoying the hunt when they weren’t offering to sell them bagged foxes) we caught them hunting, in full cry, and spotted the ‘lovely’ Ben Hughes checking out a barn full of hay bales where the fox had sought shelter, fellow terrier man Nick Hodges getting spotted by sabs when he tried to sneakily point out where the fox had run to Mike ‘Pervy’ Smith.
They headed up into the hills and we kept an eye on them the best we could, helping one fox by spraying his line when he ran close by. The wind played havoc with the scent at a couple of points which also helped. We had the usual ‘hounds on roads’ situation. No surprise there! Simon is learning to be more assertive and when one sab made a sarcastic remark about his riding style, Simon replied with an insult which included the C-word. We’re feeling very proud of him…!
Today the hunt were hosted by The George Hotel in Newent. It was a day of bad luck and good calls. Sabs decided not to hold a demo but prioritised pre-spraying areas we thought they might go to (good call as we guessed right). The vehicle broke down (bad luck). But that’s what legs are good for! We had already split up (good call) which meant that someone always knew their location. Then a foot sab lost her phone (bad luck) and whilst finding it the hunt had turned towards her and she spotted terrier men and another quad heading in front of the hunt. With other foot sabs heading her way and keeping tabs on the hunt, she went to find the quads (good call) and found Ben Hufhes , Nick Hodges and friends at an active badger sett (which was heavily targeted during the cull).
With hounds in full cry other sabs stuck with the hunt (good call) and ended up helping the 3 o’clock fox escape. Many thanks to those who were dotted around the countryside nearby checking setts and ‘walking dogs’ as well as those mingling at the meet.
Off home to eat Christmas leftovers and chocolate and wait for the sab who dropped by the Heythrop today, found several blocked setts, had all her car tyres slashed and helped a fox escape whilst her stalkers were still searching for her.
We can’t guarantee a no-kill day (we rarely do) but it wasn’t a bad’un. Lovely to chat to some people at the meet too and to hear comments from people in town like ‘sometimes they lay trails, but they still go after foxes’ and ‘I like seeing the horses and dogs but did you know the still stop up the earths? So they’re still hunting foxes so I stopped supporting them’.