*** Fox chased by North Cotswold Hunt hounds ***
If you like what we do, please support us by sharing our page and posts and financially if possible at paypal.me/threecountiessabs Thank you!
The hunt met at Carey’s Farm in Taddington this morning, not far from where they met last week for their opening meet at Springhill House. Much of the day was the same route as last Saturday but in reverse as hounds ended up in Bourton Down, Toads Corner, The Warren… all very familiar places.
We started the day early by checking on known setts in the area and happily found none blocked – since the police took notice of our sett-blocking data last season we have seen a massive reduction in incidents. But we’re certainly not letting our guard down around the hunts. Some setts have obviously been hit hard by the hunts, landowners and by the cull where others are thriving and healthy.
Having passed on a tip-off about the Ledbury South hunting at Caradoc Court to our good friends in Bristol Hunt Saboteurs this left a decent little group of us to deal with the North Cots. As the hunt set off from the meet hunt staff asked riders to block the road so our vehicle couldn’t get through – one rider obviously didn’t get the memo as she was asking for others to let us through repeatedly. Foot sabs got inland straight away, being threatened by one rider on a byway that we would be kicked if we wanted to pass. Charming. We carried on regardless and filmed a lead hound pick up on a fox as the hunt drew through a crop field and the pack chased him into a wood. With sabs inland, driver watching from the road and another sab able to run out from the car we stayed on them well as they hunted, keeping an eye on terriermen as well throughout the day.
Just like last week, hounds picked up in Toads Corner where we found that an old artificial earth had been put back into use, sabs being followed all the while by hunt staff on a quad. Hounds picked up and hunted at speed away from us, driver radio’ing through to say she thought they were marking to ground near Bourton Down. Driving down she saw a panicked terrierman on the phone and huntsman swiftly took the pack away to hunt elsewhere. We’d only just dried off from the first heavy downpour when the rain began again, the scent of a beautiful big dog fox washing away up on the hills as the pack missed him.
Toads Corner again. We’d already seen several muntjac running from the hunt today and yet there were more to come. The artificial earth had been scratched around and bricks moved but the hunt moved out again as foot sabs turned up. Some more blocking of our vehicle on the road… and we lost them for a short while.
An eagle-eyed sab spotting a fox, and then a deer, running across a road alerted us to the presence of the hunt in a wood back near the meet and a different mix of us headed inland on foot. Hounds were heard picking up and another large fox sped past us through a wood, two sabs slowing hounds down behind them then another sab stopping the pack as they exited the wood. Huntsman re-cast them and encouraged them on to the line, shrugging when told that we had fox on camera, but the fox had a good headstart by this time. Despite losing his pack and them splitting into 2 groups, running on to a road with no one near to control them or slow down traffic and despite encouraging them again once back with the hounds, fox escaped into a nearby large wood and the chase was abandoned as the light was quickly fading.
A very grumpy huntsman was seen waiting for the houndbox in Snowshill before we headed home to dry off and debrief.