A sab arrived early in Chastleton at 9.30, but then so did Heythrop stalkers.
The Heythrop are a big hunt so only 50 in the mounted field was by far the smallest seen for one of the biggest days of the hunting calender.
The boxes were parked up on National Trust land and as can be seen quad bikes, without regs, were also driven across the land.
The first port of call was to an unnamed wood where (suprise, suprise) there is an artificial earth. A fox was hunted from there but the sun seemed to effect the scent and he had clearly run through a field of sheep in order to foil his scent. The hounds ran amongst the sheep and were very steady, paying them no heed (unlike some hunts we could mention) but the sheep were clearly very scared.
At Harcomb wood a very clear “Gone Away” was heard towards Chastleton. In hunting language this means that a fox has left the covert, there is no call for it in trail hunting.
Huntsman Charlie Frampton then tried to lift the pack and take them to where the person on point had seen the fox. Some hounds had a different idea as they hunted a second fox who was very small and jumped the stock fencing. At that moment a rider passed him heading him back into the hounds. He escaped… but only just.
The hunt went after the first fox an were lost at Evenlode. It was the usual off to Adlestrop, Peasewell (where they killed in front of us in 2012), Evenlode, etc. They were last seen at Stuphill covert heading to Evenlode.
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