Hit report 7/3/2020
With a few hunts already packing up for the season we headed to Shropshire to support our good friends Shropshire hunt saboteurs who often make the trip to North Wales to give us a hand. Other groups out were Derby hunt saboteurs, Manchester hunt sabs, Liverpool hunt saboteurs and Staffordshire hunt saboteurs.
We headed to what we expected to be the meet of the North Shropshire hunt but they were nowhere to be seen. We were aware of monitors already on the South Shropshire hunt so we then decided to go and give them a little help. It was the closing meet of the season for the South Shropshire so they’d drawn a large crowd at Cound Hall in Eaton Mascott and even had the support of some other hunts still desperate to see one last kill before the season comes to an end.
Unfortunately for the hunt with monitors and many sabs it wasn’t going to be easy for them. Sabs stuck with the huntsman throughout the day, the field riders on the other hand were often left behind as the red coats tried their best to shake off the sabs. Quite early on the equipped terrier men had congregated at the edge of a woodland hoping to dig out a fox to bolt for the hound but sabs put a stop to that in what was to become a very frustrating day for the spade brigade. Some of the field riders were a bit overly merry, one who was completely sozzled used his horse to assault a sab (video to follow). The police as useless as ever didn’t even know it to be illegal to be riding a horse drunk, never mind trying to get them to take action for an assault. The drinks were flowing and alcohol was even given to children on horseback on a public road, something social security may be interested in. The hunt supporters were equally vile, one very strange individual kept referring to his Mother “Send the photo’s to my Mother she doesn’t have many” and “I’m sorry about my behaviour earlier I’m actually a nice person ask my Mother” but sorry Rupert we don’t actually know your Mother. With the huntsmen trying to run away from us, the field riders not knowing what was going on the wasted ones knew even less. The terrier men trying to pick fights and the hunt supporters blocking public highways it was all a bit of a mess for this supposed showpiece event.
All this did not stop the hunt from attempting to kill foxes. As they picked up the scent of a fox the fox bolted just meters from the huntsman an hounds. The huntsman hunted them on, at one point the fox bolted across a road in front of our vehicle and the vehicles of the hunt supporters. As the sabs jumped out the vehicle to give chase a hunt supporter opened her car door into a sab, the hounds ran into someones garden chasing the fox, some of the hounds got stuck in the hedge giving the fox a few extra moments to try escape. The house owner came out wondering what all the commotion was, he wasn’t best pleased and told us the hunt wasn’t welcome on his land. With sabs in chase and trying to call the hounds back, the fox running for its life ran across another road near where sabs had gone to cut them off, sabs attempted to slow down the hounds using citronella to mask the scent of the fox and using voice calls and a gizmo. Some of the riders were rather furious at sab intervention, with one rider waving his whip at a sab. The chase continued but with so many sabs causing quite a distraction the hounds finally lost this fox. The riders positioned on the road watching the huntsman found it was amusing and laughed when he told them they’d chased a fox through gardens. The huntsman still determined to kill then tried putting the hounds back on the line the fox had ran. The huntsman was on foot searching for the fox when they picked up on another scent, this time a vixen but once again this one got away with sabs witnessing the fox run into her den panting. The huntsman worked his way back towards his hound van. One terrier man had packed his quad onto a trailer on the back of his randrover and drove aggressively towards our vehicle as we were reversing out the way, his aggressive driving manner caused him to bump into a rather nice looking 4×4 eeek. With the drunken and frustrated hunt now packing up another terrier man let his frustrations get the better of him as he attended to get into a sab vehicle then tried letting down the tyres.
Thanks for all your support, we’ve used a lot of fuel on our travels so if you are in a position to donate then you can on this here link https://ko-fi.com/nwsabs
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