Coed Coch estate

HIT REPORT 28/9/21

Joined by our friends Shropshire Wildlife Protection we headed to Coed Coch estate in Dolwen Conwy where we bumped into the Flint and Denbigh hunt… we’re pretty sure the F&D would prefer to avoid these chance encounters. With horseboxes still arriving at the estate word must have got through to the huntsman that we were on scene as he tried to do a runner leaving the riders behind, unfortunately for Medcalf he tried to escape via an entrance that we had headed for. Medcalf headed up a footpath into the same woodland that he chased a fox in last time they were here, as we followed the huntsman and hounds the terrier men appeared from the top of the woodland, hmmm wonder what they were doing up there. Rob the terrier man was more his usual self today, on Saturday when he was on his own we didn’t get a word out of him, but now he had his BBF Wilson with him he was back to the name calling sly digs and hard man dirty looks, nice to have you back Rob……

The terrain in Dolwen is pretty hard going, steep hills with lots of woodland. The hunt headed up through the steep Coed Cardi onto the road and across up into Coed Uchaf with sabs right behind them. When we reached the top the green bib wearing smokescreen also known as “trail layers” were seen just sat on their horses nowhere near where the hunt went all day, that was the last we saw of the “trail layers” as they packed up once to rain started to come down. The hunt were now in a valley in Coed Glyn-Lws the hounds had gone into cry but had appeared the lose the foxes scent as by now if was absolutely chucking it down. The riders who had been stood on-point in the field above the valley had now joined the rest of the hunt down on a path that went through Coed Glyn-Lws but that was last we saw of the field riders who had decided to pack in already. That left just the Huntsman his 2 hopeless whippers the terrier men and one of the huntsmasters.

But now with the riders not slowing him down Medcalf saw his as an ideal opportunity to hunt hard. Medcalf and whipper Wilby with most their hounds headed to Mynydd Branan, Toby the other whip was left behind in search of lost hounds with his calls being heard for miles echoing around the valleys. Medcalf Wilby and Briggs then headed back down to Coed Cardi, this is where things got a bit frantic. The hounds went into cry as we were heading down the steep embankment of Coed Cardi, the huntsman blowing his horn hunting the hounds on, some of the hounds had crossed the road into a smaller wooden area in pursuit of the fox, but sabs were using voice calls and horn call to call the hounds off. All seemed well as the hounds had lost the fox but Medcalf wasn’t going to give up on this one….. He took the hounds back up Coed Cardi to try again and once again they picked up on the line of the fox as they went into cry again, but once again they had a similar result. More hounds were lost by now as they rioted through people’s gardens. We had told Medcalf earlier in the day to stay away from a certain property as last year they had rioted through a gentleman’s garden who was very upset as he has cats in his garden. But clearly Medcalf couldn’t care less. Not only had the hunts riders long left by now but Medcalf had lost half the pack of hounds and both his whippers. Wilby was off his horse on his phone asking Medcalf where he’d gone. With the whips looking for lost hounds and now also a lost huntsman, Medcalf still attempted the hunt with his half a pack of hounds. Medcalf was trying to hunt near Deneyfryn hounds did go briefly into cry but probably through a combination of being a mediocre huntsman and the torrential rain he failed again. It wasn’t until around 11.45 about 3hrs after his hunt riders had left that Medcalf headed back into Coed Coch estate to pack up.

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