As the picture suggests, today’s theme was fog, fog and more fog….
The Silverton met at Ford farm on the edge of Silverton today, with a field of about thirty riders. With our landy out of action for repairs we were only able to take a much smaller team out in one of our cars. We knew it was going to be a challenge for our one foot team to keep up with the hunt, but we’d still rather give it a go than not sab at all.
Santa arrived at the meet on a quad bike and handed out gifts and chocolates to the riders, terrier men and hunt support. After a lot of standing around, the hunt eventually set off into fields to the south of Ford before curving back round through Greenslinch and into coverts to the north. Under the watchful eyes of our foot sabs they drew blank in every covert either side of the valley, so after one more loop of the area (the Silverton do seem to like going round and round in circles) they headed out to the road.
By this time most of the hunt support had given up and gone home, as thick fog was obstructing their view. The hunt disappeared through the fog into another valley to the north and with huntsman and hounds not making much sound it was difficult to pinpoint their exact location at times. Riders began heading home in dribs and drabs and by 2pm only a few stragglers were left, in addition to the rider who had fallen off her horse and had to hitch a lift on the back of a quad bike.
Hounds could be heard briefly speaking in the vicinity of Ball Copse and Rode Moors but by 3pm the hunt were headed for home. They packed up at Hawkaller, home of the family of hunt master Philip Saunders, who seems to like the sound of his own voice but is extremely unpopular in his local community. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us about him since we first started sabbing this hunt: he seems to have a bit of a reputation! Earlier in the day he showed off by blocking the road with his horse and hitting our vehicle with his riding crop. Footage of the incident and the damage is being handed to the police. Not so clever, Mr Saunders. We do have cameras on our vehicles. At the very end of the day the fog had evidently really got to his head when the cider-swigging pie-botherer enlisted his two young children to block our vehicle on the road after the hunt had packed up.
We wish all our friends and supporters a very happy Christmas!
