On Saturday we sabbed the Eggesford Hunt who met at the Hatherleigh carnival as a part of the village’s festivities. Huntsman Jason Marles began the day by heading south to Hatherleigh moor. Sabs kept watch of huntsman, hounds, and riders on the moor, while support on the road blocked in our Land Rover.
Many of the riders apparently found filming sabs to be far more entertaining than following the hunt as several dedicated much of their day to it.
After a short time riding around the moor Jason then headed north to Hatherleigh, where ‘Farming Hero of the Year’ (according to Countryfile anyway, we are less convinced) Helen Dunn and others tried to block sabs on a public road. Our friend disgraced jockey Paul John also made an appearance. Last season he nearly gave himself a heart attack screeching at sabs on a public footpath to leave “his land”, which turned out not to be his land (see video https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/1398598863610510/), and on Saturday he was shoving sabs on a public footpath while claiming it wasn’t a footpath and shouting “I know this land”. He could really do with some lessons in map reading.
It was an extremely stressful day for sabs as many foxes were seen running for their lives, with different teams sometimes spotting different foxes simultaneously. Foxes were seen breaking in front of hunt riders, and hounds were in and out of cry for much of the day. The wet weather was on our side however and hounds found it difficult to stay on the scent of foxes in the waterlogged conditions. Throughout the day sabs covered the paths of foxes with citronella, to mask their scent, and rated the hounds away. One team of sabs made a particularly grim discovery of a pile of newly dead calves dumped in the woods. We have just come out of a badger cull covering nearly all of Devon supposedly in the name of disease control, but if farmers are littering their woodlands with dead cows we have to ask how anyone can possibly think badgers are to blame.
After a tense and soggy day, Jason headed back south towards Hatherleigh moor and packed up relatively early at around half 3. The hunt then hung about as terrier men Seward and Nathan went looking for a hound lost to the north, and then everyone headed home.
Thanks to a visiting sab from Liverpool for their help on the day!
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