Yesterday we sabbed the Eggesford who met at Goldburn, south of Jacobstowe. We know the area well: one long boggy valley full of deer, difficult to traverse for horses and sabs on foot. However, we had four foot teams out who persevered despite heavy wind and rain and kept tabs on the hunt all day, with many foxes seen to safety.
Jason Marles began by riding along the road north from the meet and entering hounds at the Jacobstowe end of the valley that runs back towards the meet. Immediately hounds picked up on the scent of a fox and ran south where they eventually marked a fox to ground near Parsonage Wood. Several foot sab teams were on hand to rate the hounds and spray the line of another fox seen fleeing from the area.
Eventually the hounds turned back north from Great Stewardstone and got onto another line in the junction of several streams, this time hunting back north. Jason had become separated from the pack and eventually resurfaced on the road near West Risdon, asking supporters if they knew which way his pack had gone. It took him the next hour to find the hounds, who had chased a fox across the road south of Jacobstowe down towards the main River Okement. Jason decided to ditch his horse and jump on the back of a quad to look for his hounds.
It became apparent that the land the hounds were on was somewhere the hunt did not have permission to be. The landowner shouted to keep the hounds away from his sheep, but small groups of hounds were rioting all over the place, spooking not only sheep, but large groups of ponies and other animals that were caught up in the chaos.
With Jason driving around looking busy on the road between Jacobstowe and Exbourne, sabs decided to step in and gather some of the rioters. Horn and voice calls were used to good effect to collect up most of the pack. Eventually Jason arrived on foot and, with no word of thanks to sabs for doing his job for him, took the pack back to the road.
The assembled hunt headed off towards West Risdon and we assumed they’d try their luck somewhere different but hounds were entered yet again into the same long valley they had hunted pretty much all day.
This time Jason cast them out amongst some tree saplings on the edge of Lamerton Coverts. A fox bolted from the woods and was chased by hounds towards Parsonage Wood and further south towards Great Stewardstone.
Three foot teams were on hand to stop them in their tracks: one team running after the hounds and directing other sabs to strategic points ahead of them, another rating hounds further on as they tried to squeeze through a narrow run under a fence (this caused Jason to lose his shit and drag one sab away by the harness of his body cam), and another team stopping the hounds again a few fields away. Thanks to effective intervention from sabs, the pack had well and truly lost the scent, much to Jason’s frustration.
That was enough for him to call it a day at just after 3pm.