DCHS teamed up with Storm Dennis to give the Eggesford a hard time at one of their busier meets, Park Farm on the edge of Winkleigh. Several kills were prevented by sabs despite persistent aggression from hunt staff, riders, and followers.
After drawing blank in the first covert of the day, Rack Brake, huntsman Jason Marles took hounds west in direction of Collacott Barton where he cast the pack into a large patch of gorse. They have previously bolted foxes from this location, so we positioned teams strategically so that they’d be able to intervene if this happened again. After drawing blank in the gorse, the assembled hunt headed in direction of Bullow Brook, south of the meet.
Countryfile’s ‘Farming Hero of the Year’, Helen Dunn, rode her horse into a sab as she was walking down a field, and when sabs made their way along the footpath between Park Farm and Collacott Barton they continued to be blocked and ridden into by the Eggesford cavalry. This set the tone for the day whenever sabs encountered riders on footpaths or roads. We will be sharing a video soon to show you the arrogance and violence we face from Eggesford riders on a regular basis. It’s obviously unrealistic to expect a bunch of fox-hunters to care about the welfare of any animal, but we do wish they’d refrain from using their horses as weapons to ride people down.
The hounds headed east along Bullow Brook and soon put up a fox. The fox broke covert, ran across a field and through a hedge into the next field. As foot sabs were being held back by hunt members, our vehicle navigator ran in on her own to rate the hounds back. She too was ridden at and then assaulted by a hunt follower. Other sabs who tried to get close were driven at by quads and manhandled by the terriermen. Meanwhile Jason put hounds onto the fox’s line and they headed north in direction of Park Farm. We challenge anyone who maintains that the Eggesford are a legal ‘trail hunt’ to explain what can be seen clearly in our footage. Fortunately, the strong winds meant that hounds lost the scent at the top of the hill and this fox got away.
Sabs spotted huntsman and hounds a few minutes later in the valley between Abbotsham and West Brushford Farm. A fox was hunted north towards Abbotsham Moor and a team of runners caught up with the pack at a badger sett. Sabs overheard a hilarious radio conversation between Jason and his terriermen Seward, Nathan and Victor, who joined sabs at the sett. An irate Jason accused his terriermen of being useless and making him look like a prick. “Are you telling me the antis got to the hounds before you did?”… They don’t call them hunt Masters and servants for no reason!
Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/205212800562576/
With one dig-out prevented, hounds eventually headed back to Jason. He cast them out into the valley north of Batelease and it wasn’t long before they put up another fox. This one was seen running from hounds with just meters in between them. Quick action from a team of skilled sabs who ran in to rate the hounds gave the fox a few seconds head start. At Abbotsham Moor hounds stopped in a large patch of brambles. Jason tongue-rolled to keep the fox from breaking covert and hounds began speaking intermittently as they made their way through the dense undergrowth. One sab battled his way into the brambles to find hounds gathered around and marking a small sett in the middle of it.
Realising that sabs weren’t going to let the hounds get to that fox, Jason took the pack back to the road. He linked up with the rest of the hunt and headed by road and then through several fields of lambs first to Kitchadon and then to Great Wood and Burrowcleave. Sabs repositioned. A team in Burrowcleave caught up with hounds just as they flushed a fox from dense undergrowth and were able to rate the pack to buy the fox some time.
Eventually the pack carried on following the fox’s line to the north, looping around towards Kitchadon, where another team of sabs were waiting and witnessed them mark the fox to ground in a large badger sett on the edge of a steep woodland. Jason was on foot with the hounds, praising them, and a standoff ensued between sabs and terriermen at the sett, but the latter eventually gave up. Another dig-out prevented.
We lost the hunt for a while as we picked up our various foot teams but found them again at Nymet Rowland, where they were heard in cry hunting parallel to the River Taw and the railway line. Sabs entered the nearest field as Jason was gathering the pack and followed him back into the village via a field of worried sheep. Why, out of all the routes he could have taken back to the road, he chose to upset the sheep at Parsonage Farm we have no idea. The hunt hacked all the way back to the kennels, followed by our persistent runners, while our vehicle was being blocked by quad bikes.
A very long and tiring but successful day for us. Tempers were running high amongst the hunt all day but maybe one day they’ll learn that their aggression only makes us more determined!