Last Saturday we continued the theme of sabbing joint meets by paying a visit to the North Cornwall and South Tetcott Hunts at Tetcott village hall. After popping round to say hello to the neighbouring (confusingly named!) Tetcott Hunt at Hersham, North Devon Wildlife and Hunt Monitors also came over to Tetcott to team up with us for the joint meet.
The booze was flowing at this meet, with even a child seen carrying of a bottle of whisky. It wasn’t long before one inebriated hunt rider fell off her horse from a stationary position.
With the North Cornwall being the visiting pack, it was their huntsman Gareth Frain doing the hunting. We wondered if his court appearance for illegal hunting last year might make him want to play it safe with sabs around, and he did seem reluctant to actively hunt in front of us for at least the first hour. When hounds put up a stag near Luffincott they were promptly called off, and a quadbike rider was diligently instructed to lay a ‘trail’ for the benefit of our cameras as the hounds were cast out through Luffincott Wood. Hounds completely ignored the ‘trail’ though (there’s a surprise) and continued to draw blank in the woods and valleys north and south of Rushybank. Perhaps they ought to revisit Mark Hankinson’s trail-hunting webinars, specifically the bit about remembering to apply the magic smokescreen fluid to the rag.
On their way to Lanamoor Plantation the hunt passed through a farmyard where two farm collies made a valiant attempt to chase off the pack. Gareth Frain responded by riding at the poor dogs and cracking his whip. Around Kempthorne is where the pace picked up. Hounds were in and out of cry in the valley and multiple foxes, deer and hares were seen fleeing the area. A fox was hunted to ground in a small sett, which the monitors diligently protected for the rest of the day.
Sabs intervened on multiple occasions in this area to rate hounds off the scent and cover the fox’s tracks. A little while later another fox was flushed from the valley and coursed by hounds across the road towards Moortown Plantation. Unfortunately this fox had no more than a few metres head start and we’re unable to confirm whether this fox got away.
At Gunnacott hounds chased another farm dog and Frain responded by beating them with his whip. The hunt then headed back in direction of the meet and we were hopeful they were packing up, as deep fog was starting to descend over the area. However, they snuck out the back of the meet into the valley between Tetcott and Beardown Plantation where another fox was seen running for their life. This fox had a decent head start on the hounds and sabs called, sprayed and rated to make sure this one was able to get away.
As so often happens at this time of year, it turned out one half of the pack had got onto the line of a second fox, flushed from the same area. Foot sabs found about a dozen hounds marking the fox to ground at a badger sett.
Having failed to catch either of the last two foxes, Frain finally returned to the meet and sabs continued guarding setts until it got dark and every member of the hunt had left. On the way back to the meet, one of the terriermen kicked a sab, a sure sign of frustration over having been sabbed!
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