We had a busy day last Saturday, sabbing 3 hunts.
We started with the joint meet of the Torrington Farmers and the Stevenstone at Huntshaw neat Little Torrington. For a joint meet the turn-out was poor, with around 10 riders and a similar number of followers. They started out drawing the woods to the west of Huntshaw at Broadridge, with huntsman quickly losing hounds who were then gathered by sabs. After that, the hunt kept the hounds close as they rode through Kennick’s wood. There they lost about half the riders who were unable to cross a fallen tree blocking the path.
Ten minutes later, as the rest of them crossed a low fence, one of the horses got their foot stuck and threw a shoe. The horse seemed to be uninjured but that kind of accident could be fatal, and the hunt knew it, with two of the riders wailing and crying while sabs and other hunt members scrambled to free the horse. We hate to see any animal in distress, so to those crying members of the hunt here’s a tip – if you care about your horse, don’t go out fox hunting! And while you’re at it, try to have some of the same compassion for the wildlife you’re there to kill.
With the field lost, the two Stevenstone redcoats and the Torrington kennelman hacked up the Tarka trail back to the kennels on the edge of Great Torrington without casting out the hounds. A pretty pathethic display but make no mistake, if not for sabs they would have spent the day hunting and killing in that area.
Since there were a few more hours of daylight left, we decided to go to the Lamerton meet at Higher Quither near Chillaton. There we found the hunt, with hounds in cry, not far from the meet, in the woods south west of Liddaton Down. We caught up with the pack marking a badger sett in full view of the hunt. Realising sabs were in the area the hunt moved on and quickly retreated back to the meet. The Lamerton were in a foul mood with terrier man Wayne Bartlett brandishing a spade (which he has “because there’s sheep in the field”) and toothless goon Paul Martin trying to intimidate sabs as we watched them pack up and leave.
All in all a pretty successful day for sabs!
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