On Saturday we visited the Tetcott Hunt at their kennels at Rowden on the edge of Kilkhampton. Earlier this season the Tetcott and South Tetcott Hunts were advertising for a huntsman for next season, suggesting a potential merger was on the cards. From what we’re hearing, however, things have soured on that front, and if Saturday’s meet is anything to go by, the Tetcott are hanging on by a thread.
With just 3 riders and a handful of hunt support in attendance at this meet and in the face of heavy wind and rain, we knew from the outset that our main challenge was going to be keeping eyes on them. The pre-hunt speech was directed at our foot sabs who were told that “trails had been laid” and that if we saw any foxes being chased then we should let a member of the hunt know straight away and they would call the hounds off. We were also pleased to be told that the hunt would not be tolerating anyone giving us any hassle. We may be on opposite sides of the hunting debate, but this was genuinely refreshing.
The smokescreen was strongly undermined by the presence of terriermen on a quadbike equipped with terriers and spades. When we asked what role they played on a trail-hunt, we were met with blank stares. Shortly after leaving the meet, sabs encountered a woman in wellies with a sock attached to some string who was keen for us to film her laying a trail. Unfortunately, the hounds bypassed the field she was in and she ended up quite far behind the action.
The hunt crossed the valley south of Lower Broxwater without even casting hounds out and then headed north where hounds began speaking around West Youlstone. The pack appeared to be headed in full cry away from everyone else in direction of Wrasford Moor, a dense and boggy conifer plantation. Foot sabs repositioned so they could see all sides of the plantation and we’re certain that no human (never mind someone in wellies!) would have been able to weave in and out of the impenetrable northern and eastern boundary of the plantation like the hounds were doing. Sabs attempting to enter the plantation at one point got stuck knee-deep in bog and tangled up in dense brambles.
For all their insistence that trails had been laid but they don’t know exactly where the human-laid trail runs, it would have been apparent to the huntsman that the only trail-layer capable of enticing his hounds through that plantation was of the orange, furry variety. Indeed, a tired-looking fox was soon spotted by one of our foot teams, darting from the covert a few minutes later with the sound of hounds not far behind. The huntsman did spend ages blowing gathering calls on his horn, but it was clear from the way his hounds were largely ignoring him that they were not used to being told to stop when they’re hunting a strong line! Sabs covered the scent of the fox they saw and that one got away.
The terrain in this area was pretty horrendous and it took us quite a while to extract our foot teams. We drove a few loops before bumping into hunt support again near Trentworthy Farm and by 4pm the hunt had packed up. We genuinely appreciate their civil attitude when faced with sabs, but there is absolutely no doubt that the Tetcott Hunt remain a threat to foxes and other wildlife.
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