We sabbed the Dartmoor Hunt’s opening meet at Monksmoor on the edge of Bittaford.
The hunt headed straight for the Wrangaton Golf Club via Leigh Lane and then spent the new few hours bumping into our various foot teams who were strategically positioned across several miles of open moorland.
Sabbing on Dartmoor is pretty tough. It requires a huge amount of stamina and in order to keep up with the hunt, who are using horses and quadbikes, we have to think well ahead of their likely movements. The planning paid off and for the first four hours the hunt were never far from one of our three foot teams.
They hunted between Butterdon Hill and Harford, with hounds being heard in cry on several occasions. Eventually they ended up at Scad Brook near Owley Corner, where they spent an hour drawing the gorse to no avail before heading north and deeper onto the moor in an attempt to get away from us.
Terriermen harassed each of our foot teams in turn, but it didn’t hold us up and we were well-positioned on a couple of occasions to stop hounds on a line.
Many of our hunts are still cubbing right now, but some have already had their opening meet and are into the main season. Please keep sending in your tipoffs.
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