A hilly and wet day with the Silverton today.
They met at Perry Lodge, north of the Fursdon Estate near Bickleigh, and spent quite a while at the meet before setting off. In part this was to allow the makeshift “trail-layer” to film himself laying his smokescreen across a field out the back of the meet. When hounds came through that exact field a few minutes later, they completely ignored the “trail”. When we enquired what the scent was made of we were told it was a trade secret. Clearly whatever had been put on the end of the rag (if anything at all) was not something the hounds were used to paying any attention to!
Nobody’s fooled by the trail-laying facade, including the hunt follower whose response to our allegations of illegal hunting was “well foxes have to be controlled somehow”.
All that standing around at the meet, waiting for the smokescreen to be prepared, meant that by the time the hunt set off, many of the riders were pretty inebriated. A couple in particular absolutely stank of alcohol. It’s a wonder they didn’t fall off their horses.
The hunt did many loops of Hallshot Wood, hunted through Castle Wood, briefly did a circle around Upcott Barton while keeping hounds close, and drew some kale fields between Lee Cross and Stone, before finishing off between Hallshot Wood and Chilton and then heading back to the meet.
Occasionally hounds were heard in cry but our three teams of intrepid foot sabs were never far behind, despite the extremely hilly terrain. Strategic positioning meant we were able to pass the hunt from one foot team to another and ensure someone had eyes on them all day.
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