South Tetcott Hunt 26.11.22 This Saturday we had a wet and windy day sabbing the South Tetcott Hunt at Kempthorne near their kennels at Tetcott.
It was our first encounter with their new huntsman, Tim Ingram, who was recently given a conditional caution and ordered to pay almost £1000 to Mendip Hunt Sabs after causing criminal damage to their vehicle while he was still whipper-in with the Mendip Farmers’ Hunt.
Ingram started off on foot, sending hounds through Moortown Plantation. While he gave us an explanation of the genealogy of his hounds, they picked up on a scent and went into cry, running loops around the plantation. However, sabs were close by and able to rate hounds when necessary. This set a pattern for the day where the huntsman was completely happy to blatantly hunt in front of sabs.
The hunt then went through Tetcott Manor to Beardown Plantation where they spent most of the day, doing numerous loops round the woods and nearby waterlogged fields. At least two foxes were seen being pursued by hounds, with Ingram blatantly hunting on and members of the hunt participating fully in the chase, encouraging hounds, one even getting off his horse to hunt hounds through a bramble patch where a fox had gone to ground. Thanks to our intervention, hounds were rated away and generally kept busy responding to our calls, giving the foxes and other wildlife the time they needed to escape.
After spending most of the day trying to kill in Beardown, the hunt hacked back, hunting through Lana Lake and Lanamoor Plantation before heading home to the kennels. A cold and exhausting but ultimately successful day for our foot sabs.
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