On Wednesday we visited the end-of-season meet of the Stevenstone Foxhounds at their kennels in Great Torrington.
With their own hunts finished for the season, some other local scum like South Tetcott huntsman Tim Ingram and Torrington Farmers’ kennel huntsman Jack Rowley had their formal wellies on to watch Stevenstone huntsman Archibald Clifton-Brown hunt on and around the Tarka Trail.
The hunt left the meet and immediately covered a lot of ground, heading through Smytham Manor and eventually onto Stowford Moor. The hunt spent most of the day determined to kill in this area, completing several loops between Lambert Moor and Vinny Copse. There were some close calls, with hounds in cry multiple times only a few yards behind a fox but sabs were able to intervene and scatter hounds and allow the fox to escape.
Desperate to kill in front of other huntsmen, Archibald was on and off his horse all day, crawling red-faced through hedges and scattering his hounds widely so he spent most of the day with half a pack.
Terrierman Alex Wass was also on hand to scream at sabs. Alex thinks being locked in a tiny metal box not big enough to turn around is good for his terriers. We hope he gets to experience the same thing one day soon. After failing at Stowford Moor, huntsman Archie, in his shabby orange coat, went north towards Langtree Common. Another fox was hunted on land belonging to bottled water company Tarka Springs. Sabs tried to intervene but were ejected from the land by the business owner who didn’t seem to care that the hunt were illegally chasing foxes across his land. We believe this fox got away although we cannot know for certain.
From here the hunt carried on into Pencleave Wood. Hounds were again in cry and scattered for miles as Archie dropped his support to go hunt them on and eventually just find them again. A recently-killed fox (although we don’t think killed by hounds) was found wedged in the entrance to a badger sett. The same sett had multiple suspicious craters, indicating a digout had probably taken place here on a previous occasion.
With the weather turning and light fading, by around 6pm the few remaining diehards from the hunt finally made their way back to the meet ending an exhausting day for hounds, horses, sabs and the wildlife.
The Tarka Trail is a popular route for cyclists, walkers, bird-watchers and other normal people. If you use the trail and don’t appreciate sharing it with violent animal abusers, let Torrington Town Council & Torridge District Council know.
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