With many of the moorland hunts still out hunting foxes weekly, we sabbed the South Devon Hunt (the first hunt to ever get sabbed, in 1963) at their meet at the post office at Postbridge, on Dartmoor.
A handful of riders plus the huntsman from the Dart Vale, South Poole and Modbury Harriers were also present, clearly hoping for a more eventful hunt than their closing meet last weekend.
Our foot teams managed extremely well keeping up with the hunt over the long and treacherous terrains of Dartmoor. Early on, hounds were cast into a patch of gorse that involved crossing a fence line and a river. When sabs got there, one hound was found screaming in pain, hanging from barbed wire that was wrapped tightly around their bleeding foot. Huntsman Guy Landau came over apathetically, tossing a pair of bolt cutters to the sabs, that instead landed in the river. You can’t make this shit up.
Sabs retrieved the tool and in the process of freeing the hound, our sab was bitten quite deeply on their leg. We know the hound was not to blame and had been in a state of severe distress. Huntsman Guy Landau however, is very much to blame for this incident. Our sab had to be rushed to A&E, where they were stitched up and monitored. The paramedics and doctors that treated our sab were very supportive of us, and disgusted that fox hunting still exists. As are we.
Back on the moor the hunt covered a lot of ground. From the meet they headed south east through Bellever and onto Riddon Ridge. They continued further south to Clapper Bridge and onto Yar Tor, where they spent most of an hour trying desperately to pick up on the scent a fox. Sabs were present to rate hounds, stopping them in their tracks and preventing them from following the scent line. Sabs in our vehicle saw one fox escape.
The hunt headed to Dartmeet and from there began moving north, hunting past Widecombe-in-the-Moor and Hameldown, up as far as King Tor. We also came across an upset landowner on the Two Moors Way who complained to us about the hounds “running riot” through her farm. At about 4.30PM they packed up at Soussons Down.
Another grey and drizzly day out in the field for us but a successful one defending our wildlife.
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