On Saturday morning, alongside our friends from Plymouth & West Devon Sabs, we paid a visit to the Torrington Farmers Hunt for the first time since Huntsman Steve Craddock assaulted one of our sabs a few weeks ago.
The hunt had met at Webbery Barton, near Alverdiscott at 9am, we caught up with them just as they had left the meet.
It wasn’t long before hounds were heard on a line in the wooded valley to the south of the nearby substation, as we got closer it was clear that the hounds were now scattered throughout the woods, with some even stuck behind the fencing of a nearby field of solar panels.
After trying to gather his hounds, Craddock and his new PA (ex-huntsman of the Weston and Banwell) Steve Burton, headed off leaving the remaining hounds to catch up as they moved back north. Here the hounds picked up again by a small copse, but only momentarily.
From here the hunt shot off, around the outskirts of the many solar panel fields that now envelop the area, we caught up as hounds were speaking in the valley to the south of Stony Cross.
As we approached a quadbike suddenly appeared with a rag in tow, attempting to catch up to the hounds. You would think if they’re laying the ‘trail’ they would be in front of the hounds no?
In the pursuit of the hunt back the same copse mentioned previous, we bumped into some old fart on a quadbike who was blabbering about face masks being illegal or something…
The hunt gathered next to this copse for a while, until Craddock called the quad that was dragging the shitty rag around over for a chat. Craddock began telling the quadbike rider where he wanted him to run the ‘trail’, which was strange, hunt’s often claim that trails are laid in advance, but they usually say it was hours beforehand, not minutes… and we thought that the Huntsman isn’t supposed to know where the ‘trail’ is? Think someone was making things up as he went in response to our presence.
With the quadbike going off on a jolly, Craddock soon followed suit, and as to be expected, the hounds completely ignored this supposed ‘trail’, this was repeated several times as the hunt slowly made their way back to Webbery Barton, to pack up around 11:30.
Whilst we were out with Torrington, we received reports of Eggesford being seen, who were hunting and being a general nuisance around the village of Ashreigney. When we were confident that Torrington were done for the day, we gathered ourselves and headed in that direction, though by the time we arrived in the area it seems that Eggesford had already packed up, which was confirmed with a drive-by of their kennels, confirming the hound van was parked up.
Gallery
