Last Tuesday we took a trip down memory lane to one of the now-disbanded Tetcott Hunt’s old haunts at Marhamchurch, over the border in Cornwall. Stevenstone and South Tetcott Hunts would both quite like to add this area to their existing hunt ‘country’, and we’re aware there’s no love lost between these two hunts.
So it felt like perhaps a point was being made when the South Tetcott Hunt invited Stevenstone’s other neighbours, the Torrington Farmers, to bring their hounds down to hunt this area on Tuesday. That’s three hunts now vying for the blood of this area’s resident foxes. Not on our watch.
We were joined by a few friends from Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs and Kernow Sabs, Monitors and Animal Rights Team. The meet was next to a dung heap at a little crossroads east of the village. The average age of those attending was about 70 and judging by some of their comments throughout the day, we suspect the average IQ was rather lower.
After getting their fill of port and sausage rolls, the hunt began drawing streams and hedges towards Pinch and then up towards Grove Park. Some riders had clearly had a few too many at the meet and were rightly punished by their horses for forcing them to cross flooded rivers. One rider went arse-over-tit into the water and had to be piggy-backed across the river by another rider. It was clear their horses were not comfortable being made to jump out onto the slippery banks of the river, but it’s equally clear that people who think animal cruelty is ‘sport’ are not going to particularly care about their horses either.
The hunt next headed east into the steep and gorse-lined slopes around Hobbacott Down. The valley north-west of Penleaze was hunted next and the day finished in the area between Steart and Borough.
Our sabs grew tired of asking the hunt “who laid a trail in there then??”, as one impenetrable covert after another was drawn. First it was a large area of dense gorse, next a thick, boggy patch of brambles, and at the end it was an overgrown and treacherous quarry slope. Hunt riders positioned themselves around the quarry, ‘holding-up’ in much the same way as they do during cubbing, i.e. watching for any escaping foxes in order to scare them back into the covert for hounds to find and kill. A fox was indeed flushed from the top of the quarry and ran for their life across the open field. However, the nearest rider was too slow to respond, and hounds never got onto the line of this fox.
Many other foxes were seen by our various foot teams throughout the day. Fortunately, those foxes knew the area better than the hunt and were able to outsmart and outrun the hounds, with a bit of help from sabs whenever the opportunity presented itself.
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