On Tuesday we joined up with Plymouth and West Devon Sabs and headed to Hall, Bishops Tawton, where The Eggesford Hunt were hosting their ‘Ladies Day’.
We arrived to see Huntsman Jason Marles heading up towards the meet, alongside the hounds and several field riders, his smile immediately wiped clean from his face the moment he emerged from the yard and saw us waiting for him.
As we approached the hall it became apparent that this was going to be an exceptionally large meet for Eggesford, with upwards of 40 riders (compared to the normal half a dozen), all gleefully awaiting their chances to see the hounds pursue and kill foxes.
Marles set off from the meet just after 11:30 after thanking the owners of Hall, who host the Eggesford annually. The hunt headed east towards the plantation lined valley south of Higher Woolstone where they proceeded to do a loop eastward and down towards Tanners, then back up into the valley, where the hounds picked up a scent and headed west.
By the time everyone had made their way up the slope Jason was bringing the hounds back down again, where he remarked “you’re a bit late for that one” and rode off towards Upcott Farm. We cannot confirm what happened here, but given heavily pregnant vixens are a lot slower, it can result in shorter chases, that alongside Marles’ smug remark, we can only assume the worst.
Marles then began to draw the woodland to the north of the farm in the direction of Halmpstone Manor, but drew a blank, as he headed west into the small copse hounds shot off in cry and proceeded to loop back around the fields north of Upcott Barton, where the hounds checked briefly.
Here sabs saw a fox heading north, away from the hounds, they quickly covered the scent and awaited to see if the hounds would pursue. Hounds eventually got on the line and headed towards the sabs, who rated the hounds back, giving the fox extra time to flee.
Hounds headed into the woodland and proceeded to head south in full cry, directly towards sabs, who prepared themselves to act, it was not long before a fox shot straight past a sab, the hounds were rated off the line and lost the scent. It was not long before Terrierman Jake Crabb was spotted lurking in the woods, with his equipped quadbike parked alongside Terrierman Tom Leary on the edge of the wood at a nearby badger sett.
After this the hunt headed to a field by Halmpstone Manor for a “pit stop” where they proceeded to gorge themselves on snacks and bottles of port, it wasn’t long before drunken riders were stumbling all over the road, one was even spotted dancing on the back of their horse.
After they all got bored of getting pissed, they moved off north, around to the valley at Halmpstone Wood, where hounds were heard speaking heading south through the valley, with Huntsman Marles trudging after them on foot. Hounds appeared to have lost the scent near to Cleave, Marles then got back on his horse, with the help of a gate and wannabe kennel boy James Skull and rejoined the rest of the field.
Marles took the hunt back into the valley and headed to Beara and onto Fisherton where hounds began speaking and poured into a field where sabs rated them back to Marles. Following this began a long uneventful trudge back passed Hall, down to Hill Farm where hounds began speaking in the copse to the north of Hawkridge Bridge, where a sab caught the hounds furiously marking a badger sett near one of the many pheasant pens, after waiting for the sab to rate the hounds off the sett, Marles headed back towards Hill Farm, back through the initial valley from the start of the day, and out onto the road near Higher Woolstone where from here they headed back to pack up for the day.
Earlier in the day, one of our vehicles spotted a horse bolting north away from the hunt without a rider to be seen, we later learned that this horse had made their way over 4 miles to Newport in Barnstaple, after crossing the busy A361, knocking mirrors off passing cars, and eventually badly injuring itself after smashing the rear windscreen of a car. Locals reported in local Facebook groups that the horse had been secured but there was blood everywhere.
We do not know the extent of the poor animals’ injuries, we only know they were later spotted being escorted back to Hall. We hope that they didn’t end up with the same fate as a horse from the recent ‘Two Bridges Hunt Club’ meet in Postbridge on Dartmoor, that was shot at the end of the day after being injured during the hunt.”
Don’t believe the farce, ‘ladies days’ aren’t some kind of jolly ride around the countryside, there’s still a pack of hounds trained to kill, and foxes still get chased and torn to shreds. There is nothing ‘lady-like’ about it.
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