The hunt met at Middleton’s Westacott Barton in Riddlecombe for a Monday of terrorising wildlife and local people around Riddlecombe and Ashreigney. A small team of us kept eyes on them the entire day. Several foxes were seen by our drone, their escape aided by the intervention of foot sabs on the ground.
Jason spent the day drawing one field of beets/brassicas after another, as well as the woods at Dolton Beacon and Shear’s Wood and the valleys between Northcott, Furze and Bolts. At one point the pack went off on a strong line from the edge of Shear’s Wood all the way to Dolton Beacon Cottages and into one of the solar farm fields at Riddlecombe Moor, where they obviously have no permission to be. Instead of stopping them, Jason hunted hounds on all along this route. The busy stretch of the A3124 at Dolton Beacon was forced to a standstill when Jason eventually gathered the pack on the main road. Fortunately the fox got away.
The last hour was spent back in the valley south of the meet and then east to Moorwater and Churchwater with a final (apparently unplanned) stint around South Farm and Densham on the edge of Ashreigney. Two separate landowners complained that hounds and riders had entered their land without permission. One landowner on the edge of Ashreigney was running around trying to find out whether the hunt were intending to go near her ewes. After hounds chased a sheep to death in this exact area just a few weeks ago, we’re not surprised she was concerned! Several hounds ended up scattered as far south as Horridge while Jason and the bulk of the pack carried on drawing northwards before finishing at Goodcott and hacking back to the meet.
Two foxes were marked to ground over the course of the day. One of these marks was in a small earth in a hedge near the meet, which Jason allowed the hounds to cause considerable damage to by digging. However, intervention by sabs ensured that neither of the foxes who were hunted to ground were dug out and killed. Terrier boys Jake Crabb and Tom Bounsall were sat idle on their quadbike alongside equally jobless hunt lackey Jade all day.
Special shout-out to hunt follower David Evans who has moved on from “I hope you’re all paying your VAT!” to entertaining us with rants about drone licensing, which he seems to know even less about than taxes. David kept boasting that the police were on their way to confiscate our drone. Unsurprisingly, they never showed up.
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