Eggesford Hunt were hosted by the London Inn, Morchard Bishop. In his speech at the start of the day, huntsman Jason Marles boasted about the pub’s unwavering support for bloodsports. Unlucky for the pub, plenty of people in this area hate the hunt and we’re grateful as ever for their words of support in person and via message over the course of the day.
Part-time local terrierman Seward Folland (the one who was convicted a few years ago for trying to dig a fox out of a badger sett during an Eggesford Hunt meet) was out, but lost the hunt after a few hours and made the mistake of asking one of our sabs for directions. We didn’t see him again for the rest of the day.
The hunt set off on the same route they took at this meet last season, north towards Bishopsleigh, east towards Cann’s Mill Bridge, into the valley between there and Brownstone Moor Cross, via Hele Lane Bridge towards Penford, Wonham, Washford Moor and Washford Wood and then back west to finish between Cann’s Mill Bridge and Billhole Farm, before packing up at Lowertown on the edge of Morchard Bishop.
A fox was marked to ground at a badger sett near Bishopsleigh early on. “We’ll be back” were the words of one of the riders when sabs arrived to guard the sett and ensure it wasn’t dug out. We know where all the setts are in this area and were able to check on and guard them all over the course of the day, including the large sett where previous Eggesford terrierman Nathan Bowes and his mate were caught digging in 2018, for which they received a caution.
After a few hours of standing around feeling redundant, the terrier boys were clearly so bored that one of them chose to climb onto the bonnet of our Land Rover and refused to get off. Our Facebook post about Jake Crabb’s ‘unfortunate’ face-to-face encounter with a rock lobbed at our windscreen by his mate Tom Bounsall has now been viewed by over 600,000 people, so we probably don’t need to give you an account of that incident again. When this lot can’t get their fix of torturing wildlife, they attack anyone in their path – seemingly even each other. Local residents weren’t spared Crabb and Bounsall’s psychotic tendencies that day either.
Near Washford Wood another fox was marked to ground, and a few minutes later a fox was seen by our sabs running from hounds near Wonham Farm. Hounds quickly lost the scent after the fox passed through a dense patch of brambles. Huntsman Jason Marles ran in on foot to try and get them back onto the line but with sabs on his tail he was forced to take them away. This enraged Lloyd Heard so much he responded by charging at sabs on foot before remounting and using it as a battering ram, deliberating riding the horse into one of our sabs on the ground. For someone whose wife, Laura Heard, works as a veterinary physio specialising in horses, Lloyd sure loves to show everyone what ‘good horsemanship’ apparently looks like!
In the valley between Cann’s Mill Bridge and Billhole farm hounds were repeatedly put into a large patch of gorse, where they stayed until they marked a third fox to ground. Again, the presence of our foot sabs and drone overhead caused the hunt to move on.
At the very end of the day sabs returned to free a sheep who was very badly tangled in brambles. We had told one of the quad riders about this sheep several hours earlier, but evidently he hadn’t done anything about it. They do love to insist they only carry spades, cutters, guns, nets and all sorts of other dodgy paraphernalia to do things like fix fences, assist livestock etc. Perhaps on this day they were just too busy stoning each other to remember that.
Thank you so much to our friends from Mendip Hunt Sabs for joining us!
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