Increasingly unpopular huntsman Stephen James brought his hounds to a meet by a shed at Hoarestone Cross near Buckland Brewer. We followed them on foot and by drone as they started drawing the long valley through Cleave Wood, Thorne Wood and Holwell Wood, first going south and then eventually back north except for a quick detour to Vielstone Wood.
Blocked in by hunt support, one of our drivers was given a lecture about how we’d be better off going after “all those people who send their cats and dogs abroad to be skinned and killed”. Sadly no details were provided about this international pet-skinning ring and its logistics.
The hunt headed north and into the area around Hembury Castle, where hounds chased a fox back south across the road towards Knaworthy. Hounds continued in cry towards Smythacott (a local game dealer), causing utter chaos in the fields where several sheep appeared to be quite unwell. While everyone from the hunt stood watching, foot sabs ran in to try and help a sheep who was stuck on their back. Another sheep was chased around and baited by hounds. The landowner meanwhile was more interested in two sabs being on the land trying to stop the hounds. Apparently these weren’t her sheep anyway, just her tenant’s!
A while later, another person from Smythacott came up to the road to film one of our vehicles and tell us that the police were on their way for the “escaped convicts”, a label apparently reserved for people trying to stop an illegal hunt, rather than those organising it.
The hunt headed north again, briefly chased a hare and then spent the rest of the day drawing Ash Wood, West Hele Wood, Craneham Wood and East Hele Wood, crossing the river back and forth as they went. Terrierboy Ben Vincent and his new girlfriend were sat watching from the surrounding fields. Their three terriers were let out of their boxes briefly for a little run-around. Why this hunt continues to be accompanied by terriermen, equipped with spades and terriers for digging-out foxes, is the question everyone should be asking…
Hounds were cast into dense bramble covert at the northern end of the valley (again, what were they expecting to find in there?…), but they didn’t pick up on anything and eventually retraced their steps back south towards the meet. Stephen James almost took another tumble off his horse while crossing the river on his way back.
We’ve been busy focusing on getting out to hunts as often as possible, so unfortunately we’ve fallen a bit behind on updating our socials. There are three more recent reports to follow after this one, along with footage of Stevenstone Hunt chasing all sorts of animals they shouldn’t be, including sheep, deer and hares.
If you like what we do and want to support our work, please consider donating to our fuel and equipment fund via the link in the comments. We have a couple of months to go of the 25/26 season and your support enables us to hit as many hunt meets as we can. However, we also ask that followers bear in mind that we sab in our free time, amidst jobs, family and other commitments. While we appreciate how disappointing it is that we can’t sab every hunt we get tipped off about, we’re not super-human. Even if our sabs were physically and financially able to sab every day of the week, with several dozen hunts operating in Devon we’d still not be able to hit them all. Thank you for your support and understanding.
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