This was a rare Saturday meet for Eggesford Hunt. They stopped hunting Saturdays a few seasons ago in the hope it would stop them being sabbed. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. This was the third in a row of four of their meets which was sabbed!
The meet was at Lower Gorhuish, east of Northlew. The hunt had brought along a little catering trailer this time – fancy!
They set off south to Hookmoor Brook and then through South Moor Plantation, failing to pick up on anything other than the scent of a few deer in the valley. Huntsman Jason Marles brought hounds out to the road north of Cruft and put them back into the valley by Ashbury Plantations, drawing north past Horrathorn. A fox was spotted by sabs and hounds eventually got onto the line, taking it out of the valley towards Ten Acre Plantation. Jason hunted-on but a combination of our drone tracking the movement of the fox, one sab discreetly covering the fox’s line at various pinch points and other sabs stopping the hounds enabled the fox to get away safely.
Hounds were taken further north in direction of Ashbury. Aside from the fact they were trespassing on the neighbouring hunt’s ‘country’ at this point, hounds were also terrorising ewes with newborn lambs in the field, and we received messages from distressed locals reporting on this. Another fox was chased across the road, right past our team of sabs. This was in full view of all the hunt support. They knew we knew, and we knew they knew where the fox had gone. Predictably, Jason brought hounds to that exact spot and put them on the line of the fox. Hounds ran off in cry but the warming weather, the stench of the slurry that was being spread on the fields at the time, and determined intervention from sabs eventually caused the pack to lose the scent in the valley.
Hounds were taken back east and put into the small valleys west of the meet. A fox was chased, witnessed by our drone, and pursued via Longfield Copse all the way into the Hookmoor Brook valley, then north towards Milland Farm, back south to the meet and then back north again. The hunt were growing increasingly desperate for a kill. Knowing the fox would be very tired after such a long chase, various supporters were ordered to hold up traffic and prevent sabs from catching up with hounds.
The fox went to ground in a small badger sett on the edge of a field in the Hookmoor Brook valley, and our drone filmed hounds scratching furiously at the sett entrances, trying to get in. Jason caught up to congratulate the hounds and continued to let them trash the sett for a while before sabs arrived to rate them out and protect the fox.
Interfering with a badger sett, e.g. by allowing hounds to dig at the entrances, is a criminal offence. The sett was subsequently monitored…
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