We sabbed twice on Saturday! First in the morning, when one of us teamed up with a Mendip sab to hassle the Eggesford Hunt at their 7am meet at Lower Gorhuish near Northlew, and then in the evening when we shut down the Stevenstone Hunt’s cubbing attempts at Hoarestone near Thorne Moor in North Devon.

As we’re used to with Eggesford, their early morning cubbing meet was full of blatant illegal foxhunting. Riders held up coverts by positioning themselves strategically around the edges, slapping their saddles to make noise, supported by foot followers who bashed sticks on fence posts to scare back any foxes trying to escape. These are things even the BHSA have advised hunts not to do during cubbing, because it makes it so obvious they’re hunting foxes. Huntsman Jason Marles also did the usual tongue-rolling, trying to rouse a fox from covert. Several foxes were seen over the course of the morning and our presence and intervention helped those we saw get away.

A young, terrified fox was seen running along the inside of South Moor Plantation, desperately trying to find a place to escape. The pack were hunted onto this fox, who darted from one covert to another with hounds gradually gaining on them. We’ll be posting the video footage later and you’ll see how the Mendip sab had just run in to cover one fox’s scent near the lake by the farm when a second fox ran across the track next to the sab. Hounds arrived in full cry on that fox’s line. Instead of calling hounds off the fox, Eggesford’s Duncan Tucker sat on his horse filming the sab, whose expert rating and whip-cracking lifted the hounds’ heads and bought both foxes crucial time.

On Tuesday evening we received a call that Eggesford were cubbing at South Farm, Ashreigney. We mobilised, got to the area an hour later and were greeted by a distressed roe deer fawn on the road adjacent to the valley the hounds were in. The poor deer ran along the road desperately trying to crash through the hedge into the next field.

While our drone went up to pinpoint the location of the hounds, sabs went in on foot. They found hounds in cry piling into a hedge and heading into the woods towards a badger sett the hunt like to dig out. We prevented a digout there just a few months ago, at the end of last season. When he arrived at the sett, Jason and his minion Jade Howarth found sabs already waiting there for them.

Jason gathered up the hounds and walked them back to the meet to pack up a couple of hours before he would have liked.

A week after pissing off all the locals in Ingleigh Green by cub-hunting on land without permission, Eggesford huntsman Jason Marles took a leaf out of the Dulverton Farmers’ book yesterday evening by not even attempting to hunt in the presence of sabs.

We bumped into him on the way to the meet and as soon as he saw us he turned the fully loaded hound van around and drove it back to the kennels.

We stuck around to make sure he didn’t sneak back out and enjoyed another roadside picnic! Job done.

Eggesford Hunt are not welcome in Monkokehampton and Ingleigh Green

The annual fox cub killing spree has started. The hunting world would like us all to refer to it simply as ‘autumn hunting’, to hide the cruel reality of their ‘sport’. Acting on a tipoff, a small team of sabs paid a visit to Eggesford Hunt’s cubbing meet at Ingleigh Green on Saturday evening, where it turns out most of the locals despise the hunt.

They met at 6pm in a field belonging to Peter Fishleigh of Lower Ingleigh and spent the next two hours mostly hunting on land they had no permission to be on, according to practically every farmer and landowner we came across. Two sabs followed Jason and his whipper-in Jade on foot, while we also filmed the hunt from the air by drone. We documented plenty of evidence of hunt supporters driving their vehicles into crop fields against the farmers’ wishes, huntsman Jason Marles casting hounds into hedges next to horse paddocks, causing those horses to freak out, and hounds hunting through some of the densest scrub you could imagine. We’ll share a short video soon to give you an idea of what foot sabs had to wade through to follow the route taken by the pack.

Eggesford Hunt ended the season last Thursday with a replay of their opening meet: a pathetic roadside gathering at Chulmleigh Beacon, followed by an attack on sabs and a digout of a fox.

The main difference? Many of the quad riders, without whom Jason wouldn’t have had any luck finding a fox in the warm, dry weather, had to be drafted in from other hunts. Alongside Richard Elliott and Jake Crabb, Rhys and Matt Welham came across from the Silverton Hunt, and a group of masked morons arrived in a work van with the signage “ALS Civil Engineering” (a company based in Kent). One of their quads was transported in the back of the van. Two of this group later used their quad to ride down one of our sabs.

Jason’s own quad following has dropped over the course of the season. Terriermen Tom Leary and Seward Folland don’t show their faces much anymore, with the former deciding to spend more time at the Mid Devon, and Seward often going home after a couple of hours on the rare occasion he decides to show up. Jason’s latest kennelman, Ash Symons, left this season after only a few months with the hunt, which at this point is pretty on-brand for Marles. He’s now been replaced with Jade, who seems to be attached at the hip to Jake Crabb when out with the hunt.

A couple of us went to check up on the Eggesford for their second weekday hunt meet last week. Unlike those who hunt, sabs have real jobs, which meant we were unable to get there in time for the off. We found the hunt, who had met at Great Fisherton on the edge of Bishop’s Tawton, as they were drawing the pheasant woodland north of Hawkridge Bridge at around 1pm.

This is the same area where they had their Ladies Day just a few weeks ago. Only this time Jason was back to his usual number of riders (just 3) and less than a handful of support vehicles. Terriermen Tom Bounsall and Jake Crabb spent the day sitting around on their quads with Jake’s partner.

Despite having just one sab on foot, we were able to see two foxes to safety in this area. Alongside our citronella, the warm temperatures and dry ground helped undermine the foxes’ scent. We made good use of our drone to keep an eye on the hunt’s movements as they headed north via Upcott, towards Halmpstone Manor and Higher Woolstone where hounds did chase a fox over some distance. With the drone we spotted the fox make a clever getaway and positioned ourselves to intercept hounds should they get back on the line. Jason did attempt a second loop of the area but the fox by now was safely away and scent had dried up. The hunt packed up by 4.30pm.

After a few recent high profile meets, the Eggesford returned to form recently with a handful of die-hard followers meeting in a filthy driveway at Huxford near Kings Nympton. We arrived a little late due to some vehicle troubles in the morning. The hilly terrain and Jason’s strategy of eratically zig zagging around the countryside meant we made good use of our drone during the day.

The hunt started out north of Kings Nympton with the warm weather meaning hounds were kept to woods and valleys most of the day. They eventually marked to ground at Huxford with sabs quickly finding the mark and guarding it to prevent terrier men Seward Folland and Richard Elliot from digging the fox out and killing it. While the foxes are the main targets, all the animals forced to participate in the hunt are victims too. Elliot spent the day with four terriers crammed into a tiny, hot box on his quad and we followed a long trail of bloody hound footprints on the road for much of the afternoon.