Our arrival at Highampton Village Hall/Primary School was met with the usual zombie-like glares from the hunt and its supporters, who were hiding in the carpark behind the hall. Huntswoman Amy Parkin and Whip Richard Trewern were only joined by a handful of riders at the meet. Perhaps the weather forecast had changed the minds of several of the regular riders.

From the meet, Parkin dragged the hunt to Odham Moor, where the hounds picked up a line and headed west across Wagaford Water and onto Hollow Moor. For those who aren’t aware, Hollow Moor and Odham Moor is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and part of the European designated Culm Grassland Special Area of Conservation, “one of the largest continuous areas of species-rich unimproved grassland in Devon”, home to several nationally scarce and vulnerable species. Using an area such as this as a private playground for bloodsports is deeply irresponsible.

The day involved hounds tearing across the boggy SSSI, backwards and forwards until hounds approached the edge of ‘Anglers Paradise’ and dangerously close to a nearby shoot somewhere to the north. Despite Parkin and Trewern’s attempts to bring the hounds away, several decided they didn’t want to come back. An hour passed before the remaining hounds returned. At this point the hunt decided they’d had enough. Having spent a few hours disturbing all manner of wildlife, with foxes and deer seen running in various directions, the hunt headed back to the meet and packed up at around 2:30pm.

On Saturday we took a trip across the Tamar (only just!) to pay a visit to the South Tetcott Hunt, whose huntsman Tim Ingram spent some time in hospital recently after being mauled by his own hounds. We were not surprised to hear about it. When hounds cower from human touch, it’s a pretty good sign of how they’re treated at home.

The meet was at Way Farm on the edge of North Tamerton and the hunt with their 12 field riders and handful of quadbikes spent most of the day going round and round the various small copses and valleys between Way Farm, Down Farm, Allisdon, Trepoyle, Haydon and West and East Balsdon, as well as the edge of the Tamar and Old Canal. Trepoyle is owned by agricultural feed merchant and badger cull director Bill Harper, so we were pleased to pay a return visit to this wildlife murderer’s farm too (he also runs an abattoir on-site).

With hardly any road access, it was up to our three foot teams to keep up with the hunt on foot all day. Our runners covered huge distances, as they always do, while other foot sabs were positioned strategically to intercept hounds when they were chasing foxes. This worked well, as numerous foxes were seen by sabs throughout the day, with one being chased at least three times.

Today we paid a visit to the South Tetcott Hunt who were meeting at Henford near Ashwater.

They spent the entire day pretty hemmed in, drawing the valley between Henford Moor and Henford Wood, spending a long time in the wood and then drawing Panson Wood to the south. Foot sabs kept up with them throughout, ensuring there were no kills. Our runners get a special mention – it’s not an easy job!

The whole area smelled strongly of fox and hunting conditions were good. When hounds started speaking in Panson Wood and huntsman Tim Ingram didn’t call them off, some sabs rated hounds out of the woods while others used horn and voice calls to gather the pack in the neighbouring field. Hounds responded beautifully and a bit of a ping-pong ensued with hounds running back and forth between sabs and huntsman. No foxes were hunted in that time, so job done!

We’re very grateful for the continued support we receive from our followers, and would like to say thank-you for all the words of appreciation following our involvement in the Spooner’s terrierman conviction this week.

Yesterday’s sub-zero snowy weather didn’t deter Devon’s hunts from going out to kill wildlife. Neither did it deter us. South Tetcott hunt at least made the sensible decision to leave their horses at home, and instead only arrived at their meet on the edge of Northlew with hounds in the back of a trailer.

Keeping up with them on foot was pretty straightforward and not much ground was covered: from Bogtown Cross to Wigdon Mill, via a kale field into the valley south of there and then back up to Wadland Barton, where some hounds broke away and headed south towards Lower Melbury and Venn Barton, where they were eventually boxed up.

Our three foot teams kept eyes on hounds and huntsman throughout. Whenever the snow died down we also had the drone up above them, which resulted in huntsman Tim Ingram instructing his followers to try and shoot it down (they didn’t).

South Tetcott Hunt 26.11.22 This Saturday we had a wet and windy day sabbing the South Tetcott Hunt at Kempthorne near their kennels at Tetcott.

It was our first encounter with their new huntsman, Tim Ingram, who was recently given a conditional caution and ordered to pay almost £1000 to Mendip Hunt Sabs after causing criminal damage to their vehicle while he was still whipper-in with the Mendip Farmers’ Hunt.

Ingram started off on foot, sending hounds through Moortown Plantation. While he gave us an explanation of the genealogy of his hounds, they picked up on a scent and went into cry, running loops around the plantation. However, sabs were close by and able to rate hounds when necessary. This set a pattern for the day where the huntsman was completely happy to blatantly hunt in front of sabs.