Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we wished the Ledbury Hunt a Happy Christmas by joining them at their meet in Pigeon House Farm, Eldersfield. Pigeon House Farm was in the recent badger culls as was much of the land the Ledbury hunted in throughout the day. Cycle-sabs were temporarily put out of action by both getting punctures at the same time and, puncture-repair-kits redundant when bike pumps have been lost, they made their way on foot... whilst another sabs car broke down and camera refused to turn on! After this bad start to the day, luck changed for us and we had a pretty great day out. Fortunately it was a peaceful day with only one incident of bad behaviour from a hunt supporter. An assault was committed by regular troublemaker Rob Lewis who has an obsession for getting it on with male sabs. However today he chose to assault a new female sab possibly in order to provoke a reaction from her male friend. Luckily there were no injuries and the sabs involved laughed it off. They briefly hunted from Pigeon House towards Nashend Farm, another familiar name from the badger culls. After this short jaunt they headed onto Berth Hill, a favourite of theirs. The hounds spoke multiple times whilst they drew the wood on the summit of the hill. As they seemed to prepare to leave the site a fox ran down out of the wood, passing sabs. The sabs covered his line and stood with cameras ready to record the hunts reaction. As the sabs suspected the hounds picked up in the wood and followed the line into the field, exactly where the fox had been. The hounds were quickly taken off the line using whips, horn calls and voice calls, by whipper-in Tim Pearce-May, huntsman Mark Melladay and others as they knew sabs had the fox on camera and were ready for action. Having watched the hunt draw a blank in brambles on the side of Corse Wood Hill, two foot sabs stuck around to keep an eye on some dodgy terrierman activity while other sabs headed further along the hill to stay with the hunt. Hounds picked up in woodland to the north; sabs covered surrounding land and roads to get good views and be ready to intervene if necessary. We suspected that the hounds may have been marking to ground as they were speaking but did not appear to be moving. A sab went in land to investigate. The hunt then left the area and headed towards Tirley Knowle. The hunt did not spend much time in the this area. Sabs were unsure as to whether this was due to their presence or if they just drew blank and found no foxes! They then moved to hunt between Haw Bridge and Tirley Church. Sab vehicles split to cover two sides of the land. Whilst sabs observed the hunt from Tirley Church they overheard and recorded a conversation between a local and a hunt supporter. In this conversation the hunt supporter told the local that there werent many badgers to shoot during the cull and that the farmers are shooting them all the time anyway. Whilst the sabs watched from Tirley Church the hounds picked up and streamed across from Haw Bridge in the direction of Town Street Farm. They appeared to lose the scent and went quiet. Sabs were quickly with the hounds and huntsman. Whilst heading to pack up the hounds scared a rabbit out of a hedge and a couple took interest and began to chase it. A smiley Tim Pearce-May easily and quickly called the hounds back with voice calls, sabs also reacting quickly, whilst huntsman Mark Melladay joked thats legal. They finished at Roger Warners place, Town Street Farm. Roger Warner is a master of the Ledbury Hunt and has been involved in recent badger culling. Sabs left content with their activities for the day and looked forward to filling up on vegan mince pies and mulled wine. 3C
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 01:27:46 +0000
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