Didn't bother with the Boxing Day meet for once this year - they're more pantomime than hunting. Usually the 2 foxhunts in Surrey are 'asked' to stagger their day's hunting over the Christmas holidays by the police, as manpower costs are sky high at this time of year. Apparently the hunt think this is unreasonable, the police being their own private (and free) security force and all that, so this year, both hunts went out on the same day. They might live to regret their arrogance, as we understand that they have been told if they go out next Boxing Day, there will be no police at all due to the cost.
Back to today's meet, and this is about as sick as it gets - having a hunt meet specifically for children in the hope of indoctrinating them into the ways of foxhunting. It goes on at all hunts around the country usually in the Christmas or New Year holiday period when kids are off school. I'm not going to get all misty eyed over the corruption of young minds, because in my experience most of them are little shits, and are going to grow into mirror images of their ignorant bloodthirsty parents anyway.
Anyway, back to the real world, and the day starts badly when we are told by the local badger group that a sett behind the meet was dug out the day before the hunt were due to be there, and a certain well known 'country' person was seen in the area by a local resident the same day. The sett was thought to be pretty safe, lying almost entirely under the roots of large trees, but whoever dug it knew what they were doing as they dug into the only exposed connecting tunnel. An expert job without doubt.
Back to the hunt, and having parked my car far enough away for it not to get wrecked by hunt followers, I had to make my way through the woods South of the meet. Stopping for a moment to check my watch (actually to have a piss!) a fox passed within 10 feet of me at full tilt, and while I was trying to zip myself up, I could hear the hounds drawing towards me but not getting onto the scent. The day was pretty damp, so I was expecting the scent to be good, but by the hounds actions, they did not find it easy, so I kept quiet and sprayed the area where the fox had run keeping out of sight of the approaching huntsman. As he passed, he worriedly looked around having smelt the lemon aroma of 'antimate' spray, but couldn't see where it had come from.
There were only about 10 sabs out this day on this hunt, so it was with relief that I met up with a couple of them in the plantations at Mayorhouse Holt. This is a favourite area for the children to be shown hunting as the rides are clear and straight, with the fenced off plantations easily surrounded. On this day there must have been about 50- 60 children aged up to 16, and even then they missed a fox and roe deer pile out of the main plantation and into the bracken heading for the road. The hounds got onto them though and hunted the fox back into the conifer plantation.
Having done this hunt so many times here, I find it best to hold back at the corners of the rides, usually over the back where the fields open out a bit. As luck would have it, I was running to get a view at one corner when I heard something coming towards the ride I was on. I stopped dead still as a young fox came out onto the path and ran away from me, along the path I was on but then back into the plantation. More spray here, but I had to stop as several hunt followers came my way, and I didn't want to give away where I'd seen the fox. Getting to the back of the wood as the pack got back onto the scent of the fox out towards Farley Green, I managed to get plenty of citronella down in front of them before the red coats got there.
The hounds were called back from following this fox as it had gone into the village, so the hounds were taken over the hill to Madgehole. This hill and valley have seen terrible violence by hunters towards sabs in the past, with a previous huntsman getting a suspended jail sentence for riding his horse over a saboteur sat protecting a fox that had gone to ground. This day there was no trouble as the hunt failed to find any foxes, so they made for the massive Winterfold Forest, where to be honest, I couldn't keep up with them, and had to follow their hoofprints on the sandy tracks. The hunt circled around the forest for most of the day, and made their way back to the Mayorhouse Holt area surprisingly early, at about 2pm, but I suppose they were thinking of the kids. Aaah!
One funny part of the day was the panic of the police when they heard through the grapevine (i.e. they were tapping someone's phone or one of their informants rang in) that 'the Croydon lot' were coming over en masse. Police reinforcements had to be called in we were told, despite our advice that it would probably only be a carload coming on from a neighbouring hunt that had finished even earlier. Cue a lot of embarrassed coppers when 5 sabs in a knackered mini-metro turned up just as the hunt were packing up! Always good to know how the police intelligence is being gathered though! And of course it wasn't a waste of taxpayers money, with all those nice respectable huntsmen and children to protect (from nothing).
All in all, a bit of a run-around day for the few sabs that were there, but I did get to see several foxes escape and the area is nice for a wander if it weren't for the hoorays on horseback spoiling the peace and quiet!