As secretary to one of the northern hunts, I meet and greet a lot of subscribers and visitors who want to join us. The one thing which strikes me is the huge variety of people who all have one thing in common – they want to follow the hounds. It mystifies (and irritates) me when the media give the blanket description of ‘hunting toffs’ and all the other rubbish that they spout, because if they bothered to come and find out about the people involved, they would be surprised at the mix and variety of followers and the camaraderie that goes with the sport.
If you ride horses, or indeed quad bikes and follow hounds across country, there is an element of risk and it doesn’t matter who you are (or how you’re bred) anybody can get that lurching feeling of ‘oh ****’ as the earth comes up to meet you and you hit the ground. On those occasions you hope that a good Samaritan will catch your horse, so that your day may continue. Unfortunately, there are times when a really serious accident occurs and urgent help is required; hunting folk come into their own and rally round and get the casualty dispatched to A&E – they do it with good humour and compassion. The fact that the groaning body on the ground was not their responsibility doesn’t mean they turn a ‘blind eye’ or say ‘that’s not my job’ – the whole thing about this sport is that it is a community ‘thing’, we all help each other. Perhaps the Government could learn a thing or two from all of us, as they seem hell bent on destroying everything to do with rural communities.
Of course, passions run high in a sport like hunting and it would be wrong to pretend that disagreements never take place. Hunting rows are usually in a class of their own and cause much upset and chaos for the people involved and quite a lot of interest and dare I say, enjoyment for the people observing from the sidelines or adjacent packs.
Whatever your reason for following hounds – for the thrill of the chase, the enjoyment of watching hounds work, the social side or perhaps a bit of everything - we must remember how lucky and privileged we are that landowners and farmers are so generous with their land and allow us to enjoy this wonderful sport.
We must also never let the Government forget how important the rural vote is and remind them that they interfere with us, at their peril – they might not care about disembowelling communities with their ridiculous red tape rules and regulations that seem to ignore common sense – but instead might I suggest that they have a good look at how life operates in a rural community, particularly under difficult conditions and then they might be able to build a government worthy of the name.
