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[Ravenwood]

QR: I am glad to hear that the last few posts state they wouldn't be afraid to ask for advice on here and long may that last. I really do feel that everyone should be encouraged to try hunting and I just hope that this negative post will not discourage anyone to discuss hunting.

 

[rosie fronfelen]

i am amazed at the sniping and bickering that goes on on these threads, i thought it might be a more civilised forum! having said that, i do agree with "kickandshout" as the post about competing at Badminton was unnecessary and out of order. as others have said, doesn't hunting deserve more support in the way people discuss and treat others? there is a wide cross section of followers these days, both mounted and otherwise, we should all respect each other no matter what our personal views are, heavens above, hunting has a big enough hill to climb as it is!!

 

[MontyandZoom]

I am completely new to hunting and have recently been out twice on my pony who has also never hunted. I found the people to be lovely and welcoming and perfectly happy to put up with me asking loads of really stupid questions. At the end of the day, I live in London and will never have the time or the money to hunt full-time but I came away with a changed attitude to hunting which I took back to London with me and spread around. It is posts like this that give a bad impression of hunting to those who have never been and at the current time, hunts need all the support they can get. Well done to all those HHO members who answer all our newbie Qs and in turn actively encourage people to give hunting a go. AND thank you SU hunt, lovely people, lovely day out, lovely sport!

 

[endymion]

the whole point of going foxhunting was TO KILL foxes , full stop , end of story, not to have a jolly day on a horse or natter to friends . some of us are only interested in three things out hunting
1. HOUNDS
2. TERRIERS
3. FOXES

horses are very low down our list if there at all

At last, someone who is honest!

I have lost count of the amount of times I have to listen to BS about fox hunting 'not actually being about hunting foxes'.

Socialising and having a nice ride in the country-side has another name - HACKING!

 

[lucretia]

and while that is the point of hunting, if you put it like that to the general public there soon will be no hunting at all. How dumb are you? settting snares and traps will work just as well for joe public, who neither know nor care about the reality.
there are many people who hunt to ride, probably more than those who ride to hunt and it is the absolute height of stupidity to alienate even one of them with comments like some of the one s on here.
This might come as a shock to some of the self righteous hunting folk on here, but there arent many chances when you can ride all day barely touching a road without being done for tresspassing or getting run over by a juggernaught so if people want to pay their subs and support the activity, so they can socialise and have a nice ride in the country why not.
is that honest enough for you.

 

[LindaW]

Hmm, I wonder if this is a bunch of anti's trying to put people off rather than genuine posters.

 

[combat_claire]

is that honest enough for you.

Well said Lucretia, there are as many reasons to go hunting as there are people that hunt. Quite frankly the thought of galloping at speed over jumps and then ending the day in A & E does not really appeal, however watching hounds work, getting caked in mud from my mountain bike and appreciating wonderful countryside that is often out of bounds does.

Since we are now following legal activities then I'd have thought you'd be happy to see that the fox or other quarry are low down on the list of priorities. Perhaps while we are being honest, Endymion might like to give his real reasons for wanting to see a ban brought in, it can't have been for improved welfare purposes surely..?

 

[wanabe]

Exactly right, Lucretia. By hunting I get to "hack" on ranches of the rich and famous -- places I would not be allowed to enter, otherwise -- and see beautiful countryside.

Also, if hunting is only about "hunting", then why even bother? It has to be one of the most inefficient ways of killing foxes that there is.

 

[combat_claire]

It has to be one of the most inefficient ways of killing foxes that there is.

But the whole point was to manage the population and not exterminate it, by hunting with hounds you replicated a top predator perfectly, picking off the weak, the sick and the old who were most likely to predate stock for an easy meal. Shooting and snaring indiscriminately targeted foxes, which was not good for the population. Also from a welfare point of view there was only ever two outcomes to a fox hunt with hounds - clean away or clean kill, no hobbling off to die of gangrene or starvation from a botched shot.

 

[endymion]

Tosh!!!

 

[lucretia]

you really dont have a clue do you? combat claire couldnt have put it better. that is exactly how hunting with hounds works, and by ensuring survival of the fittest, the fox population in this country is in no danger on becoming extinct. Quite the contrary, it has become so successful that there is also a huge population of urban foxes who are often a complete pest and nusiance where they can only be culed by methods used for other vermin, like poison and snares/traps. with hunting as claire says, either they live or they die, there is no horrid lingering middle ground.
and your avatar says you live in london. well if that is true you should be well aware of the urban fox and if you arent, here is one,the family of which live on the railway line at the bottom of my best mates garden in Penge. We are fond of them and have stopped the bin raiding and attacks on domestic pets by leaving foodwaste on a compost tip by the fence, but before we worked that out they were a right pain.

 

[chester1234]

CombatClaire - you have learnt the arguements well from Mr B I see

As it has been pointed out in more than one post on this thread - nobody is forcing you to reply to a post. It it not like your mouse dictates your hand and makes you click "quick reply".

Urban foxes are more of a pest and vermin than the original country foxes - it has only been in the past 18months or so a report about a small child being ravaged by an urban fox that came in through their conservatory door. How many other attacks like this are required before people realise that they're not so cute? I've always maintained if a fox looked less like the thing that you take for walks every morning, less people would have a problem.

I have to say that our PC do a hunting test before you can hunt unaccompanied, which involves theoretical and practical exams - holla's, gate shutting, a full days hunting, and an oral examination with the huntsman and secretary. Each section must be passed for you to pass the whole test. Training sessions are organised - I spent two cold wet mornings stood in the park with Holly Campbell learning how to shut gates and holla properly. We had fun in the process, but at the same time were learning about hunting and the etiquette needed. There is the opportunity to refresh your memory each season, and it was recommend that those [like me] who took the test prior to the ban, should take it post ban to learn the new ropes. Adults were welcome onto the test, more for the information rather than to take an actual test.

I think those that hunt on foot are fantastic support for the hunt - and those who think that the followers do nothing regards funding are wrong. My mother goes out every Thursday and "car caps". She rattles her tin and the foot followers put their cap into the pot. It varies from person to person, but the average is £2. We have had £20 notes put in the tin, and 2p coins. Whatever people have in their pockets, they give. We often come back from a meet with £100-£150, which is banked in the hunt supporters account. This goes to helping run the kennels, buying things in the for Hunt Supporters meet, and supporting the hunt in general.
They also have the option of subscribing as a foot follower for £x a season. Hunt supporters clubs are often made up of people that rarely if not never follow on horseback, yet they pay their subscription like the mounted followers [yes, it may be less, but they are still paying].

 

[rosie fronfelen]

hunting rules and ways may be "tosh"to a Londoner, so i ask what right does a person from the city, leading a city life have to criticise country pastimes and traditions? i suggest that person gets out into the countryside proper, learns a bit of respect for the people who live and work there and if it still doesn't "click" get back to good old Londinium and leave the hunting fraternity alone.

 

[combat_claire]

CombatClaire - you have learnt the arguements well from Mr B I see

A good teacher in my hunting education amongst others :grin:

 

[BankEndRescue]

What the hell is wrong with just going out and enjoying your horse??? Why does it have to turn into a battle ground??

 

[rosie fronfelen]

you tell me! hunting certainly isn't like it used to be, just another example of harking back to the good old days-none of this back biting nonsense! having not been on these threads long- who is/was Mr.B?

 

[JanetGeorge]

Tosh!!!

If it's such tosh, why have former leading anti-hunt campaigners changed sides - see http://www.walesonline.co.uk/countr...nt-for-a-much-better-solution-91466-22993117/

Jim Barrington started off as a hunt saboteur. He then worked his way up at the League Against Cruel Sports and was undoubtedly the most effective Chief Exec that organisation ever had. It took him quite a long time to reach the conclusion that his predecessor, Richard Course, had come to several years earlier: that a ban on hunting would NOT help the fox.

I had the pleasure of assisting in his 'conversion' - and it WAS a genuine conversion taken over a period of several years and after a great deal of thought and research. And - funnily enough - it was probably helped along considerably by the fact he discovered that LACS hunt 'monitors' were not just lying to the media - they were lying to HIM as well and using 'doctored' video to try to win their case.

Funnily enough, almost all the conversions over the years have been anti-hunt campaigners who realised they were wrong. Course and Barrington were two of the higher profile ones - but there were many more. Graham Sirl, who ran the deer sanctuaries and then took over from Barrington as Joint CEO with John Bryant, Miles Cooper and a number of other active and committed campaigners who all came to recognise the truth.

The anti-hunt campaign struggles to find anyone CREDIBLE who has changed to their side.

 

[chester1234]

Didn't know that JanetGeorge...

I was actually referring to George Bowyer...!

 

[combat_claire]

1, I don't have a horse

2, I wasn't making this a battleground, I was simply questioning the justification for supporting the ban, in my opinion nobody who supports animal welfare should have been for a ban on hunting with hounds.

 

[soggy]

At last, someone who is honest!

I have lost count of the amount of times I have to listen to BS about fox hunting 'not actually being about hunting foxes'.

Welcome to the club. You're not the only one who's lost count of the times they have listened and read BS about fox hunting. All of it from antis such as yourself.

 

[Marcovaldo]

the whole point of going foxhunting was TO KILL foxes , full stop , end of story, not to have a jolly day on a horse or natter to friends . some of us are only interested in three things out hunting
1. HOUNDS
2. TERRIERS
3. FOXES

horses are very low down our list if there at all

I go beagling now and again for fun, is that so wrong? I'm not really bothered if they kill a hare or not. In fact when they kill one they just have to find another one.

 

[soggy]

I wasn't making this a battleground, I was simply questioning the justification for supporting the ban, in my opinion nobody who supports animal welfare should have been for a ban on hunting with hounds.

We all know that the ban has nothing to do what so ever with animal welfare.

 

[Marcovaldo]

the whole point of going foxhunting was TO KILL foxes , full stop , end of story, not to have a jolly day on a horse or natter to friends . some of us are only interested in three things out hunting
1. HOUNDS
2. TERRIERS
3. FOXES

horses are very low down our list if there at all

I go beagling now and again for fun, is that so wrong? I'm not really bothered if they kill a hare or not. In fact when they kill one they just have to find another one.

so , i went hunting for hunting's sake and with the aim of catching foxes , not for fun and jolly japes and a couldn't care attitude .
hell , what would be the point of going ???

I am a jolly chap.

 

[soggy]

so , i went hunting for hunting's sake and with the aim of catching foxes , not for fun and jolly japes and a couldn't care attitude .
hell , what would be the point of going ???

Life must have been rather a lonely, boring, unsocial and unfulfilled existence for you. If was you say is to be believed.
He who adheres rigidly to the single solitary purpose of a task misses out on what the full potential of the event could have been.

Those who fail to grasp and enjoy the full extent of the event and task in hand run the risk of turning what can be and often is for many people the highlight of the week into something akin to drudgery. I find a man who's only purpose in hunting is the act of killing, a lot like a one stringed bow. limited in their application and one dimensional. Where as a violin can play a major part in a whole symphony.

In fact I find all this dower "if I ain't killin it ain't 'unting" BS all rather cliched IYAM

 

[soggy]

I am a jolly chap.

Good for you.