JenHunt
Well-Known Member
As some of you may know OH and I have been organising a pleasure ride on behalf of the hunt SC... Tomorrow is the big day, so we have spent most of the day signing up the route, marking maps etc...
The last job of the day was to check that 2 gates that had been cleared by A.Nother on our behalf had been opened by the keeper. Got there (this is after 40 minutes off roading!) to find that no, not just not open, but firmly padlocked.
They aren't rights of way so I've no problem with them being locked, it is just that they were supposedly cleared to be opened. So I rang the keeper, and he said yes, they had been spoken to, but his boss (head keeper) hadn't spoken to the land owner. I took down the number, rang said chap who was lovely, just took a couple of grid refs and said it was no problem if the keepers were happy. Job done.
Or So I Thought....
Keeper rang me back a few minutes later to tell me that the 1 of the gates actually belongs to a neighbouring estate... He'd called them and left a message with the head keeper. We discussed the route a bit more, with options if we couldn't use the gate, and he said he'd call me back when he heard more.
OH and I then heard from a local farmer that some of his "beasties" had got out and he was struggling to get them rounded up as they'd gone a bit "wild". So rather than upset an already on edge farmer we rerouted the start and finish of the ride (still need to sign that bit in the morning!).
We got most of the rest of the route signed and called it a day at half 9pm! Keeper rang just as I was cooking dinner to say that everything is cleared, gates will be opened first thing by the other estate, and the keeper is going to go up and check that it's been done. He apologised profusely for the inconvenience and the confusion. He also said that his boss was a waste of space and that in future we should give him a call directly and he'd clear it with the landowners for us and sort out the gates etc. He even offered at one point to have helped resigning the route if we'd not have been able to use the original one....
He has even, off his own back, gone and cut the wire around the cattle grid that I posted about yesterday, and dug around it to fill in a ditch to make the crossing easier.... What a gem!
I am totally overwhelmed by the guy's generosity - he doesn't know me or OH, he doesn't hunt (too busy with shooting), he doesn't ride and to my knowledge has little to do with the hunt. He just in all honesty seems to be a really genuinely nice guy. I made many thanks for his help, we're letting his sister and her kid go for free as a thank you, and he just said - we're all in it together, and none of us know when we might need the help of the other.
what a refreshing change that was - in an area known for having awkward keepers who in their minds have suffered some injustice at the hands of the hunt in the long distant past. And he is right - we are all in it together.
The last job of the day was to check that 2 gates that had been cleared by A.Nother on our behalf had been opened by the keeper. Got there (this is after 40 minutes off roading!) to find that no, not just not open, but firmly padlocked.
They aren't rights of way so I've no problem with them being locked, it is just that they were supposedly cleared to be opened. So I rang the keeper, and he said yes, they had been spoken to, but his boss (head keeper) hadn't spoken to the land owner. I took down the number, rang said chap who was lovely, just took a couple of grid refs and said it was no problem if the keepers were happy. Job done.
Or So I Thought....
Keeper rang me back a few minutes later to tell me that the 1 of the gates actually belongs to a neighbouring estate... He'd called them and left a message with the head keeper. We discussed the route a bit more, with options if we couldn't use the gate, and he said he'd call me back when he heard more.
OH and I then heard from a local farmer that some of his "beasties" had got out and he was struggling to get them rounded up as they'd gone a bit "wild". So rather than upset an already on edge farmer we rerouted the start and finish of the ride (still need to sign that bit in the morning!).
We got most of the rest of the route signed and called it a day at half 9pm! Keeper rang just as I was cooking dinner to say that everything is cleared, gates will be opened first thing by the other estate, and the keeper is going to go up and check that it's been done. He apologised profusely for the inconvenience and the confusion. He also said that his boss was a waste of space and that in future we should give him a call directly and he'd clear it with the landowners for us and sort out the gates etc. He even offered at one point to have helped resigning the route if we'd not have been able to use the original one....
He has even, off his own back, gone and cut the wire around the cattle grid that I posted about yesterday, and dug around it to fill in a ditch to make the crossing easier.... What a gem!
I am totally overwhelmed by the guy's generosity - he doesn't know me or OH, he doesn't hunt (too busy with shooting), he doesn't ride and to my knowledge has little to do with the hunt. He just in all honesty seems to be a really genuinely nice guy. I made many thanks for his help, we're letting his sister and her kid go for free as a thank you, and he just said - we're all in it together, and none of us know when we might need the help of the other.
what a refreshing change that was - in an area known for having awkward keepers who in their minds have suffered some injustice at the hands of the hunt in the long distant past. And he is right - we are all in it together.