I took my young HWV bitch out on her yesterday, as it was such a beautiful evening and I wanted to work her on her own alongside where I knew we had pheasants down.
As I started out, I could hear the hunting horn and realised that they were out working the hounds on foot, pre-season. I soon came across them and the sight was magical. As anyone who works any breed of dog will know, there is nothing quite like watching them do what they were bred for well. Hounds casting out and picking up scent literally 'sing'. It's like no other sound I've ever heard and it was quite haunting, particularly on such a golden autumn evening.
I know realistically that there won't be many more evenings like those but the discipline of the hounds is something many pet owners should be made to study.
As Molly and I walked up to them, she was surrounded by the pack, greeted and sniffed over and then they were gone. Not a grumble or growl, just well-cared for working dogs.
It was a particularly prophetic encounter, as this morning, one of my suckler cows sadly calved a dead heifer calf. A phone call to Claude, the huntsman and the calf will be collected later today, at no cost to me (although I will slip him a tenner!).
I make no excuses about it - I know I get pleasure out of watching hounds work and working my own gundogs and death is the inevitable result of both. The difference to me is in the way the job is done - efficiently, with respect to the quarry and contributing to maintaining the environment which provides me with opportunity to work my dogs. There are those who hunt or shoot who don't do the job well. They've always been in the minority but, like any walk of life, they spoil it for the rest of us - just like football hooligans or racist policemen - whatever.
It doesn't seem right to me that a minority can ruin a sport for the majority, purely because they are mediaworthy and yet that is just what is happening now.
As I started out, I could hear the hunting horn and realised that they were out working the hounds on foot, pre-season. I soon came across them and the sight was magical. As anyone who works any breed of dog will know, there is nothing quite like watching them do what they were bred for well. Hounds casting out and picking up scent literally 'sing'. It's like no other sound I've ever heard and it was quite haunting, particularly on such a golden autumn evening.
I know realistically that there won't be many more evenings like those but the discipline of the hounds is something many pet owners should be made to study.
As Molly and I walked up to them, she was surrounded by the pack, greeted and sniffed over and then they were gone. Not a grumble or growl, just well-cared for working dogs.
It was a particularly prophetic encounter, as this morning, one of my suckler cows sadly calved a dead heifer calf. A phone call to Claude, the huntsman and the calf will be collected later today, at no cost to me (although I will slip him a tenner!).
I make no excuses about it - I know I get pleasure out of watching hounds work and working my own gundogs and death is the inevitable result of both. The difference to me is in the way the job is done - efficiently, with respect to the quarry and contributing to maintaining the environment which provides me with opportunity to work my dogs. There are those who hunt or shoot who don't do the job well. They've always been in the minority but, like any walk of life, they spoil it for the rest of us - just like football hooligans or racist policemen - whatever.
It doesn't seem right to me that a minority can ruin a sport for the majority, purely because they are mediaworthy and yet that is just what is happening now.
