Hunting Mad

17/07/2024

Further to the King’s Speech, this was a brilliant speech from Peterborough today.

17/07/2024

10/06/2024

Penny Fillingham Photography has written the following and has given permission to reproduce below;

Please share and circulate to as wide as possible audience.

Since I posted the article by Ivan Massow ( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13508859/beautiful-bloodhounds-never-hurt-fly-dread-fate-Starmer-class-warriors-ban-hunting-dogs-IVAN-MASSOW.html) about his bloodhound pack with regards to Labours pledge to end all forms of trail hunting, including clean boot, it occurred to me when reading the comments (some which were deleted, not by me) how little people understand about what hunting is and the importance our hounds represent to the community that surrounds them. I really do recognise that as a close knit community we might live inside a rural culture bubble of friends and environment which is separated in so many ways while still being a part of the UK. It has its own language, its own understanding of the surroundings and way of explaining them and its own identity in the same way any society is multilayered. So I thought I might describe a few things to those outside the cultural groups with regard to foxhounds. This might be obvious to some but I think it's especially important that people who don't have an attachment to a pack of hounds gain a bit of insight.

Foxhounds and Bloodhounds are referred to as hounds not dogs, they're not pet dogs, they're working hounds. This doesn't mean they're any less loved. When they work together as a pack and make dog/hound noises telling you and the other hounds in the pack that they've picked up a scent it's called speaking, when they raise their voices together as they do when they become excited: about a new person in kennels, dinner time, their Huntsman arriving at the door or even a sunrise, it's called singing. When they create a chorus they're as vivid and on pitch perfect and as any human choir. It's all a bit magical and it's true that sometimes they sing together purely for a sunrise. You don't want to live next door to a hunt kennels if you're not a morning person. People follow hounds to hear those voices, the hairs on your neck prickle, the air clears to absorb in the sound, somehow it's like touching your roots.

Even though hounds are a part of a pack and all live together in hunt kennels they're individuals, they all have their own name which they know and respond to and great deal of care goes into breeding a line of hounds. They need to suit their country, their physical shape and abilities are representative of the countryside they work within which is hugely varied in the UK. Lines go back hundreds of years and are recorded by most packs. Sometimes a dog hound is brought in from another neighbouring pack to mate with a suitable bitch or a bitch is drafted to a different area where her ability may be more fitting to the country but what remains is that anyone who works with the pack knows its heritage and considers how to keep improving it to maintain a healthy working line. Like all dogs they're bred for a purpose and are most happy when they fulfil that purpose.

Hunt kennels can have anything from 60 to 140 hounds or even more living together at any one time. The bi***es are separated from the dogs and the ladies who are in season have their own special area. All to be sure that everything runs smoothly at kennels. When a bitch has a carefully considered and bred litter of pups they grow up with their mum and at about 10 weeks they leave kennels with puppy walker. A puppy walker is someone who enjoys being part of the hunt and has time and an area to bring up and train one or more puppies. The hound puppy lives with the puppy walker learning all the early stage puppy stuff a regular dog does such as their name and where the comfy spot on the sofa is before they become too rambunctious and as a rebellious teen return to kennels with nothing more than a desire run off into the countryside on hound adventures.

Pups who return to kennels are then reintroduced to the pack and learn how to curb their adventures, to work and live together as one over the next season. They remain a pack member, cared for by the hunt staff in kennels, eating a raw diet of fallen stock (one of the jobs a kennels does is remove fallen farm animals which can't enter the human food chain) most dogs would dream of, working a job they were bred for and being adored by hunt followers until either they sadly reach end of life or they retire back to the comfy spot on the sofa of their puppy walker as a more chilled old hound. Everyone who follows a pack wants each individual hound to retire comfortably, many people who follow hounds offer places for them when they do but there are only so many old puppy chewed sofas. If Starmer follows through on his divisive and frankly vindictive pledge to end all trail and clean boot hunting with dogs that's far more hounds in one swoop than sofas available and not only relaxed old hounds but the young full of energy, 20-30 miles a day at a canter hounds that will need homes. There's no future for them and as a gamekeeper's son who grew up in a rural environment he's well aware of their outcome as a result of his pledge.

It's Kennels Open Day season. If you'd like to meet some hounds and the hunt staff who care for them, see where and how they live. Understand things from a fresh perspective. Then I can find your nearest kennels open day and point you in the right direction (that includes you Starmer), just contact me.

Photo of Quorn Barley and Bambi (ch) being reunited with their puppy walker at last year’s puppy show

06/06/2024

Today we mark the 80 years since the D-Day landings, remembering the service and sacrifice of all those involved in turning the tide in the Second World War.

Photo curtesy of Hazel Mansell-greenwood Photography

01/05/2024

Happy new 24/25 hunting season to all my hunting customers old & new. Let’s enjoy it whilst we can 😊

With 1st May now upon us, the Countryside Alliance wishes all members of hunt staff, Masters and those taking on an official role within their hunt, all the very best for the coming season. Thanks, as always, must go to all those who have stepped down from an official role and to those who have dedicated their lives to hunting with hounds but who have now retired or changed careers. We continue to be grateful for everyone who works tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare in hunt kennels and stables and look forward to the start of the 2024/25 season.

Those fully employed in fieldsports, including hunt staff, are entitled to discounted Countryside Alliance membership. Find out more here… https://eu1.hubs.ly/H08Tlwk0

📷Hattie Austin Sport Photographer

17/03/2024

Thelwell 2024 Calendar.......now only £4

17/03/2024

Last two of these lovely diaries......now £5 each to clear!

01/03/2024

This is so quick & easy to do…..

On this day in 1998, the Countryside March headed to London to stand up for the rural way of life. 26 years later, we're still here, but we need your help with this next step. Sign our e-lobby today and ask Steve Reed MP to withdraw the commitment to ban drag and trail hunting 👉 https://bit.ly/3wzP0lT

16/01/2024

SALE of Thelwell & Mary Ann Rogers Calendars now only £8 and A5 Hound Diary now only £10 whilst stock lasts!

28/12/2023

26/12/2023

Happy Boxing Day everyone! Enjoy supporting your local packs today 😊

(These were my lovely hound puppies TFH Hazard & Hawthorn that I walked this season) 🤩

19/12/2023

The Postman picks up at 9am each day if you have any last minute shopping 🛒

12/12/2023

The winter postage sale ends tomorrow! All parcels are only£1 postage until then.

09/11/2023

Are you Calendar, Diary or Weekly Planner ready for 2024? They also make great gifts….
All available at www.huntingmad.co.uk

09/11/2023

A few reminders about etiquette on the hunting field featured in Polly Portwin’s piece in The Telegraph earlier this week. What other hunting customs are important for everyone to remember?

If you subscribe to The Telegraph you can read the full story as well as the other information about how to introduce your child to hunting safely here too…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2023/11/06/hunting-as-a-child-taught-me-resilience-and-courage/

31/10/2023

Bidding closes at 10pm this evening (Tuesday 31st October) for the Hunt Staff Benefit Society’s online Auction of Promises where there are some fabulous lots - including many hunting days - up for grabs!

Click here to find out more ⬇️
https://uk.givergy.com/HuntStaffBenefitSociety2023/?controller=lots&category=All%20Lots

23/10/2023

Are you Opening Meet ready?
Stocks from £16.50
Navy/Black Hat Velvets £24
Ladies Hunting Breeches £90
Mens Hunting Breeches £100
Gloves, Stock pins & even gifts!
All available at www.huntingmad.co.uk

20/09/2023

30/08/2023

Not long now

22/08/2023

Check out at our top tips on what you need to think about ahead of autumn hunting so you don't appear late, flustered and unkempt on your first day

14/03/2023

Wow what a day 🤩

04/11/2022

A useful turnout guide, kindly available from the Cheshire Hunt

28/10/2022

Wishing all our customers & followers a fun 2022/23 season.
Thank you for your loyal support 😊

01/05/2022

With 1st May now upon us, the Countryside Alliance wishes all members of hunt staff, Masters and those taking on an official role within their hunt, all the very best for the coming season. Thanks, as always, must go to all those who have stepped down from an official role and to those who have dedicated their lives to hunting with hounds but who have now retired or changed careers. We continue to be grateful for everyone who works tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare in hunt kennels and stables and look forward to the start of the 2022/23 season.

Image courtesy of Hattie Austin

01/03/2022

That was some day……

Were you at the Countryside March in London on 1st March 1998? Tell us your memories of that day 24 years ago, which saw hundreds of thousands of people descend on the capital to protect the rural way of life. 👇