Street Farm
4th December

Hounds met at Street Farm Jevington, by kind permission of Jo Carr (our field master for the day) and Steve Goldman.

It had been raining quite hard for the last few hours, and the field filled up on port, sausage rolls and mince pies to fortify themselves for the wet day ahead.

Hounds were taken behind the meet and laid on to our still broken down quarry Adrian, who was walking the line for the first time since breaking down in Scotland.

Hounds hunted well across the fields, but it was total chaos for the field! There had been heavy rain on dry chalk land, and it proved very slippery coming into the small upright post and rails, which on a normal day should represent no problem at all.

Hounds hunted well all the way to Hanging Hill, but all the field were held up while Jenny Roberts suffered a tricky fall at the second post and rails on her young horse. But she was soon up and away. Meanwhile, the next fence, a small drop at an angle, caused its usual chaos of refusals and run outs, the most spectacular of which was huntsman Nic's young horse, which decided to jump the wire instead!

Meanwhile the hounds were really flying back towards Street Farm, but Nic's horse decided not to jump out of Hanging Hill. He went to the gate, telling everyone to go on with the hounds. He then struggled to get back on, as everyone took him at his word and left him stranded with an excited horse to remount!

His first hunt deteriorated further when Jo Carr, the field master, gave him a lead over the next jump, and his horse fell. Hounds meanwhile had caught their quarry just beyond the last fence. Determined to give his horse another chance, the huntsman came down to jump, but this time his horse landed on the fence. After he had struggled on, the field master jumped what was left of the fence, touching the rail, and the rest of the field watched as it collapsed like a pack of cards.

Everyone except Roger had made it back, and while the huntsman went on to swap over some hounds, we waited for him to appear. It turned out that he was convinced he had missed a jump, and was roaming around looking for it!

For the second hunt our quarry was Robbie, who had been enlarged three quarters of an hour earlier. Hounds were laid on to the Downs on the other side of the valley, off Green Lane, where they took a while to settle on the line. But once through the stock fence, they hunted up over the hill, down past the alpacas and up though the gorse bushes, giving the field a wonderful view of the hounds working and the stormy Weald beyond. By now it had started to rain hard (but not as heavily as it had in Scotland) and as we reached the brow there was a sudden heavy burst of drenching horizontal sleet.

Hounds hunted over the tiger trap and then cast down the hill, which is the normal route they take. It was while before they came back up the steep slope to pick up the line along the top of the hill before jumping back and passing Hill Farm. Here the sheep had been running all over the line, and things slowed considerably. Robbie had taken a different route, and the hounds were stopped on the vague line they had and cast around where he should have gone. Unable to pick up the line, they were taken through the wire gate hoping for some fresh ground, but found still more sheep. After some time casting for his scent, they eventually picked up the line on the gallops and hunted steadily through the sheep before jumping into Deep Dean.

Here, on unfoiled ground, the hounds really flew, leaving the field at the top of the hill wondering how fast they could get down the very steep slope to the bottom without falling over. Here some of the local riders decided to head home, while the rest of the field worked their way down. Hounds hunted on down the valley, and up through the bushes to eventually take their quarry at Lullington Heath.

Meanwhile more chaos ensued behind. The whips and Chairman James Ramus arrived at the bottom of the slope and were close up behind the hounds as they went down the valley bottom. But they were soon overtaken by an out of control field master, who, as the wire fence stretching across the valley loomed, decided that her now very fit horse definitely needed to go back to his pelham bit!

After following James up the hill to see the route up, the field master went back to find the field, which was not hard in the thick undergrowth because there was a loud debate taking place as to the correct route! They eventually found their way up to the hunt jump out of the wood, and then hunted the hunt, following the hoofmarks across the slope and up through the woods, to find everyone waiting for them at the top.

For the third hunt the quarry was Adrian, who had been enlarged 40 minutes earlier in Friston Forest. The hounds were laid on at the top of Charleston Bottom. They hunted up and down through the forestry with tremendous cry, which could be heard right back at the meet. They eventually took their quarry at the gallop's dew pond after an excellent woodland hunt.

Tired and wet we hacked back to the meet and took tea in the stable yard.