Hunting for the first time, I'm terrified

[FirstHunt]

Am hunting on Monday it.l be the 4th time I've ridden the horse though he has hunted, I've popped over some small jumps in the school but I've never ever jumped a hedge, will I have to jump? if I don't jump am I likely to be left behind massively that's something he really doesn't like. I don't mind popping over small stuff but not huge hedges etc.

I can jump but I've never been in a situation where I've a jumped a hedge, hedges scare me because they are solid and unmoving, I don't want to have to jump a hedge on a horse I don't know well yet and injure him. When I said about popping over jumps in the school I meant on new horse not that that was the extent of my jumping. But you're right that possibly wasn't very clear.

It is a sad sounding statistic. But what should happen to old hounds otherwise, they aren't usually suitable to be family pets, they are working animals. I imagine a large number of pet dogs are put down in pounds and animal rescues every year, but no-one says ban pet dogs, do they? It is no sadder than animals being raised for meat and killed to feed the food industry, really.

Apparently any hound owner can legally kill a dog with a bolt gun?

Any animal sacrifice can be justified for your 'sport' can it Jade?

Foxes... hounds... horses even... no matter?

Vicarinatutu- it isn't bollocks, at least not in my area. At every meet there is an announcement, part of which is a statement to the followers and landowners that the hunt will at all times be operating within the law. I have not seen any evidence that my hunt is not adhering to this.

(Whereas dogs in rescues and family dogs are injected.)

there speaks the vegetarian

your posts are full of holes, jade.

No, Sabrina, that's not what I said. All dogs, hounds and pets, grow old. Working animals tend to be put down when they have no further 'use' to their owner, sad though that is. Meat animals are killed at the prime time for their meat production. Pets (the lucky ones anyway) are kept alive to the end of their natural life, with medication if they are ill, and sometimes put down if they are sick and in pain, sometimes dying by themselves. This is how it is, the world over.

I might add that I remember one of the heartfelt arguments of the hunting fraternity, when the outlawing was being discussed, being that all the hounds would end up being put down?

Well. They're bred for purpose anyway (unlike foxes) and are put down in their thousands each and every year.

But somehow this is all justifiable... er... Why?

Very few sports fishermen would kill their catch! The local angling group round here would have your arse! I'd love to know how many swans are killed every year by discarded hooks and weight shot, or how many fish die a lingering death after being impaled on barbed hooks, exhausted from thrashing around in terror being 'played', dragged from the water and left gasping for breath before the hook is wrenched from hopefully their lips, but quite often their throats, and then dumped back in the water! But that's ok, because commoners do it!
There are plenty of PLEBS who hunt. The "sport of the rich" argument is used by people who don't actually know what they are talking about!

What holes?

Saggy, I agree re. fishing for sport and throwing back and your points about theimpact on wildlife, totally. From by a 'pleb who hunts'- ha ha.

Fishing sucks too.

I think everyone who hunts are arseholes to the foxes; most of them are arseholes to the dogs; and far too many are arseholes to the horses.

You say it's not a class thing, but you've been throwing insults that suggest otherwise, haven't you? Apologies if I've confused you with another poster!

No, that was me

i say again.
bollocks.
it is bollocks. most people have the intelligence to read between the lies lines.

or why bother?

the RSPCA just brought about a recent prosecution in Berkshire did they not? because hunters believe they are above the law.

if its ok to fox hunt then its ok to speed and drink drive, imo. (and i say that as as someone who has lost friends to that justification) the law is either there for everyone or no one.

and yes you talk bollocks jade and you know it. many hunts still operate totally illegally using bollocks excuses and loopholes in the law. Dont treat people as if they are stupid. thats just insulting.
punkatheart is a wolf conservationalist who posted a you tube clip of a hunt filmed in 2012 well after the ban was in place in which a hunt objector grabbed the fox from the hounds. it looked terrified and tiny among all those dogs.

thats not sport. its barbarism. dressed up.

Human beings exploit animals. It's what we do. We are the dominant species on this planet, we got that way through exploiting other species and the environment. Foxes are no worse off than cows, sheep, pigs, fish, budgies in cages or goldfish. Personally, I'm more disgusted by hamsters and rabbits being stuck in tiny cages and given to small children to neglect.

Ha ha, true greensleeves (do I sound posh though?!) I'm sure beer tricks was the one making insinuations about cheap horses (i.e. rich people are 'proper' hunters) and 'twats in red coats' though!

Oh ok, fair enough, if you're of the opinion it's fine for me to try and keep up I'll carry on doing just that!