What to expect cubbing?

[Thisnicknameisnotallowed]

I've never been and heard it's more sedate. Is there usually less/no jumping? I want to take my youngster but have never been.

Also does it matter if you don't wear tweed but wear black instead?

Thanks.

I don't hunt but my sister is an avid trail Hunter. She says that it is much faster than when foxes were killed, as there is no standing around, waiting for the hounds to get a scent.

planned.

Weasel if have thought they still have to sniff around to find the trail?!

I'd

Hi, The first thing you should do is ring or email your pack secretary and ask to come along, they can advise you on a suitable meet and how much cap you'll need to pay. Wear a rat catcher there is no need to plait just be clean and tidy. Some packs wouldn't care less if you wore a wax jacket on top others can be rather stickers for turn out, so just ask the Secretary. Put a green ribbon on his but and keep him well away from any hounds even if he is usually good with dogs incase he kicks or bucks with excitement.
I'm not sure if hound exercise is still going on but this is also a good introduction for young horses at the start of the season.
Clubbing can be very stop start with lots of standing around which some youngsters may find frustrating. The Secretary may be able to team you up with a 'nanny'.If there is any jumping there should be a non jumping group you can follow. Make sure you leave with someone to hack back to boxes incase he doesn't want to leave the party. Finally put a Mars bar in your pocket and have snacks/thermos at the lorry you will be starving!! Have fun :-)

Few other things I have thought of; don't be suprised if people leaving the field say "good night" as they go. Yes its only 10am, that's just hunting etiquette. Also when you get to the meet make a mental note of who the Masters are and make sure you keep well behind them. My local pack a lady master was in a ratcatcher so I didn't realise who she was, until I had spectacular brakes failure and sailed past her.....opps! Also if you leave the meet early to hack home, don't assume you can just go back the way you came, you only have the permission of the land owner to pass over their land with the hunt, not hack back home over it afterwards, so if you are not familiar with the area that is another reason to leave the meet with someone if you have to negotiate unfamiliar lanes and bridlepaths on a tired, joggy pony.
Horse and hound forum has a good hunting section and you likely will find it more useful than Mumsnet.

Everything future said plus:

Try to wear tweed if you can - never incorrect in it! Tie and shirt are worn with a 'ratchatcher', never a white shirt and sedate & workmanlike is preferred.

There's nowt like hacking to a meet at 5.15am, the sun just rising as you get to the meet, horses hyped from the excitement of it all, standing around in fields at 8 as commuter trains roll past and the mist rises - then saying ''goodnight'' at 9.30am

Then going home and doing a day's work - I find autumn hunting much more knackering than hunting itself!

Muffin am all excited now . Did have my name down to go but realised it clashed with a dc party so will have to speak to yard owner about a suitable alternative date

Then going home and doing a day's work - I find autumn hunting much more knackering than hunting itself!

Ha yes! One memorable day a couple of years ago started at 3.30am, hunting at 6am, then a trip to LOndon (I'm in South Wales) for the Olympics and ended in Greenwich at 10.30pm

OP It is exciting, this time of year, can't wait for the season to start!

Just had news that our season opens at 6am this Saturday - cue frantic unearthing of kit! I'll be up at 4am as the first few times I'm always hugely disorganised and we're using horsebox rather than the trailer so that'll take a bit longer. I just hope that horse behaves better than he did at a fun ride last Sunday - the whole ride was spent prancing and I felt more than a bit sick.

I never enjoyed it as much as the real thing mostly because my horse didn't like the endless hanging about. However trail riding may be much quicker so best not to take my word! One thing I don't think has changed is that it's not put on for your entertainment (as hunting from November is) so you'll spend a lot of time doing what you're told by the Field Master. It starts very early round by us but once it gets to 7.30am it's doable for us. Would love to take DD out but not sure we can trust her Sec B after his recent antics!

Well I'm absolutely worn out after yesterday - up at 4am, wandering round field to try and find horse whilst being followed by 65 sheep and the cat! I really must get some fluorescent tape to stick on his rug! It was, as expected, rather dull but nonetheless good for his brain. Watching the young hounds trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing was entertaining, every time they saw someone on a horse they rushed up to them expecting the boss and then turned away disappointed when it wasn't!

Dhorse managed to shift his hind shoe and tread on the toe clip so that's now off and he has a poulticed foot which is not a good start. I was hoping to go again next Saturday followed by a fun ride on the Sunday, fingers crossed there's no major bruising....

Cubbing is illegal.
Cub hunting, as the name suggests, is the practice of hunting fox cubs rather than adult foxes. It is a type of hunting never spoken about publicly by the hunters as besides from being illegal, it is an abhorrent concept.
As such, even prior to the hunt bans in Scotland, England and Wales, an attempt was made to sanitise the name by calling it ‘Autumn Hunting’. Cub hunting is often also shortened to the phrase ‘cubbing’.
Whatever the name used for it, it remains a dirty secret of the hunting world, and despite the ban on hunting a wild animal for sport the practice remains a very important, and widely practiced, part of the hunting season.
When does it take place?
Cub hunting takes place in advance of the traditional fox hunting season. It starts from the beginning of August and will run through until the main season starts officially on the 1st November. It will take place very early in the morning, often starting at 6am in August and gradually moving later towards the usual 11am start as it heads towards the main season in November.
The day starts early due to good scenting conditions due to dew/mist, and before the heat of the day dries this up so that new hounds have the best chance of scenting foxes. It could also be argued that such an early start allows this abhorrent activity to be better hidden from the public, who are largely unaware that it takes place.

Yawn GB - as you would have known if you'd read the thread OP was corrected and advised that is autumn hunting since the law changed, and it involves teaching young hounds about trailing. You are right in that it's early to get the best scenting conditions, trail hunting involves following a revolting concoction of fox wee (imported from the US before you get your knickers in a twist), and other stuff so they do need to be able to smell it.

I get up at 4am, stuff the horse in a trailer and stand around being bitten by midges for a couple of hours then come home and am wiped out for the rest of the day - madness, absolutely but cruel, abhorrent and illegal - no.

GB- hunts have never hunted 'cubs', probably best to get informed before posting.

that has to be the best load of hogwash I've ever read! Pretty good job of making it convincing though gb, if only you weren't posting on a thread full of people who do actually know what they're talking about

The text in gb's post is cut and pasted from the League Against Cruel Sports' website.

Oh so not even his own hogwash

I wonder how many more pastimes that site has made up! I'm not sure if my blood pressure can cope if I look!

Actually the site doesn't come over quite the way gb made it sound.

Eh? Our hunt do our autumn hunting in the afternoon these days. Since we are hunting a very smelly sock and the masters don't like early mornings there is no advantage to hunting in the morning - and we have nothing to hide!

A quick glance at the LACS website linked to above throws up a number of out and out codswallop, not least the statement that "Fields of crops, prior to harvest, are also used in the same way during the early part of the cub hunting season." Oh, yes - I can just see the farmers letting a bunch of horses and hounds tear through their precious crops before they get round to harvesting them!

What autumn hunting is good for is catching up with old friends that you haven't seen all summer, enjoying the countryside at a beautiful time of year, riding your horse across stubble fields, through woods and headlands knowing you have the permission of the landowner to be there, teaching your horse patience, watching the young hounds get fit (they have to get fit somehow!) and learn their job (which is following the trail laid by a dragged smelly sock.) There is no killing of foxes, young or otherwise.

If the LACS and other saboteur groups were so convinced of their facts, I am sure they would be up and about early in the morning doing their crusty sabbing thing and videoing the lot. Instead, because it is a bit boring watching a bunch of people wearing drab clothing sitting on horses not going anywhere and having a nice chat in a field somewhere while the sun rises, they wait until the main season - it is much more emotive to video men in red coats galloping about a bit and having a drink at lunch time, and besides, it won't disturb their beauty sleep.

A question I've always wanted answering, but never been given a valid reason: Why, if hunters are doing something illegal and sans are upholding the law, do hunters show their faces and put their best side forward - clean tack, plaited horses, best clothes, etc - while the sabs cover their faces and look like they have plenty of dirty little secrets? I've often thought they might be taken a bit more seriously by the hunting community if they had a wash, brushed their hair, cleaned up their language and had a rational argument that they were able to coherently put across, rather than flicking their dreadlocks out of the way and screaming 'fucking scum!' while we are waiting for the trail-layer to drag the smelly sock across a field.

Indeed Back, some sabs seem not to have changed their methods or manners at all. I know of one lot who track people's cars/trailers/boxes back to their homes after one day's hunting and then next time round wait for them to come out and try and follow them to the next meet - all the while dressed in camo kit and wearing balaclavas. When the police were asked if this was permitted they effectively shrugged their shoulders and said that no laws were being broken......

I have no objection to them holding an opposing view, or even making those views known at a meet or wherever in a rational way, but the physical and verbal intimidation of most of them is out of order as is the continual harassment.

I do still find it funny when the sabs are short handed and pay a load of students to show up. You can spot them huddled in a group with wtf faces on wondering what they're supposed to be doing and if the £20 and a free balaclava offsets the freezing mud they're bathed in

I have hunting friends and they laughed when I enquired how you call a pack of hounds off a fox. They said they had never seen them bother t call them off..
Real nice way to spend your time!

If it's trail hunting, call it trail hunting!

Cubbing is a psychopathic exercise and is absolutely disgusting.

Don't forget that Hunts trespass regularly and wreak havoc on livestock and domestic animals.

Of course someone will claim their Hunt never trespasses. Which will be a lie.