Setting aside for the moment your thoughts on whether this sport is cruel, etc…
Is any skill involved? Do you have to strategize? Do you have to be a good rider?
It seems to me that you simply follow the dogs, who are themselves following the fox. If that is the case, then it all seems like an excuse to spend a few hours in the country while riding a horse, and then quaffing a few pints afterwords.
Am I missing something?
I believe you need some skill to ride the horse. I believe somebody needs some skill to train the dogs to chase foxes rather than rabbits, squirrels, etc.
I’m not sure what happens when the dogs catch up with the fox. Maybe they rip it apart or “tree” it, but what do the humans do if they find an alive treed fox? Shoot it (some skill required)? Call off the hounds? Roast it on a spit?
In most cases, fox hunters just chase the fox around. The dogs do not attack it.
Well… The President supports fox hunting.
The dogs do catch and kill the fox . Also any person who is on their first hunt ( including children ) is " blooded " by having a portion of the dead fox wiped on their face. But according to the huntsmen the fox probably enjoyed the chase !
For riders, the sport comes from the unpredictability of the chase - you have to be efficient enough a rider to deal with unexpected obstacles in a manner which will be safe for both yourself and your horse, have quick reflexes, and the endurance to last out what might be at least a steady canter, if not full gallop, for a few hours. The hounds might lose the scent, or pick up another and take the hunt in a completely different direction. On the day of a hunt, you won’t know if you’ll be waiting in anticipation, or getting a full-blown workout, and the communication between horse and rider during a hunt is functioning on all levels, trying to work as one entity.
If the purpose of the hunt is pest control (this will differ from hunt to hunt, but most of the main UK hunts are for this purpose and one if not more foxes will be caught and killed during a successful hunt meet), a treed fox will be forced out, just as a fox which has gone to ground after the hunt may be dug out. The kill is supposed to be fast and humane; the first hound to catch up to the fox usually takes it by a leg, and the second hound to catch up will go on to deliver the killing attack, usually by a shake of the fox’s neck, killing it in seconds. When the hounds rip apart a fox, said-fox should already be dead. When huntsmen describe a fox as having ‘enjoyed’ the chase, it’s primarily refering to the fact that in its natural life, a fox as a predator is used to their equivalent of an adreneline rush, and as a wild animal the chase is a natural behaviour which will feel ‘right’ to the fox.
So the hunt itself requires you to be a skillful rider (assuming you’re not merely following at a gentle trot), but the social aspect is a big draw - a hunt meet without a chase isn’t considered to be a big loss, as quaffing of drinks and a nice lunch with one’s chums is likely to happen.
IANA hunter, and was a sometime-huntsabber in my youth, which to tell the truth was as much of a social event as the hunt itself - thrill of the chase, a few pints, moaning about the weather and poor turn-out…
“the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable” - Wilde.
Since it involves hard cross-country riding over an unpredictable course with a bunch of other riders, it undoubtedly requires damn good riding skills.
Several sites make claims like this paragraph from a BBC News article:
In America, it is seen as strictly sport, and they just chase the fox around, and sometimes chase coyotes instead. In the British countryside, foxes are largely regarded as vermin, and they kill the fox.
Of course, when I grew up, there was a bounty on foxes in PA. A lot of farmers didn’t like them, and it was probably their influence that caused the game laws to be written that way. Nobody mounted fancy fox hunts, but a lot of people would shoot a fox if they saw it for the bounty.
To answer the OP, yes a great deal of skill is required to ride your horse over unpredictable obstacles, many riders and horses are injured, some gravely, every year and even finding a fox ain’t all that easy, they would rather hide and creep away, except that the local hunt masters know where to find them, because they have been caught out red handed feeding and ensuring a protective environment.
The argument about horse and hounds hunts being a method of pest control is tosh.
If you really wanted to control foxes there are much better ways to do it.
The British countryside would look very differant if there were no fox hunting, small stands of copses and other shelter would likely be turned into farmland.
Hedges would be managed differantly too.
Unfortunately the fox-hunter’s cannot be honest, since this is deemed, 'Politically Incorrect, namely that they find hunting is fun.
The issue here about hunting being fun is that if effort was put in then many meets could still go ahead, but without the fox as quarry.
The whole point of the hunt though is to kill something, and the hunters will find all kinds of justifications for this.
This issue tends to divide pretty much along party lines, where the pro-hunters say the antis are ‘ignorant’ and do not understand the ‘ways of the countryside’, the antis simply say that killing for fun is barbarous, especially when the kill itself is actually the most merciful part of the activity, its the chase to exhaustion that disturbs the anti hunt lobby the most.
It does seem to smack of hipocrisy when we in the UK condemn nations such as Spain for cruelty during bullfights or the odd habits of some small European villages such as throwing a goat from a tower and the like when we find it a good laugh to dress up in stupid clothes, and chase after a small predator.
You will note that other small predators such as mink and stoats are not hunted in this manner, perhaps they don’t provide such amusement, instead their numbers are controlled with a variety of methods that could be used for foxes.
…and to wrap it up, if these foxes are such a dire threat to the countryside economy, then why is it that some hunts actually trap and keep foxes for release for the hunters to chase, one meet was discplined by the governing body because of this, but there is evidence that others do the same, and others have been filmed leaving food for them to ensure a steady supply of foxes.
What I find worst is just the dishonesty of the pro hunt lobby, we hunt fish for sport, we shoot grouse for sport, and these have to be carefully managed along with their environment, so why can they not just be honest and say they enjoy it.
It takes lots of skill. You guys have no idea. Sometimes we chase the little SOBs all day.
Note < name.