There was an excellent turnout of children and adults for the Boxing Day meet at Keyham Farm, kindly hosted by Carolyn and James Fair. Our regular Quarry, Chris Lee, was joined by veteran Coakham Bloodhounds Quarry Captain, Adrian (Blobby) Paice. Perhaps it was rather fitting that during the pantomime season we had Beauty and The Beast running for us! This meet was planned especially with children in mind, so the hunts were very twisty and kept doubling back on themselves, so that slower ponies and/or fallers could be kept in touch. There were three empty saddles during the day, but all appeared to carry smiling faces at the end of the day.

After much generous refreshment, hounds hit the line from the meet and went straight into top gear, leaving Keyham Farm due south. One rider was caught slightly unawares as hounds raced away and was unceremoniously dumped at the meet by her horse - fortunately without injury! Swinging east to run round the tumuli, hounds then turned back towards Lye Wood. Short of the road, hounds turned south and then back east to run the contours of the hill above Valley Farm Cottages. Hounds were now running well off the planned route but within permitted limits so the Master assumed the Quarry had gone wrong and let hounds continue. As hounds arrived due north of the Manor House hounds checked. It was clear that at this point the Quarry had seen the error of their ways! Ignoring a hare that got up amongst them, hounds cast back by themselves and found the line going through the hedge. They screamed over the plough to the road behind Church Farm, where the Quarry had got back on the planned route. Running round Church Farm, they roared up hill towards the Slade Farm road and were now a long way ahead of the mounted field. They crossed the road to run by Five Ash Farm, where they caught their Quarry 100 yards short of the planned finish.

The second hunt started on the corner of Warren Farm and hounds appeared to miss the first turn as they raced by the point at which the Quarries had gone through a strip of wood. But by the time the field had got through the wood, they found hounds well ahead on the line, which showed hounds had been following the scent on the wind. Crossing the road by the Manor House hounds raced up hill over plough and then back on to grass, up to the edge of the Hawkley Hanger. Running east along Hawkley Hanger, they turned south down hill again to cross the road south of the telephone exchange. The Quarry had put a serious check in this field, but it didn't take hounds long to work it out and run over the bridleway on to plough. The Quarry had put in a lot of work on the plough and this gave us some beautiful hound work to watch as they hunted up to their Quarry behind Priors Dean Church. Most of the first two hunts were on land farmed by Mr Anthony Silk, who is always so helpful to us.

The final hunt was a short burst down Mr Beecham's gallops at Hawkley, finishing back at Carolyn and James' Keyham Farm. This area was crawling with walkers and it was wonderful to see just how selective these hounds can be in sticking to their Quarry, when so many other people and dogs are walking about.

Photographs by Sharon Thayer (Click to enlarge)