‘You lot are a disgrace! Chasing after defenceless animals on horseback!’
The bearded anti was on his mountain bike on a bridle path and so strictly speaking he ought to have given way to horses, according to the Highway Code, rather than blocking their path and shouting at them. But let’s leave that aside.
The main problem with the angry cyclist’s diatribe was that he was yelling animal rights abuse at Britain’s oldest drag hunt, proudly not killing anything for 150 years.
A few weeks ago I reported that I found it baffling that the sabs had been out to thwart the Surrey Union when it was legal trail hunting. And a few of you wrote in to point out that a lot of hunts still accidentally kill foxes. But even if that were true, how do you explain the antis opposing a form of riding to hounds designed specifically not to kill anything, in which the hounds are only trained to follow scent laid by a human runner, these days on a quad bike?
We tried to put old beardy right, stopping our horses on the soggy bridleway to reason with him.
‘This is a drag hunt, mate, not a fox hunt,’ we said with all the politeness we could muster. But the bearded lefty was unperturbed.
‘I don’t care what you call it. It’s a disgrace!’
One of our number continued to try to reason with him, perhaps thinking he could broaden his mind.
‘But we’re not doing anything other than riding our horses in the countryside. You’ve bought yourself a nice bike to ride, I’ve bought myself a nice horse, see? It’s not so very different.’ But old beardy was adamant.
‘You disgust me! Come on! Get down from there and let’s sort this out properly!’
‘I really don’t think that’s a good idea.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in