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Hunting with hounds for sport and pest control dates back more than a
thousand years.
Today, hunting live
quarry (including foxes, hares and deer) in the UK is still a major - if
controversial - equestrian activity, particularly in the UK. In
Ireland, foxhunting is favoured and attracts considerably less
controversy. In the USA, foxes and coyotes are hunted with very
little controversy and foxhunting in Australia is seen as a public
service! Draghunting, which involves hounds following a strong
scent laid by a rider in advance of the hunt, or bloodhound hunting,
where bloodhounds follow the scent of a runner - also called 'hunting
the clean boot', attract a much smaller - though no less enthusiastic
following. In France, deer hunting with hounds is popular, but in
Germany, draghunting is the only form of hunting that survives. In
some hunt countries, foxhunting requires a very bold horse who will jump
big fences and hedges, but in many others, hounds can be followed more
easily by children, novices, or the frankly frightened! Draghunting usually involves a lot of jumping
over pre-determined courses of jumps. The
mounted followers of a hunt (called the field) are not involved in the
actual hunting and must follow the Field Master - who will know the best
routes and where the hunt is allowed to go. While it is common for
hunt followers to be styled 'huntsman' (particularly by those who are
anti), each pack of hounds has one huntsman only - usually a
professional.
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