What happens in the early morning at a hunt kennels? For our new Pack of the Week feature in Horse & Hound’s 19 January issue, photographer Sarah Farnsworth visited the VWH kennels in Gloucestershire and found out.

The VWH hunt four days a week and have more than 60 couple of hounds in kennels, looked after by huntsman Philip Hague, who has been with the pack since 2005, whipper-in James Bradley and kennelman Chris Bolland. The hounds are bred by Martin Scott, and have been extremely successful in the showring.

The hunt horses also live at the kennels under the watchful eye of stud groom Chantelle Avery.

The pack currently has four joint-masters: Major the Hon Alexander Bathurst, Mark Hill, the Hon Sophie Scruton and Nick Phillips.

To read more about the hunt, its colourful history, its hunting country, its hounds and the people who hunt with the VWH, buy Horse & Hound’s 19 January issue.

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Always wondered what running a hunt kennels involves? Tessa Waugh spends the day with West Percy huntsman Giles Bennett to get a taste of his hard graft

For most people who hunt, contact with hounds is limited to hunting days, puppy shows, a rare visit to the kennels and maybe some puppy walking. The feeding, washing down and exercise that goes on in the kennels every day, all year round, is invisible to the majority.

Bigger hunts have a number of staff to carry out these jobs but nowadays smaller packs often rely on just one person. The West Percy in North Northumberland is one such example.

Giles Bennett is in his first season as huntsman of the West Percy (and his first season as a huntsman), having moved up country from the Holderness, and he has 25 couple, mostly bitches, in his care.

What does Giles’ day entail?

Timetable: non-hunting day

6.30am — remove muck and wash down yards, check drains

7am — remove wet straw from lodges and fluff up beds

7.30am — (later in mid-winter due to lack of light) walk hounds out

8.30am — return to kennels and feed, supervise hounds in groups while they eat and wash down feed yard afterwards

9.15am — put hounds back in correct lodges

9.30am — breakfast

10am — scrub lodges and walls, add fresh bedding

Noon — any odd jobs around kennels

12.30pm — lunch

1.30pm — collect butcher’s waste from butcher in Alnwick or Longframlington, attend to jobs in the country, e.g. fencing, seeing keepers

3pm — sort butcher’s waste into containers, valeting (polishing boots and coat buttons)

3.30pm — remove muck and wash down yards

4pm — maintenance jobs in kennels and any other jobs, such as collecting haylage, emptying the muck trailer

Continued below…

9 adorable tiny tots out hunting *PICTURES*

The hunting field is a great place for young riders to learn their stickability, make friends and enjoy hours in

Timetable: hunting day

6.30am — remove muck and wash down yards, check drains

7am — remove wet straw from lodges and fluff up beds

7.30am — walk hounds out

8am — draw hounds for hunting, move lorry, put rest of hounds into their correct lodges

8.45am — have breakfast, get dressed for hunting

9.30am — load horses and hounds and head to meet

11am — hunting

5.30pm — back to kennels, feed hounds and wash down feed yard, remove muck and wash down yards

6.30pm — sweep lorry out, clean off/dry out hunting kit

7pm — check hounds are settled for the night

Read the full behind-the-scenes feature about the West Percy’s hunt kennels in the current issue of Horse & Hound magazine (14 January 2015)

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The Berks and Bucks Draghounds will fold if investors cannot be found to add £100,000 to its coffers.

The kennels near Lambourn are owned by shareholders and the two largest — who together own more than 50% of the shares — want to sell up.

A deadline of 1 May has been set to find buyers for the stake, otherwise the kennels will have to be sold.

“The kennels have been valued at £500,000 and there are 100 shares — that’s £5,000 a share,” said shareholders’ trustee Diana Wethered.

“We have sourced £400,000 from shareholders willing to leave their money ‘in’, new shareholders and a mortgage.

“All we need now is the equivalent of 20 people to buy a share each.”

Joint-master Penny Bunter said: “As well as offering a great day’s sport, the hunt plays a major role in the farming and equestrian community.

“We have a flesh round, which is something many foxhunts have given up and, being near Lambourn, there are a lot of horses around here.”

As well as helping to rescue the pack, shareholders will have benefits as regards hunting.

The owner of three shares (£15,000) gets a free single annual subscription each year they retain their stake and five shares buys an annual family subscription on the same basis.

Eventers, including Lucinda Green, Daisy Berkeley (née Dick) and Rodney Powell (a former master), have hunted with the Berks and Bucks, and former racehorse trainer Ian Balding is president and a shareholder.

Mr Balding said: “It’s crucial we sell these shares. The Berks and Bucks is very well known and has been going for 28 years. The hounds are beautiful black and tans and they can really fly.”

• Anyone interested in buying a share should email dianabwethered@aol.com.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (15 April, 2010)

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The North Shropshire hunt is “taking stock” after planning permission for new kennels was revoked.

The hunt won permission to build kennels for 80 hounds and accommodation for staff at Whixall in February, but it was retracted on 6 May after pressure group No Hunt Kennel threatened High Court action.

The group says it is not anti-hunt but believes the kennels would create noise and smells, traffic problems and possible environmental pollution.

A hunt spokesman told H&H that hounds have been happily lodged in temporary accommodation for 18 months and can stay there, but not indefinitely.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (21 May, ’09)

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A bitch and nine puppies and seven adult hounds were killed when fire swept through the kennels of the Fairfax hunt, in Virginia, US, on Wednesday (11 March).

Three hunt horses also died in the fire.

Joint-master Randolph Rouse told H&H: “The investigator said there was a faulty connection to the fridge in the tack room, but we don’t yet know if that is where the fire started.”

Huntsman Kevin Palmer saw the fire when he rose at 5.30am and released the hounds from their enclosure.

“Most of the hounds got away, but the bitch and puppies were in a separate area and we could not get them out,” said Mr Rouse.

The fire was too intense for the horses to be saved. Both the kennels and the stable yard were razed to the ground.

The hounds are temporarily being bedded down in horse trailers.

The hunt has two weeks left of their season and has invited a neighbouring pack to hunt their country this week.

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A determination to keep hunting has seen the Oxfordshire-based Bicester hunt with Whaddon Chase opening new kennels three years after the Hunting Act.

More than 600 people gathered at the new complex at Stratton Audley on Friday, 30 May and cheered as Countryside Alliance (CA) president, Baroness Mallalieu QC, opened the new kennels.

She spoke of the “courage” shown by the hunt in completing the project in difficult times for hunting.

CA chief executive Simon Hart commented: “The Bicester’s belief that hunting will prosper despite the act shows great unity and belief.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (12 June, ’08)

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Plans to move the hounds of the North Shropshire hunt to a new site are being opposed by members of the community.

The row echoes one in Somerset where the Mendip Farmers plan to move their kennels (news, 21 February).

In Shropshire, a group is opposing planning permission for the proposed site at Whixall. But the hunt say they have the support of the council and a move is inevitable.

The North Shropshire was based at Lee Brockhurst for over a century, but last year moved into temporary accommodation at Hadnall following a £3,000 fine by the Environment Agency when foul water from the kennels polluted a local watercourse.

Joint-master Will Warner explained: “We did not need all the space at the old site as we have fewer hounds and staff than in the past and would need to make expensive environmental changes.”

The hunt has permission to build housing on the old site to fund the proposed kennels.

“We are confident our move is just a planning procedure now,” said Mr Warner. “We have to go.”

But a spokesman for the opposition group said: “We would be exposed to noise and smell, traffic problems and the risk of contamination to our livestock from carcasses from across the region.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (20 March, ’08)

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