Double the work, double the reward
“WELCOME to Fen Bog” were the words that greeted me on a small sign, off a rutted track, in thick fog on the North Yorkshire Moors. A small gang of diehards had brought the Bedale hounds to the Saltersgate Farmers country for a joint-meet and the outlook was bleak. Twenty minutes later, other vehicles began to appear and my apprehension started to diminish, along with the gloom.
After 40 minutes, the music of 26½ couple of hounds was echoing across Newtondale. This was the sound of two packs working together in perfect unity, to the enjoyment of hunting folk from different parts of Yorkshire.
Hunts meeting together take two forms – the joint-meet, where hounds from both packs are generally combined, and the visiting day. Here another pack has the opportunity of seeing their hounds work in a different country and appears on the meet card as “by invitation”.
Both have quite a unique feel and the day is eagerly anticipated. The joint-meet is a convivial
