Mike Felton

THERE are very few MFHs who have been at the helm of the same pack since the 1990s. Plenty of people hunting now were not even born then. Many more will look back on the period pre-ban and feel that times have changed for the worse.

Mike Felton, who joined the mastership of the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale (BV) in 1992, has spanned both periods without a backward glance.

We are speaking via Zoom but you still get a sense of his character; a man of action, not prone to pessimism or fusty reminiscing about what once was. He has retained his enthusiasm for hunting in Dorset throughout this period and continues to look forward positively. Some might say that this is because the BV country is not troubled by many of the issues facing other hunts; it is still very rural and shooting is not the blight that it is elsewhere.

“The farming and landowner support has been amazing”

The running of the hunt has remained the same since his early days, divided