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[poll question=’Should Horse Racing distance itself from Foxhunting?’ answers=’Pro Foxhunting – Horse Racing should embrace its grassroots, Pro Foxhunting – Horse Racing would do well to distance itself from Foxhunting from a marketing perspective if nothing else, Anti Foxhunting – Horse Racing should still openly accept one of its core grassroots elements, Anti Foxhunting – Horse Racing should distance itself from bloodsports, Pro Foxhunting – Other, Anti Foxunting – Other’ options=’secret’]
I’ve made this post for two reasons;-
1) It’s been a while since the relationship has been discussed on these boards.
2) While the potential participation of Victoria Pendleton at this year’s Cheltenham Festival has been widely promoted as a means of attracting a fresh band of followers to the sport, little has been mentioned of the fact that her grounding has been a baptism of the blood of cute fluffy foxes. (For what it’s worth, an arbitrary google search of “victoria pendleton””fox hunting” provides nothing tangible nor coherent.)
I have my own opinions on the matter but I’d sooner leave it open for whomever reads this to discuss. Should one not wish to discuss then the poll is anonymous as far as I’m aware.
I ticked pro because I’m not anti but really I guess I’m ambivalent to foxhunting. I like the diversity that hunter chases bring to the NH scene but I’m not sure that pushing the relationship further is in the interests of racing, as opposed to the interests of the hunts e.g. to have the kind of Countryside days and Hound parades. As someone of a moderately leftist persuasion there’s nothing that grates on me more than the kind of political lecturing that goes on at Point to Points during election years. In what other walk of life would folk feel they were entitled to quote politics at paying customers? It really is bizarre. My response was to more or less skip the ptp season in 2015.
I’m pro hunting and racing having a relationship, the very core of National Hunt people are people involved in hunting to some degree or the other. You could quite easily distance racing from hunting if we are talking about flat racing. I believe the countryside must work, if we remove London area’s – Exmoor/Somerset/middle England/North of England all have a thriving hunting community as does Ireland, a day at Taunton will be very much a hunting/shooting/fishing orientated crowd, not so of Kempton, Sandown. So yes, it has its place, however, Victoria Pendleton’s mounts will have been qualified by someone else, not all horses will have actually turned up at a hunt meet, there is much bending of the rules.
It will be interesting to see if anyone actually makes the connection between, hunting = p2p = hunter chase. P2P have done very little to promote VP using this route, maybe this is the core reason. Good post interesting to see responses.It is interesting that The Guardian has been running quite a few articles about this woman, I dislike cycling in all its forms, so I had never heard of her. However not one “bunny hugger” made the connection, though there have been comments about horse racing being cruel.
I am unsure of what racing should do. I grew up in a semi-rural area, riding, I didn’t hunt but was more or less pro or ambivalent. I have lived in an urban area a long time now, where friends and work colleagues are vehemently anti fox hunting and mostly feel the same about racing. I don’t have a problem with hunting myself, animals have worse lives in the name of cheap food, fashion, medicine; it is more of a class issue. I do recall the drop in coverage of show jumping that was in part due to the “hunting pink” donned by the riders. Manchester City Council stopped the show jumping at the show due to a wrongly perceived link with hunting.I am quite happy for a bunch of toffs and social climbers to dress up and ride across country as long as it doesn’t involve killing anything. Alternatively, they could just meet down the pub and have a chat. It has only ever been a social get together blighted by the killing of animals.
I don’t particularly make a connection between that and what Pendleton is doing. Point-to-point was just her way into the sport. Where else could she have got some practice? Has she actually joined the foxhunting brigade?
Am I missing something here (apart from a brain)? I thought foxhunting had been banned?
Am I missing something here (apart from a brain)? I thought foxhunting had been banned?
Well, quite. There’s no such thing as ‘foxhunting’ any more. There’s still ‘hunting’ in terms of people riding around the countryside but that’s not the same thing at all.
I would be perfectly happy for racing to have any sort of connection with the latter.
Mike
If the vast majority of people feel foxhunting is a bad thing, then Horseracing’s connection with it would be a bad thing too. It might even deter sponsors to the sport.
That’s not the same as saying that foxhunting is therefore a bad thing – that’s a separate issue.
To decry something because the majority of its participants are toffs is inverted snobbery – perhaps even “virtue signalling” to use a current expression. The vast majority of brain surgeons and heart surgeons will have come from a priviliged background; would you refuse to allow a top surgeon in those fields do an operation on you because they went to Eton or the like?
I’m a working class towny but have known a few (working class I might add) hunt followers.I won’t go into the very sound arguments they make for supporting foxhunting – that’s not what this thread’s about, but they usually end up pointing out the hypocrisy of the urban luvvie slagging hunting off as cruel whilst never having seen the aftermath of a foxes slaughter of chickens,wildfowl, lambs etc. If people can manage to suppress their class bias and take the trouble to become better informed about foxes and their relationship with the countryside they may, like me, look more favourably upon it.Why would you think VP has been hunting? It is the horses that have to qualify not the jockeys. And, as others have said, foxhunting is currently banned so if he she had gone hunting it would be drag hunting so no ‘cute fluffy foxes’ involved.
Why would you think VP has been hunting? It is the horses that have to qualify not the jockeys. And, as others have said, foxhunting is currently banned so if he she had gone hunting it would be drag hunting so no ‘cute fluffy foxes’ involved.
In order to ride in point to points you neeed to attain a Riders Qualification Certificate. To get one you have to fill out a form with a signature from say a Hunt Secretary who can confirm that you are either a member/subscriber to a hunt or have paid a one off cap for a days hunting. The onyl other way in is to be a son/daughter/spouse of a hunt member, subscriber or farmer…
To decry something because the majority of its participants are toffs is inverted snobbery – perhaps even “virtue signalling” to use a current expression. The vast majority of brain surgeons and heart surgeons will have come from a priviliged background; would you refuse to allow a top surgeon in those fields do an operation on you because they went to Eton or the like?
I’m a working class towny but have known a few (working class I might add) hunt followers.I won’t go into the very sound arguments they make for supporting foxhunting – that’s not what this thread’s about, but they usually end up pointing out the hypocrisy of the urban luvvie slagging hunting off as cruel whilst never having seen the aftermath of a foxes slaughter of chickens,wildfowl, lambs etc. If people can manage to suppress their class bias and take the trouble to become better informed about foxes and their relationship with the countryside they may, like me, look more favourably upon it.Thanks for not going into their ‘very sound arguments’ too much as surely that is just a matter of opinion.
I just made a statement of fact regarding the people who participate and for good measure included your associates in the same sentence. It wasn’t an argument for or against.
I doubt any toffs or social climbers will be crying into their stirrup cup.
“I can hardly believe it, but we’ve been talking about foxes for almost the whole of our allotted hour, but as interesting and animated as as our discussion has been, I’m sorry to say our time is now up.
I have to tell you that the next Question Time will not take place in a town at all, but in a remote island community in Scotland called Summers Isle – now if you want to take part just be aware this will involve travel, and to an unpoliced and potentially dangerous area, often reffered to by criminals as the the low life lounge area, and although we cannot in any way guarantee your safety, we can assure you the discussion will be very hot – as per usual.” (She laughs)LOUD CLAPPING BY THE AUDIENCE FOLLOWED BY DANCING AND MELODIC CHANTING
Current vote here: https://theracingforum.co.uk/forums/topic/your-opinion-needed-on-the-future-of-hunting-hence-point-to-point/
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