Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds

Welcome to the Web Site for the Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds
Updated June 2009

In the interhunt relay we won both of our heats on Friday which put us through to the final on Saturday. Everyone looked fantastic and well turned out. Our team was 3^rd overall , much improved on previous years!! So thank you to Russell, Nana, Emma and Jane and all of those who turned up to support us – very much appreciated.

The Barn Dance photos from Julian

With apologies for the delay (as waited for Julian's photos - which are now here!) here is Michelle's write up on the excellent Barn Dance. We would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Michelle for all her organising skills in producing the fliers and tickets, sorting out the ticket sales and putting everything together and liaising with everyone to make sure that the evening ran smoothly. The rest of the photos will be up soon!

The Kent & Surrey Barn Dance:

Yee Haa! Thank you to all of you who helped make the barn dance such a huge success, despite the rain and rather chilly weather.

We had sold about 150 tickets before the night itself with about 30 more being sold on the door so the turnout was excellent, and whilst everyone was looking forward to a great night, I don’t think we could have dreamt that it would go so well. The night itself was kicked off by “Darcy Spice”, the barn dance band. They got so many people up dancing and showed great patience and humour trying to get everyone turning in the right direction! There were no shortage of dancers and the dance floor seemed to be permanently packed with the shrieks of laughter nearly drowning out the caller!

The food was delicious and plentiful and the bar was working at full capacity all night, quenching thirsty dancers and keeping everyone in the party spirit – I personally can’t remember attending a function where the bar prices were so reasonable, however, I suspect that I did ‘pay’ for all those drinks with the monumental hangover I had!! Once the barn dance band had finished their set, the second band of the evening, “The Puppies” stepped in. They played far beyond their allotted set due to cries of “more” and “encore” every time they mentioned that they were playing their last song! Eventually, I think they finished about half past midnight leaving the remaining “hard-core” party-goers to start to wend their weary and inebriated way home!

Our sincere thanks go to Lee Middleton MBH who allowed us to use his farm as the venue and who also arranged both bands and supplied a particularly decadent chocolate fountain – enjoyed by all and even worn by one! (Who shall remain nameless ......but he is mentioned in 5 words time!), we also need to thank Alwyn & William for erecting the Marquee, Julie Middleton who arranged the catering and sold over 50 tickets & Danny for providing all the straw bales for seating. There are so many other people who helped make the night such a huge success so a huge Thank you to you all! These evenings do not organise themselves on and we could not do it without the support and help of all involved.

The evening’s shenanigans were digitally captured by Julian our faithful & ever-present photographer and will soon be available for you all to see. They really do capture the essence of the evening and even help fill in the blanks for those of us who partied just that little bit too hard!

To those of you who weren’t able to make it – don’t worry we’ve more to come with the Farmers BBQ on the 5th September and the James Bond themed ball scheduled for November so keep your eyes on the website as we will be posting the dates and venues very shortly.

If I can take this opportunity to make a little plea – please support our events, we need to raise substantial funds to keep operating the hunt and to feed our hounds throughout the year, in times of economic hardship, we know that every penny counts, and we will always try to ensure that our events provide not only great fun for all but also give value for money – all we need from you is to buy the tickets and to come along and enjoy yourselves!

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More photos from the Hound Parade at Lingfield Racecourse

More photos from the Parham Point to Point. The race featured is sponsored by Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds and Crawley & Horsham Hunt.

The complete set of Photo Albums

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END OF THE 2008 - 2009 SEASON REVIEW

After getting off to a later than normal start we had a couple of well attended hound exercises with hounds and horses getting fit. The Opening Meet was as usual at The Wheatsheaf, Marsh Green where Neil got us all off to a good start with his generous stirrup cup of Whiskey Mac. We were lucky to have got into the car park as Emma claimed pole position in the parking stakes!

Sadly this year we were minus Camilla who has hunted hounds for the past 2 ½ season and has now gone off to pastures new in Ireland where she is continuing to gain experience in the hunting and eventing world and Master Tony Watts who retired after hunting with the Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds for 19 seasons and before that 12 seasons hunting with The Coakham. We hope that we may see him out for a day with us at some point in the future and wish him luck in his retirement! We did however have Bill back hunting hounds for a short period as he then handed the horn over to Andrew Hazeltine. Bill is now taking things a bit easier on the riding front with less pressure but still very much involved in organising the country for hunting days.

Andrew has however risen to the task along with Russell who is whipping in and between them have ensured that we all have a great day hunting with hounds on fine form and in good voice.

Our Quarry is still headed by Captain Adrian Sole who along with Bill and Andrew continues to walk country each and every weekend. Adrian has been joined from time to time by Michael, Jason, Danny and William. Dan also doubled during the season on gate closing duty and picking up any stray hounds. Emma was a great support at the front of the field with me (and for a couple of days as we took it in turns to fall off ) helped ensure we “sat nav’ed” our way round therefore keeping everyone in touch with the hounds. Jennie has continued to be the stalwart of the hunt by keeping things going at home with the hounds and horses and ensuring that Quarry are transported on hunting days.

We have had some superb days hunting with many being generously hosted and lots of very tasty teas. Our thanks to Lindsey and Gill for their help at tea time especially last week at Lowbridge.

Our days were varied and interesting with a good mixture of timber and hedges and always a gateway for the less adventurous. Hounds hunted well and the introduction of several puppies throughout the season made for exciting days with Andrew practicing his horn blowing and Russell improving his fitness!

We were sad to lose a few days to the adverse weather conditions but had a fantastic “Childrens Meet at Heaselands“ with 53 mounted followers and slightly less foot following!! All riders were beaming at the end of the day and untold requests for this to be repeated next season were heard.

We rounded the season off with a very well attended meet at Lowbridge where parking and standing room at tea was at a premium and with everyone having had a brilliant day were then looking forward to the start of next season.

We must take this opportunity to thank our generous Farmers and Landowners who allow us access to such wonderful countryside, thereby ensuring that we always have fantastic country to hunt. Their support of our sport is invaluable and for that we are extremely grateful.

We have some superb photographs, courtesy of Julian, which adorn the website thus keeping everyone pictorially informed of the days events. We have also got a double page photo feature in this months Local Rider.

So to everyone who contributed to this season “THANK YOU” – IT IS A TEAM EFFORT.

Make sure you watch the website during the summer to see our up and coming events, parades and social gatherings, the next of which is the Point to Point at Parham on March 21st. Please come and support and enjoy a fun day out.

If you feel that you would like to be more actively involved in the hunt , please contact Jane who would be pleased to hear from you.

Wishing you all a long lazy summer or at least a restful time at some point and we look forward to seeing you again in September with your horses and ponies fit and ready for another season with the Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds.

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Who let the Dogs out?: Click here for a YouTube video

"My daughter and I were foot followers at The Dolphin Meet on 15/02/09.
We would like to say how much we enjoyed seeing this stunning pack of hounds at work.
We hope that one day we will be able to introduce our retired jumping mare (has issues) to the hounds. Seeing them has certainly inspired us to work to achieve this.

This was a memorable day.

Hope you enjoy the video link compiled by my daughter (Rhea) from the meet. It includes footage from the RMSC drag hunt on 01/02/2009. The 2 pack provide a striking visual and vocal contrast.

Kindest regards, Liz and Rhea Mulvihill"

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JULIAN'S PHOTOS FROM THE LAST MEET OF THE SEASON
March 1st
Lowbridge Farm, hosted by Mr & Mrs C Milan

Lowbridge Farm: Line 1 - Line 2 - Line 3 - Line 4 - Line 5

Jordans Farm

PHOTOS: Line 1 - Line 2 - Line 3a - Line 3b - Line 4

The Childrens Meet at Heaselands

PHOTOS: Line 1a - Line 1b - Line 2 - Line 3 - Line 4

For High Resolution copies of the pictures contact Julian on 07768 398333 / julianportch@hotmail.com

Friday 20th February saw us meet at Heaselands, by very kind permission and huge thanks to Richard and Lucy Kleinwort. We had a fantastic turnout of children and chaperones all of whom had a great day. All in all we had a mounted field of nearly 50 which is a bit of a record for us!!

Everyone was beautifully turned out and impeccably behaved with all ponies fitted with brakes and steering, which always makes the day run smoothly. The feed back and smiles on faces at the end of the day was very encouraging and left us with in no doubt that the day was successful.

Our thanks go to Bill and Andrew for putting the lines together, organising the day and making sure that everyone had a way round, even the non jumpers. To Adrian, Dan and Jamie for running the lines and being our quarry for the day. To Jennie for making sure the hounds arrived safely , to Sophie for liaising with mums and children and to gill and all the mums for organising and providing a sumptuous tea to finish the day . We must also thank Julian , firstly for taking care of charlotte along with Sophie and for all his brilliant photos taken throughout the day – hopefully he has captured at least one of each of you – so please contact him should you wish to purchase any.

Thank you to to everyone for coming to join us on our taster day with the Kent and Surrey Bloodhounds. We sincerely hope you had fun and would love to see you out again hunting with us – probably next season now, but watch the website during the summer for up and coming events.

JULIAN's PHOTOS:

The Dolphin February 15th 2009