Fox Hunt: It is a hunt that has very ancient origins, ritual and rich in details as it is. Known throughout the world, today it is practiced more and more rarely due to the danger of extinction long suffered by the red fox.
The decision made about ten days ago by the Tar of the Aosta Valley to allow the continuation of the fox hunt in search mode, has awakened the curiosity for this hunt practiced throughout Europe and America. In England especially, fox hunting has ancient and deep historical roots and its fortune is due to the immeasurable increase of specimens that in the past characterized the whole European territory. On the other hand, the fox is not a creature with which it is possible to discuss and still proves to be a lethal predator of all courtyard animals. The first English fox hunt, conducted with the support of dogs, dates back to 1534, in the county of Norfolk, and many other European provinces did not take long to inaugurate a hunt of this kind.
The aim was always the same: the demographic control of an animal much more than dangerous for a peasant and pastoral economy, to put it in a rural word. Already in the seventeenth century, breeders were thinking of the ideal dog breed to give birth to fox hunting: the first selected was that Bilsadale, from Yorkshire. Fox hunting today has very little to do with that of the past: there have been not a few countries in which the fox has seriously risked disappearing and which today protect it against any form of violence.
Yet in England fox hunting has long been an elite social event whose development lasted an entire day and which featured horses, riders and hunters on foot, in the company of excellent dogs. Each participant wore a particular clothing that distinguished their role and all relied on the pack of dogs that followed the fox's tracks which in turn was led by a person on foot following a pre-established itinerary. In 2005 both in Wales and in Scotland and in England this kind of hunting was abolished or transformed into exclusively figurative hunting that does not involve the death of the animal.
The red fox, also protected in Italy, has long been the preferred prey of organized hunts in England and America. Small omnivorous predator digs its burrows underground and begins to show itself immediately after sunset. It rarely leaves its lair more than 20 kilometers and is characterized by a certain speed. The hunting of the coyote, much faster and bigger than its cousin fox, and of the gray fox, a very distant relative of the European red fox, is almost exclusively American. Fox hunting normally takes place with one pack of dogs, not infrequently of the English Foxhunds, the same ones that are used for mink hunting. Equipped with a surprising nose, they chase the fox relentlessly, but obviously they are not the only ones used during this unusual hunt. In America, for example, the American Foxhund or the Greyhound and Lurcher are preferred. In Virginia, on the other hand, one often opts for herds of Beagles or Terriers, masters when it comes to tracking down a fox.
Another element that just cannot be missing during fox hunting, especially in Europe, is the horse, the field hunter. In some cases the hunting hawk became an excellent ally against the fox. The hunting master is perhaps the heart of the entire organization as he organizes and monitors the progress of the whole activity. Then there are the honorary secretaries who collect the registration fees and the Kennelman whose job is to take care of the return of the dogs to the group that are often recalled with the use of the horn. The Whippers keep an eye on the dogs to prevent any fights and the Terrier man stana the fox if hidden in the den.
Having said this, we remind you that in Italy, in the regions where fox hunting is extraordinarily allowed, this can be organized exclusively for hunting, and that the best times are undoubtedly autumn (from August to October) for the northern hemisphere, early spring for the southern hemisphere of the earth.