Helton will stage the first major meeting of the new HTA season with the traditional May Day trails.
They used to be a standing dish at Borrowdale but as the years have moved on they were staged at Lazonby for a few years, and more recently have gone to the Area best prepared to take them on.
Hound trailing, very sadly, is not the sport it once was when crowds flocked to the weekend meetings and generally there were trails most nights of the week except Friday.
As the numbers of supporters, members and attending bookmakers have fallen away so too the obstacles being put in its way seem to be increasing.
Venues are being lost, with a change in agricultural approach and farmers more reluctant to allow their land to be used for trails. So, too, the National Trust is more protective of nesting birds so that meetings in certain parts of the year are banned.
For instance, the big trails on Monday would normally have started about 1.30pm but to give time and space for nearby pony-trekking and to accommodate the increasing number of fell walkers, the first trail won’t take place until 4pm.
Events over the years have combined to create a current situation where fewer hound trail pups are being registered year on year. There were only 65 this year – 35 Produce bitches, 22 Produce dogs and eight non-Produce – which is down on 76 last year and 82 the year before.
Fiona Dixon is secretary and says: “It is still a wonderful sport but numbers are falling. The older ones pass away or are to infirm to be able to train their dogs and there aren’t enough new, younger people coming into the sport.
“The changes in farming and the involvement of the National Trust means that some of our areas are short of venues at certain times of the year. Then when we do have more meetings there are not enough hounds to go round.”
Those are the bare, rather depressing facts, but hound trailing remains a hugely enjoyable sport with some wonderful characters involved. It will come alive on May Day with, given the weather, a good turn-out at Helton.
The Hound Trailing Association has a new chairman and vice-chairman this year, who are taking on the challenges the sports faces in 2022.
The new chairman is Paul Airey who has been involved in the sport since the 1970s. He was first elected on to the Carlisle and Penrith Area in 1995 and six years later took on the position as chairman.
In 2013 he was made the HTA vice chairman while he has continued to run his own hounds.
He took over as chairman from the retiring and respected Barry Laidler, who has been a successful trainer for many years.
Paul’s elevation to chairman caused a vacancy at vice chairman and that’s been now taken on by Andy Horn. Previously a member of the Border Association he joined the HTA in 2019 and was elected chairman of the Wigton and Aspatria area.
So what of Helton on Monday? There was a meeting last Saturday with the former chairman Barry Laidler taking the senior trail with Kirkhead Rebel in a very tight So what of Helton on Monday? There was a meeting last Saturday with another former chairman Roy Laidler taking the senior trail with Kirkhead Rebel in a very tight finish with Sophie Steele’s Miterdale Dusk.
The puppy trail went to Huntsman’s Rebel who has already rattled up six wins and looks an early candidate for more honours for the highly successful Patterdale kennel of Denise Bland.
Other pups which have been running well include Ned’s Gain (4 wins) and littermate Strawberry Mick (2 wins).
There is £150 prize money for each of the five trails and four rather special trophies named in memory of the donor, the late Lillian Harrison for the first four races on the card. Entry fee is £5.
The running order is: Hounds 4pm; Maidens 4.45pm; Puppies 6pm; Puppy Maidens 6.30pm; Open Restricted 7pm.
