Over £2,000 is up for grabs on Saturday in the annual international trails being held at Sewingshields in Northumberland.
In 1969 the Cumbrian-inspired sport of hound trailing broke new ground by introducing an international meeting into the programme.
The HTA joined with the Border Association and enthusiasts from Ireland, as well as from Yorkshire in what was acclaimed as a perfect showpiece for the development of the sport.
From those halcyon days of the sport numbers of members, hounds and followers have dwindled but the international meeting still holds a special place in the trailing calendar.
Since 1969 the international has not been staged only twice – for obvious reasons – foot and mouth in 2001 and COVID in 2020.
There is added interest this year as the Irish could be bringing over up to a dozen hounds to compete, along with a handful from Yorkshire.
The Irish and the Yorkshire hounds can be entered on the day but already confirmed are 235 hounds from the HTA.
Border Association members joined the HTA ahead of this season and in previous runnings of the international at Sewingshields it would have been over home ground for them.
There are six trails on the day, headed by the senior hounds and the biggest field of the afternoon will be for the open restricted which has 74 entered.
The senior trail gets the action underway at 1pm and it will be followed by maidens, puppies, puppy maidens, open restricted and veterans.
