The chap­ter “The Hunt­ing Farmer” from “How to Ride to Hounds” empha­sizes the cru­cial role that hunt­ing farm­ers play in the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of hunt­ing as a sport in Eng­land. The nar­ra­tive appre­ci­ates these farm­ers for their con­tri­bu­tions and con­trasts their sit­u­a­tion with those in oth­er regions where pri­vate land rights pro­hib­it sim­i­lar hunt­ing prac­tices. It argues that with­out the coop­er­a­tion and active par­tic­i­pa­tion of farm­ers, who often own or work the lands used for fox hunt­ing, the sport would face sig­nif­i­cant obsta­cles. These include the pos­si­ble extinc­tion of fox­es, imprac­ti­ca­ble fences, and ruinous dam­ages result­ing from hunt­ing activ­i­ties on farm­lands.

The text also delves into the lifestyle and ethos of the hunt­ing farmer, pre­sent­ing him as the back­bone of the hunt­ing com­mu­ni­ty. These farm­ers, it asserts, have a unique per­spec­tive on hunt­ing, see­ing it as part of their cul­tur­al her­itage rather than mere­ly a pas­time. This per­spec­tive allows them to nav­i­gate the bal­ance between their agri­cul­tur­al respon­si­bil­i­ties and their enthu­si­asm for the hunt. The hunt­ing prac­tices and the reliance on the good­will of farm­ers for access to their land is high­light­ed as a pecu­liar­ly Eng­lish tra­di­tion, unlike­ly to be under­stood or accept­ed by farm­ers in oth­er parts of the world.

The farm­ers’ tac­it con­tri­bu­tions to the sport are por­trayed as a blend of cus­to­di­an­ship over the tra­di­tion and a prag­mat­ic approach to the use of their land and resources. They are depict­ed as prac­ti­cal, mod­est, and knowl­edge­able indi­vid­u­als who under­stand the land and the behav­ior of fox­es, mak­ing their par­tic­i­pa­tion essen­tial for a suc­cess­ful hunt. The chap­ter reflects on the dif­fer­ent atti­tudes among farm­ers, rang­ing from those who hunt with ambi­tion to those who pre­fer a more laid-back approach, always pri­or­i­tiz­ing the wel­fare of their land and live­stock over the friv­o­li­ties of the sport.

Final­ly, the nar­ra­tive under­scores the admi­ra­tion and respect that hunt­ing enthu­si­asts should accord to these farm­ers, rec­og­niz­ing them as the unsung heroes of the hunt­ing world. The sub­tle cri­tique of urban igno­rance towards the rur­al life­ways and the explic­it val­oriza­tion of the farm­ing lifestyle serve to bridge the read­er’s under­stand­ing of hunt­ing as not just a sport but a tra­di­tion deeply inter­twined with rur­al com­mu­ni­ty life and agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices.