A huntswoman who lashed saboteurs with her whip had been provoked by a balaclava-clad ‘hooligan’, her partner said today, claiming she was ‘very scared at being surround by a load of terrorists’.
Richard Goring, 79, yesterday identified his wife Jane Miller, 56, as the rider who was filmed in a furious clash with anti-hunt activists. He said they had injured her horse and wrongly targeted her because she was not fox hunting.
Mr Goring, whose family founded the five-star Goring Hotel in Belgravia, London, said Miss Miller was taking part in the legal sport of drag hunting instead.
Richard Goring, right, and wife Jane Miller, say they do not hunt foxes and only engage in the legal sport of drag racing
Miss Miller struck the saboteur after he grabbed the horse’s bridle while she was telling him to get out of the field
Footage released by anti-hunt activists shows her screaming ‘Get off my horse’ as she repeatedly lashed out at a masked man who had grabbed hold of her bridle.
Police have since launched an investigation into the confrontation between saboteurs and the East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt Club.
According to the activists, Miss Miller ‘lost the plot’ before subjecting them to an unprovoked attack.
Mr Goring’s family founded The Goring Hotel in London
But Mr Goring, who lives on a farm in Sussex, said his partner had been trying to protect a young boy surrounded by 20 masked men on Saturday’s hunt.
When she tried to disperse them, one apparently grabbed hold of her reins and would not let go – leaving her horse bleeding from the mouth.
Mr Goring added: ‘This guy knows nothing about horses, he knows nothing about how to treat them. All he knows about is how to be a hooligan. Anybody would have done the same thing in that situation.
‘Jane told them ‘Get off my horse’ and then she got out her stick and whipped him.’
He said Miss Miller was drag hunting, a legal sport in which hounds follow a scent trail laid across the countryside.
Mr Goring said: ‘The anti-hunt movement before the ban said ‘Well, why don’t people go drag hunting rather than fox hunting? And I agree and so does Jane.
‘Who wants to go fox hunting? I don’t want to and Jane doesn’t want to. To be honest, I far prefer drag hunting, it’s a brilliant sport. We don’t need to go hunting foxes.
Mr Goring says his partner was trying to protect a young boy who was surrounded by masked men, one of whom he accused of hurting Miss Miller’s horse
‘The activists don’t even need to be there – no one’s doing anything illegal. I think that it is despicable.’
He said Mrs Miller did not want to comment and that saboteurs’ presence at drag hunts have been worrying her for some time.
‘She just doesn’t want to be part of this,’ he said.
‘She’s just an ordinary person like you and me, trying to have a nice life, and go drag hunting and jump a few fences.
‘She was very scared and she still is. She was frightened.
‘I know that it is getting too much for her and she wants nothing more to do with it.
‘She was scared, the horse was scared. She was surrounded by terrorists.’
Footage released by Brighton Hunt Saboteurs shows the huntswoman riding toward the saboteurs, shouting at them ‘Get back to the road’.
She then appears to spur her horse into an activist recording the incident, pushing him several feet backward.
As another masked saboteur rushes in front of the horse and grabs hold of the bridle, Miss Miller yells ‘Get off my horse, get off my horse’ as she whips him. He desperately hangs on, trying to shield his face, while warning the rider to stop using the animal ‘as a weapon’.
The saboteur is finally pushed away by a hunt steward who shouts: ‘Get off the ****ing horse. Don’t grab ****ing horses.’
Mr Goring said: ‘It all started because there was a young boy on a pony and he couldn’t jump a fence that was part of the drag line. So Jane got off her horse and said you can take mine and jump the fence.
‘He was surrounded by 20 saboteurs, all with balaclavas, and he was on his own.
Richard Goring, 79, says the masked ‘hooligans’ are causing trouble for people who engage in the legal sport of drag hunting
Jane Miller was heard shouting as she struck the saboteur, who has been accused of hurting the horse’s mouth by grabbing its bridle
Mr Goring defending his partner Jane saying that she just wanted to forget about it
‘You see these guys all stood round in balaclavas, what do you do? Do you stand there? Do you run away? It’s bloody frightening – particularly if you’re a woman.
‘After the incident, the horse’s mouth was ruined. He had grabbed hold of the reins and, when Jane got off, the horse’s mouth was bleeding.’
A spokesman for the East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt Club said last night: ‘We do not condone any form of violence even when faced with extreme provocation, personal harassment and other offences.
‘The hunt acts lawfully within the confines of the Hunting Act 2004 and takes every measure to ensure the law is adhered to.’
The pro-hunting Countryside Alliance says that hunts are ‘plagued by balaclava-clad animal rights activists who intimidate and harass hunt supporters and landowners’.
A spokes man said: ‘As we have always known, the reality is that the anti-hunting movement is far more about the hatred of people who hunt than the love of animals.
‘Hunts comply with the Hunting Act 2004 by trail-hunting and using other legal forms of exempt hunting however they are still plagued by balaclava-clad animal-rights activists who intimidate and harass hunt supporters and landowners.
Saboteurs claimed one of their number grabbed the horse’s bridle in self-defence, but the Countryside Alliance says the aim of the anti-hunt movement is to get rid of the sport’s supporters
‘Throughout the hunting debate, those opposed to hunting from ministerial level down, asserted that it was wholly an animal welfare measure and that they wanted hunts to continue hunting an artificial scent once the ban was in place yet it becomes more and more obvious that the primary aim of the anti-hunting movement is to get rid of people who hunt, rather than to improve animal welfare.’
Martin Shaw, 28, a saboteur at Saturday’s hunt, said the woman’s reaction was beyond the usual aggression displayed by hunters.
He said: ‘It seemed like she lost the plot.’
He defended the group’s presence on private land as a way to prevent suspected illegal hunting.
A message on the Brighton group’s website said the woman should be expelled.
A spokesman for South Coast Hunt Saboteurs said: ‘A rider intervened riding her horse at sabs [saboteurs] until one grabbed the bridle in self-defence, which then resulted in a flurry of blows to the sab’s head and arms with her whip. She rode away only to come back and try it all again.’