I HOPE that readers will join me in congratulating hunts in Yorkshire and further afield, who have switched to drag hunting.

This is legal under the new legislation, and it is also safer for riders and horses.

Years ago, a 50-year-old friend of mine out hunting did not notice a line of wire across a hawthorn hedge, fell heavily and was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. This will never happen when following a prepared trail.

Hunt followers will not know the line in advance and so will continue to have the excitement of galloping and jumping across unexpected countryside. The route will be different on each occasion.

At the same time, drag hunting will avoid large roads and railway lines where there have been occasional nasty accidents.

Again, hounds will no longer rush excitedly into occasional nature reserves, nor public parks, and gone will be the occasional news report of hounds in full hue and cry charging into a back garden and pulling a family pet to pieces in front of terrified children.

Congratulations and good wishes to our picturesque drag hunters.

Bill Sessions,

Rawcliffe Grove,

Clifton,

York.

Updated: 10:28 Monday, November 14, 2005