Firstly, a brief education: most Americans' experience with fox-hunting is limited to the animated portion of Mary Poppins. The depiction is accurate, as hunting is largely an excuse for thrill-seeking equestrians to gallop across the countryside at eye-watering speeds. Going where few riders with IQs above 90 are willing to sanely go. At least in the United States, the fox, coyote or wild boar is rarely caught. Usually outsmarting the slow, braying hounds with ease. Speaking from experience (note that byline).

Fox-hunting detractors believe the sport is nothing but innocent animals being hunted simply to sate the unquenchable bloodlust of hedonistic killers. Who line their blackened souls with animal sinew. Who drape their children with the carcasses of their kills.

That's the long lead up to a Brighton Hunt Saboteur (their name) getting his faced whipped by a crop-wielding horsewoman.

Now, you may side with the saboteur. You may side with the hunters. We're not here to debate the moral ethics (or lack therof) of fox-hunting. Okay? Okay.

The saboteurs were trespassing on private property. The hunters had every right to be there, the protesters did not. Okay? Okay.

When this chap grabbed the horse, he ceded any moral high ground he may have thought he had. By grabbing the horse's reins, the saboteur was putting the rider (and horse) at great risk. He's lucky the horse didn't knock him down and turn his innards into Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. The rider is lucky her horse didn't rear and knock her to the ground, possibly with the horse rolling over her.

Advice: don't pick a fight with a woman's horse. She will beat the living crap out of you. Proudly. As soon as a protester, in America or England, makes the protest physical, it is within the right of the attacked to fight back. Don't act all hurty when, in this case, that person has a 1200+ pound animal under her, with crop in hand. Which she swings with the accuracy of a vengeful dominatrix.

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