10 January 2023 , 16:52
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Chilling footage showed the moment when a huntsman threatened to "f**ing kill" an animal welfare activist while charging at him on his horse.
The disturbing clip, filmed during the Wynnstay Hunt near Malpas, Cheshire, shows the unnamed rider aggressively aiming his steed at Shaun Sant, 32, on Saturday.
The horseman could be heard on a clip saying: "F*** off. That's my f***ing job. Don't f***king do that again or I'll f***ing kill you - you hear?!"
Shaun, a volunteer with action group Cheshire Monitors, feared being "trampled" when the huge colt cantered up to him, as he tried to put hounds off a fox's scent.
But he only twigged that the rider had made shocking verbal threats to kill after he later reviewed the foul-mouthed footage.
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Shocking footage shows the huntsman charging at Shaun (Shaun Sant / SWNS)Shaun said: "It was a bit of a panic. I tried to remain as calm as I could in that situation. It all happened very, very fast.
"I thought I was going to get hit by a horse. I thought I was going to get trampled. He was coming at me very fast. I had my arms out in front of me.
"I didn't even really think about it. I was just in a bit of shock. It was only later when I thought, 'I'm sure he'd say he'd kill me', and I watched it back and he did.
He added: "It was surprising from a huntsman who has never said anything before or interacted with me to suddenly blow up like that - I was like 'Jesus, what the hell?!'."
Shaun has spoken of his shock following Saturday's incident (Shaun Sant / SWNS)Shaun said he had been performing his duties as a "runner" with the Cheshire Monitors group when he was rounded on by the huntsman at just after 1pm on Saturday.
He said: "The hounds kept picking up on a scent.
"It's my job when I'm in the field to essentially stop them from obviously picking up on that fox, and get in between the hounds and the fox.
"I was running with the hounds, I'd gone through a couple of fields and then the hounds picked up on a hare. That's when I said in the video 'You leave it'.
"The hare popped up, and the hounds started chasing the hare, and after that, that's when he flipped and rode at me and said he was going to kill me."
The terrifying exchange was captured on video (Shaun Sant / SWNS)Shaun, who was unharmed during the incident, said he was surprised that the huntsman had reacted in such an aggressive manner.
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He said: "We do experience stuff like that quite a bit in the field.
"They get advised not to interact with Sabs because essentially, they can incriminate themselves. I've been doing the Wynnstay for a while and he's never said a word to me.
"So that was more of a shock than anything, the fact that he's broken that commitment to his silence.
"He's obviously very riled at what I'm doing - stopping him being able to hunt how he wants to."