Browse content similar to 13/05/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Exmoor National Park. A rich and diverse landscape. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:30 | |
Gentle hills, wooded valleys, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
rolling farmland. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
All straddling the counties of Devon and Somerset. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
Gracing its remote moorlands, 3,000 red deer, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
the largest wild herd in England. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
Imagine finding these when you're out on a walk across the moor. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
Well, spring is the time | 0:00:53 | 0:00:54 | |
that the magnificent stag starts to shed its antlers. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
And I'm going to be out with an "antlerholic", | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
who's going to give me some top tips on finding the perfect pair. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
I'll be training my gaze | 0:01:04 | 0:01:05 | |
on another of Exmoor's magnificent creatures - the peregrine falcon. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
One man is taking falconry to a whole new level. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
He's reviving this ancient and noble sport. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
And just look at what he can do. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:01:21 | 0:01:22 | |
Tom's finding out about an animal that needs our help. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
In Britain today, thousands of horses are being abandoned. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
Others, like this one, are neglected. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:33 | |
But with animal charities running out of space, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:37 | |
who's going to look after them? | 0:01:37 | 0:01:38 | |
Well, maybe you could help. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
And the last of the spring lambs are making an appearance | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
on Adam's farm. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:46 | |
There we go! | 0:01:46 | 0:01:48 | |
Obviously a little bit stuck, it's quite a big lamb! | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
There! Lovely! | 0:01:53 | 0:01:54 | |
Exmoor National Park. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
267 square miles of very different landscapes, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
shaped by people and nature over thousands of years. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
At times, the scenery can be bleak, but it's always breathtaking. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
The park sits across two counties. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
Two-thirds in Somerset, and the rest in Devon. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
Exmoor became a national park in 1954. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
But in its dim and distant past, it was a royal forest | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
and a hunting ground. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
Today, it's enjoyed by field sports enthusiasts, serious walkers, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
and those who just wish to enjoy its beauty. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
Home to the iconic Exmoor pony, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
these fellas are the closest you can get to the wild horse | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
that once roamed Britain. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
But I'm not here just to see the ponies. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
I'm on the lookout for our largest wild land mammal - the red deer. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
They may be large, but they can be elusive. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of them with Exmoor park ranger, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
Richard Eales. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:08 | |
You look up on the side of the hill here, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
you've got two lines of trees coming down. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
Look to the far line and...? | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
-Yeah, got 'em. -Got 'em? -There - yes! | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
It seems to be a mixture of both stags and hinds at the moment. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
Stags being the male deer and hinds being the female deer. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
Exmoor National Park is a very diverse landscape and you've got | 0:03:27 | 0:03:32 | |
deep wooded coombs, you've got these expanses of open moorland. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
And the deer really just adapt to wherever they are. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
At this time of year, the stags shed their antlers. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
With many miles of moorland, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:45 | |
how do you find an antler in a national park haystack? | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
Well, you need a man who knows his antlers from his elbows! | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
Terry Moule is a self-confessed "antlerholic". | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
He spends hours looking for a matching pair. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
He's got some of his finest finds to show me. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
-Terry, these are absolutely unbelievable! Aren't they? -Yeah. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:12 | |
How long have you been fascinated with antlers? | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
I've been collecting antlers ever since I was twelve years old. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
Do you know, until you grab hold of them, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
you've got no idea how heavy they are. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
-I mean, that is some weight to have up on your head! -Yes, it is. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
So what's the story behind these, then? | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
Well, this stag is well known in the valley. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
-This one actually shed its antlers on about the 14th of March. -Yeah. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:36 | |
And by August, he'll have a full set. Yeah. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
-All the velvet will be starting rubbing off then. -Right. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
-All ready for the rut. -So, are you following them? | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
-Waiting for them to...? -Yeah, I study them a lot. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
Just imagine when it's on a stag like that. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
-One comes off, so what he's doing, he's, oooh, he's like this. -Yeah. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:58 | |
So he isn't going to stay like that all day. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
So either he goes down to his ground, he'll go in like that. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
And off it comes. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
And they drop off as simple as that? | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
And you might find them just like that. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:11 | |
How does it feel, Terry, | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
when you see a pair of antlers like that on the ground? | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
I mean, I've been collecting antlers all my life, | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
but when I first found my antler, oh, my heart was beating! | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
-Was it? -Oh, you can't imagine what excitement it is. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
If you're not keeping them in the car, Terry, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
where do you keep all of these antlers, then? | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
I started off by filling my front room up, just a few to start with. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
Then it got filled more. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
Then we couldn't have no visitors, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
because we couldn't open the sitting room door! | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
So it took me two days to put them all up the stairs and in my bedroom. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
-And there they are today! -How many antlers are in the room, then?! | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
The last time I counted, I had 600 pairs. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
And probably about between 400 odd ones. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
What's going on in the back seat here? | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
You'll have a job getting that out. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:02 | |
There must be a way of getting these out! Is there a special technique?! | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
Let me do it. You've got to push that one there. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
And you try, somehow, to get it out that way. That's it. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
Well, somehow... It got in there! There it is. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:21 | |
And this is my pride and joy. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
-Don't tell me you keep these in the spare bedroom?! -No. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
-These are in the lounge, are they? -These are in my lounge. -Yeah. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:31 | |
-When I watch my television. -Yeah, this is the aerial? -There he is! | 0:06:31 | 0:06:36 | |
Terry's antlers are literally prize specimens, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
picking up a winning rosette in several local shows. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
Later, I'll be finding out what antlers tell us | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
about the health of a herd. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
But first, whilst we've been down here in Exmoor, | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
Tom's been up in the north of England, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
investigating the growing problem of abandoned horses. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
It's an idyllic scene here in the rural north east of England. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
Horses grazing in the sunshine on open moors and green fields. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
It couldn't look more picture perfect. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
But for an increasing number of horses in Britain, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
this seems to be more like the reality. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Tied up in a field of pretty rank grass. And look at the hazards here. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
There's a car bumper, a rusting paint can with plenty of sharp edges, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:27 | |
even an old handbrake. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
And look at the lovely industrial backdrop! | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
As the recession bites, the problem grows, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
with the price of hay at an all-time high and costly vet bills, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
many desperate owners just can't afford to keep them. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
Last year alone, Cleveland Police had 2,000 complaints about horses, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
from concerns over welfare to animals running free. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
PC Mike Pilbeam gets called out to new cases daily. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
The area that we're coming up to now is the last known | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
location of where these loose horses were. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
Today, he's doing a routine check | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
in the middle of a housing estate in Middlesbrough. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
Communal land here that used to be full of terraced housing | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
is now full of grazing horses. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
-Why are these horses here? -It's a very good question. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
We've spoken to some local residents in the area. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
The majority of them have owned horses for a while, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
stating that they've had them through childhood | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
and everything else. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:33 | |
Others, unfortunately, it is a status symbol | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
and I've got kids as young as 13 that have purchased horses. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:41 | |
And unfortunately, wherever there's a bit of grass, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
there's a horse on it nowadays. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
The horses themselves are tethered, but their foals aren't. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
Word soon gets out that we're here | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
and the owners come to see what's going on. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
-Now then. -How are you doing? -I'm fine, yourself? -Hello. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
So are all of these horses here yours? | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
Yeah. I get a million phone calls a day about these horses, yeah? | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
-That there is a foal. You cannot tether a foal. -I'm Tom. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
Nice to meet you. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:10 | |
Do you mind me asking, sir, why you have these horses? | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
-Well, we're gypsies. -Say it again? -We're gypsies, we have horses. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
-They pull the bow-tops. -Yeah. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:20 | |
But do you feel it's all right keeping horses on grass like this? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
-Are you happy with that? -Yeah. Unless you want to give us a field! | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
Isn't there a danger it'll run away? | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
-No, because it won't leave its mother, will it? -Yeah. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
Do you make a bit of money out of them, | 0:09:32 | 0:09:33 | |
do you trade them amongst the family or whatever? | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
If we want to sell them, we get money out of them. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
-But we don't want to sell them. -How much do you get for a foal? | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
That's our business, isn't it?! | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
It's thought this man has a number of horses in the area, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
some kept in fields, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:47 | |
but many in similar conditions to what we see here. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
Fly-grazing on council land. Essentially, eating for free. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
He said he was a gypsy, | 0:09:57 | 0:09:58 | |
but is this exclusively an issue with gypsies and travellers around here? | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
No. We've got house owners that are keeping horses in gardens, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:06 | |
stabling them in small garden sheds and it's just not practical. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
The situation on this estate is pretty extraordinary. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:16 | |
Within a mile and a half radius, there are around 250 horses, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
many without adequate food or shelter. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
So why are we finding so many animals in such poor circumstances? | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
Well, one of the reasons is that horses are so cheap now. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
You can buy them for under a fiver. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
In effect, that's ponies for pocket money prices. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
At this auction, horses can go for a few pounds. That's if they sell. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
150. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
100. 50 to start me. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
£40, then. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
Auctioneer Alistair Brown has noticed a dramatic fall | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
in the value of horses. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:03 | |
We had three that came in the ring and we had to sell | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
the three together, and they made £10 for the three. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
£20, anybody at 20? Somebody bid me 10. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
'Horses and ponies are making pittance.' | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
These are going to various places, but there are getting | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
fewer and fewer homes for these ponies to go to. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:26 | |
There's obviously others dispatched in various other ways. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
One for the showroom here. 100. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
For some, the horses are not even worth the petrol it costs | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
to take them to the auction. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
As the problem escalates, animal charities are struggling to keep up. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
The RSPCA is facing a national crisis, with around 600 horses | 0:11:46 | 0:11:51 | |
in their care at the moment, twice as many as they had last year. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
Chanel, here, was found with this terrible skin condition, | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
but that's not the worst of it. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:00 | |
She was so thin, she had to be hoisted up | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
and still, her backend is really bony, you poor thing. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
And Chanel is just one of the many horses taken in on a daily basis. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
The RSPCA are working to rescue others. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
Today, they're at a raid in Kent, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
working with other welfare agencies, the police and local vets | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
who've discovered 30 horses grazing illegally on private land. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
Inspections show many are in a bad way. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
Nearly every horse in this field is underweight. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
We'll be taking quite a few, because a lot of them | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
are really quite skinny, and have other issues - | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
nasal discharges and diarrhoea and bits and bobs going on. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
The horses showing signs of neglect are taken for treatment, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
but at a cost of around £5,000 to rehabilitate each one, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
animal charities are facing a huge financial problem. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
So what happens to those that aren't lucky enough to be rescued? | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
Undoubtedly, there is the prospect that horses are put to sleep | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
because people can't cope, and as sad as that is, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
it's a truism that a horse cannot suffer if it's dead. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
Therefore, there are people who are making the decision to have their | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
horses put to sleep, rather than abandon them to an uncertain future. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
Although putting them to sleep sounds very harsh, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
what things have you seen | 0:13:25 | 0:13:26 | |
that some of the severely neglected horses are going through? | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
A horse that is neglected usually suffers at this time of year. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
They've been starving all through the winter, they are skin and bone. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
When we're tucked up in bed with a duvet, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
they're out there shivering their socks off. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
They're usually very ill, they often have infectious diseases, | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
worms eating away at them. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:45 | |
It is a picture of suffering which you cannot imagine, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
unless you've been through it yourself. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
The prospects for those animals are much worse to be neglected, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
than they are to be put down. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
In extreme cases, the outcomes are bleak. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
It's hard to quantify the national situation, | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
but it's thought that at least 3,500 horses are left chained or tied up | 0:14:04 | 0:14:10 | |
without shelter at any one time. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
The soaring number of abandoned and neglected horses | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
are stretching the charities to breaking point, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
but far from throwing in the towel, they've come up with a plan, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:23 | |
and it needs your help. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:24 | |
I'll be finding out more about it later. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
The wilds of Exmoor. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
A place of bleak beauty | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
and one where natural resources have been exploited | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
and enjoyed for generations, as Ellie's been discovering. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
-Do you mind if I pick a few bits and pieces? -Yeah, that's fine. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
I've come to a local herb farm, to gather some ingredients. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
'The natural environment here is providing the materials | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
'for a cottage industry, making something you'd least expect.' | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
This borage is in flower now. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
A bit of rosemary. That should liven things up. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
Check out the haul I've got. Not bad, eh? | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
Believe it or not, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
I'm going to turn these herbs into something we use everyday - | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
paper. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
But this is no ordinary paper you'd write your shopping list on. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
At this old wood mill, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:33 | |
Neil Hopkins makes top-quality paper using strictly traditional methods. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:38 | |
-Neil, how are you doing? -Hello, Ellie. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
-I've brought the ingredients. -I heard you were bringing something. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
Can you really turn that into paper? | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
We certainly can. Very lovely smelling herbs. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
I've also got this, but I'm very unsure about this - a pair of jeans. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
This is actually a very good ingredient to put into paper. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
It will make a lovely sheet of blue watercolour paper | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
that a watercolourist would be so happy to work on. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
First, we pick the florets and pretty leaves from the herbs. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
Then, in a matter of seconds, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
these unloved denims have been torn and cut into pieces. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
There goes my pair of jeans. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
The jeans are shredded in the rag breaker | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
and turned into a jean soup, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
which is added to a mix of cotton, linen and water. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
Whoa. A grey, mushy pulp. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
The next job is the hard work, which you ought to do. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
-We've got to mix it around. -With this oar? | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
-Yes, just an old canoe paddle. -The paper we're going to produce, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
how does that differ from the paper that most people ordinarily use? | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
We make a lot of papers for artists, and if they're selling paintings - | 0:16:47 | 0:16:52 | |
and some of them do sell paintings that are very valuable - over time, | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
if you make them on wood pulp, they will actually self-destruct. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
We make a paper that is archival, and it will last 2,000 years. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
Oh, OK. What's next? | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
Next is...those lovely flowers and herbs you got this morning. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
-What do we do with these? -Sprinkle a few over the top, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
where we're going to make the sheet in a moment. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
This is kind of artistic merit in the paper, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
it doesn't change the construction of the paper particularly? | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
No, it doesn't. It could have an interesting effect | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
that some painter might want to work upon. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
-Have I put too many in? -That's about right, I think. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
-It's quite a few. -That'll be fine. -OK. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
The next thing is making the paper, and to make the paper | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
you need a papermaking mould. It's just a mesh, it's a sieve. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:38 | |
Dip it underneath those flowers, and just bring it up in a smooth action. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
That's it. Get it straight and bring it up. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
-It's pretty heavy, isn't it? -It's heavier than you think. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
Really heavy. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:49 | |
And then we need to move over here, because this table is a vacuum table, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
and it will suck the water out of there. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
Feels like a magic moment. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
-There it is. -Oh, that's lovely. Look at that. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
-Put that to one side. -It's really rather attractive already. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
This is the last commercial hand paper mill in the country, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
so Neil's keeping a tradition alive. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
The paper is still too damp to handle, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
so most of the remaining water is pressed out of it. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
I'm looking forward to seeing this. The moment of truth. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
-Lift the blanket. -Ah-ha! | 0:18:41 | 0:18:42 | |
Oh, wow, that's lovely, isn't it? Gosh, how pretty. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
Can you touch it yet? | 0:18:47 | 0:18:48 | |
You can, and I think if you flip that sheet over, | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
I think you'll get a nice surprise when you see the other side. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
Oh, yeah, isn't that pretty, with all the flowers coming through? | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
Ah, that's delightful. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
Artist Jenny Hale has been using Neil's paper for many years. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:06 | |
-Hi, Jenny. -Oh, hi. -Mind if I join you? -Yeah, do. Have a seat. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
-What are you painting? -Primroses. -Oh, yes. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
What a good spot for it, too. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
It's fantastic, isn't it? Beautiful with the stream beside it. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
That's Neil's paper. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
What about Neil's paper, how is that for you as an artist? | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
It really makes the colours stand out. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
The way he makes it makes the colours really sparkle. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
-It's beautiful paper to work on. -These pictures are gorgeous. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
-Thank you. -I'm no artist, so I'm going to have a go at origami. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:38 | |
-I used to do that as a kid. -Do you want a bit of my paper? | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
Yeah, if that's all right. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:42 | |
It will be a bit rustic, because it's quite thick, but... | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
I'm no master of it, I'll say that, but let's see what I can produce. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
Fantastic. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:50 | |
-You're nearly there, Jenny, that looks amazing. -Oh, thank you. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
I'm on the final stages of my origami. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
Ready? | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
Ta-da, it's a pot. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
-Oh, it's lovely. -It's all yours. -It's really lovely, I love it. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
-Oh, thanks. -It's got a lovely bottom. -You're welcome to it. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
-It's beautiful, thank you. -No worries. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
Just across the border in Cornwall, Jules is on the coast in search of | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
an animal that lurks beneath the waves in the hundreds of thousands. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
Now, it used to be a staple food in this part of the world, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
but for decades, it was largely absent from the great British menu - | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
until recently, when it's made a striking comeback. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
And this is it, the Cornish sardine. Or pilchard. | 0:20:56 | 0:21:01 | |
This silvery little fish has attracted a newcomer to this | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
part of the coast, a chef, but his story begins halfway round the world. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
Sanjay Kumar grew up in Bengal, where he first began cooking. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
He's followed his taste buds ever since, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
until he made roots here in Cornwall. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
What was it about cooking that got you started? | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
To be honest, my father is a really, really bad cook, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
and that kind of showed to me and my brother, who is also a chef, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
that if we don't pick up this skill for life now, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
we'll die hungry of starvation! | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
And both of us are chefs in our lives, so that proves it all. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
-You started in Bengal? -Yes, it's a long journey, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
but it all relates to fish. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
Bengalis are called fish and rice people. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
Look at this beautiful sardine here. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
This is an amazing fish, easy to cook | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
-and really delicious. -Well, I have a slight confession to make. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
There are two types of people in this world - | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
there are those who love fish in all its forms | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
and there are those who don't. Guess which camp I'm in. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
I was half expecting this was going to happen, but trust me, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
I'm going to try my level best. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
-Right, mate. This could be a turning point. -Don't let me down. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
To make the sardines easier for me to swallow, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
Sanjay is going to spice things up a bit. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
Basically, taking some Cornish sardines | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
and then dusting it with some garam masala spice. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
Garam in India means hot, and it kind of gives you | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
that warmth inside which keeps you going through the winter days. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
Sanjay's serving me the sardines in a wrap, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
with a rhubarb and tomato chutney. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
One of my big problems is the smell of fish, | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
but actually this, to be fair, doesn't smell fishy at all. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
How fresh and local can it get than this? | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
Just roll it nicely, like a cigar. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
We give a cheer to Cornwall, to fish, tin and copper. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
To fish, tin and copper, and my very first sardine. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
And first bite. What do you think? | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
That's actually really nice. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:23:22 | 0:23:23 | |
What have I been missing out on? | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
I've got an idea of how to say thanks to the chef. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
Later, I'll be taking him on a little adventure. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
But first, I'm intrigued to discover | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
how the pilchard came to be known as the Cornish sardine. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
Records of a pilchard fishery here go back to 1555. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
Exporting to the continent, catches steadily grew. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
16,000 tonnes were hauled in 1871 alone, before the industry crashed. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:54 | |
Bigger boats meant that a far greater variety of fish could be caught | 0:23:54 | 0:23:59 | |
further out to sea. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:00 | |
The poor old pilchard was largely forgotten, until one man had an idea. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
It used to be known as a pilchard. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
The image of pilchard is tins, tomato sauce. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
The image of a sardine is sunshine, barbecues, etc. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
It was changing the name to Cornish sardines | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
that changed the perception of what it was. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
How are we doing in terms of this revival? In terms of tonnage? | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
In 1998, the landings were about seven tonnes a year coming in here. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:29 | |
The landings are now 2,200 tonnes. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
We've done the research with the Marine Stewardship Council | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
to find out what the size of the stock is. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
You're talking 600,000 tonnes. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
What we're taking is very sustainable | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
and we've got a lot of room to grow yet. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
Skipper Stefan Glinsky is on the trail of the Cornish sardine, | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
and this evening, I've arranged for Sanjay and I to join him. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
How did you do that? How did you manage to rustle up such a boat? | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
A little bit of a treat. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:03 | |
We head off into the fading sun - | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
the perfect time of day for catching sardines. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
-Sanjay, the sardine spotter. -Yes. -Seen any yet? | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
There's something happening here. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:30 | |
Suddenly, the skipper gives the order. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
-Can you turn the light off? -Turn it off. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
And the net is set in darkness. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
At the moment of fishing, we had to turn all of our camera lights off, | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
so we couldn't really show you what was happening. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
The light would have frightened the fish away, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
but now they're in the net. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
I must be honest, I have never seen anything | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
quite as dramatic in terms of fishing as this before. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
As it comes up, it reveals the world to us, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
a different world which we don't know what's inside the sea. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
Amazing. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:25 | |
But tonight, the sea isn't full of sardines. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
What have we caught, Stefan? | 0:26:33 | 0:26:34 | |
Sprats. Whitebait, small ones. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
-No sardines, but I guess that's the luck of fishing, is it? -That's it. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
Fortunately, Sanjay has a recipe that will work with whitebait, too - | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
a ceviche. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
The acid in the lime juice cooks the flesh, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
while coriander and chilli add bite. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
Think of all the beautiful things in life | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
and just pop it in your mouth. That's it. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
OK. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
Oh... | 0:27:14 | 0:27:15 | |
Think of job satisfaction, think of world peace. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:22 | |
Keep chewing. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
Keep chewing. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:25 | |
Do you know what, mate, I have to say, I never thought I'd do that. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
Well done, Sanjay. We've had a good night's fishing, haven't we? | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
Here we are, back in port. Well done. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
Job done. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:36 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
This was really good fun. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
I'm also in the south-west, exploring Exmoor. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
The National Park has around 3,000 wild red deer. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
At this time of year, the stags are shedding their antlers, | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
but what do they tell us about the animal that produced them? | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
Well, that's where Charles Harding comes in. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
He's a deerstalker and warden for the National Trust. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
I'm sure it will come as a major surprise to many people | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
that this is just the growth of what, a few months? | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
That's right, three months. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
These points, do they give an indication of age? | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
Yes, that antler there now is a mature stag | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
and he's got what we call brow, bay, tray and then two atop. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:27 | |
But the bigger stags, they have more points on the top. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
Anything from this up is a mature stag. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
And the velvet, then, give us an idea of the purpose of the velvet. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
When the new antler is growing, that velvet is protecting | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
lots and lots of little blood vessels | 0:28:42 | 0:28:44 | |
that are all going up the new antler as it's growing. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
It's growing at such a pace that it can be two inches a week | 0:28:47 | 0:28:53 | |
to start with, until it really gets going, and all that blood | 0:28:53 | 0:28:58 | |
is pushing up nutrients and calcium, to make that antler. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:03 | |
And how do the antlers of the red deer down here in the south | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
-compare to the rest of Britain? -Tremendously different. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
I'll just show you, this is a combination here. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
-Look at the size of them. -This is one of our red deer stags here. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:18 | |
And then this, this stag here is the same age as that one there, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:22 | |
but this one was from the Highlands of Scotland. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
-Wow. Is that purely food, then? -Purely food. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
A little bit of breeding, but if you were to catch this stag up, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:35 | |
bring him down here, he would produce a head like that. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
-Really? -He would. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
-And that's purely just down to the grazing? -Yes. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
Just a good food supply. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
Talking of diets, | 0:29:44 | 0:29:45 | |
later on I'm going to be on a farm that is rearing red deer for venison | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
and finding out why it's making its way back onto dinner plates. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
First, here's what else is coming up on tonight's programme. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:55 | |
It's Adam to the rescue, down on the farm. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
All I need to do is twist its head down one way | 0:30:01 | 0:30:04 | |
and down the other, and then it'll slip out. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
That's it. Freedom! | 0:30:07 | 0:30:09 | |
And for farmers and everyone else | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
we'll have the Countryfile weather for the week ahead. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
It's one of the delights of the countryside, | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
seeing healthy horses happily grazing in lush, rolling pasture. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
But, as we heard earlier, the UK is witnessing an escalating crisis. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:36 | |
We've got far more horses and ponies than we have homes for. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
Many horses are abandoned as owners are unwilling or unable | 0:30:40 | 0:30:45 | |
to find enough money to give them a decent life, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:48 | |
or even to find the hundreds of pounds it costs | 0:30:48 | 0:30:51 | |
to have them destroyed by a vet. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
To try to curb their problems, | 0:30:55 | 0:30:56 | |
Cleveland Constabulary and the British Horse Society | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
have set up a field hospital with a difference. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:03 | |
I'm back on that estate where we saw those sorry looking horses earlier, | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
but here they're really trying to get to grips with the problem. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
I've never seen anything like this before, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:12 | |
because this is the first mobile clinic in the middle of the city, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
where they're trying to tackle the problem of overpopulation in horses. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
What we have here is a sort of MOT centre. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
Not only are they giving advice and medical treatment, | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
they're tagging the horses and taking some rather | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
painful-looking measures to deal with the problem of overpopulation. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:34 | |
Chipping and snipping, if you like. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:36 | |
Officer Mike Pilbeam, who I met earlier, | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
was instrumental in setting this up. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
Predominantly we're castrating the horses. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
We've also micro-chipped them as well. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
The purpose of the micro-chipping | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
is so we're able to identify the horses, | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
and the castration is for the purposes of trying | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
to keep the horse numbers down in the future. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
So, do you think this is a critical stage | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
in controlling the number of horses around here? | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
I believe so. I mean, we'll have to repeat this again, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
but hopefully it'll help try and curb | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
the horse numbers we have in the area. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
But what about the abandoned and neglected horses | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
the RSPCA simply has to take into its care? | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
I've already heard that welfare charities are being pushed to | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
the limit by the huge number of animals they're having to home. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
What they need now is a bit of help to look after them, | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
so they're launching a fresh campaign, | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
appealing for foster homes for horses. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
'Like this little chap, whose name is Elf.' | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
Little Elf is a yearling and he's ready to go to our new foster home. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:43 | |
Well, let's get him on as we talk about it. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
So, tell me why this fostering scheme is so important to you. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:49 | |
Well, because we have so many youngsters at the moment | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
in RSPCA care, we need to find people that are prepared | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
to take them on from as young as six months | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
up to about three or four years old to give them a fresh start in life, | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
to give them plenty of handling, because we just haven't got | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
the space to keep them until they're that age. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
It's in that critical period before they're really desirable | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
-as riding ponies, is that the point? -Yeah, absolutely. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
Elf has been nursed back to health here by the RSPCA, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
but youngsters like him can't be ridden whilst they're still growing, | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
so it's tricky to find them homes. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
Foster mum Nicola, here, is taking him on | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
as a mate for her Cob, Roly. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:30 | |
By giving Elf a home, it lessens the burden on the RSPCA, | 0:33:33 | 0:33:37 | |
meaning they can dedicate their time | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
to giving specialist care to new arrivals. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
Hello. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
Look at you. There's a good lad. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
-There you go, Nicola, a new acquisition. -Yes, a new one. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
-What do you reckon? -He's gorgeous. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
Yeah, a sweetie, aren't you? | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
So, why are you so keen on the fostering scheme? | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
Well, the best thing about it is it's company for my old horse. | 0:33:58 | 0:34:02 | |
It's nice for me not to have to commit to another horse | 0:34:02 | 0:34:04 | |
for another 30 years - this way we can help a little one on its way. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:07 | |
Horses like to be together, not on their own? | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
No, it's not fair to leave them on their own, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
they're herd animals, so they enjoy the company of other horses. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
It's all right, Elf, | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
you've got a nice new field waiting for you here. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
A new home and a new friend. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:19 | |
So, Nicola, how does the precise choreography of this work? | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
First stage is to put him into his new paddock, | 0:34:22 | 0:34:24 | |
let him get used to that for 10 minutes, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
probably have a run around and explore. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:28 | |
Then we'll get my cob and pop him into this paddock | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
so they can have a fence between them, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
just make sure they get on OK. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
Just like us going out on an evening, | 0:34:35 | 0:34:36 | |
you like to say hello first before... | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
Good lad, there we go. Good boy. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
Come on. There we are. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:45 | |
'For Elf, it's a new beginning in safe surroundings.' | 0:34:45 | 0:34:50 | |
He'll hang out with his new mate, Roly, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:57 | |
for the next couple of years until he's old enough to be ridden. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:01 | |
Hopefully then the RSPCA will be able to find him a home for life. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:07 | |
Elf and his new friend, Roly, seem pretty happy dining together, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:27 | |
so happy endings are available | 0:35:27 | 0:35:29 | |
in this overall story of neglected horses. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
And if you want to help out with fostering a horse, | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
there are full details on our website. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
It's a tense day down on the farm as, once again, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
Adam's cattle are being tested for TB. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
But first, he's got to deal with a lamb | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
that's got herself into a tight spot. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
This isn't really what I was expecting. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
Dolly, who's a gun dog, but also a family pet, | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
is stalking in on a lamb, there. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:11 | |
She's actually gone on point and she spotted it before I did. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
It looks like a little lamb that's got its head stuck in a fence. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
Well done, Dolly. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
It's a Norfolk Horn, and they grow these little horns, | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
and it's just big enough at the moment to work like a fishhook. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
It's pushed through the square of the netting | 0:36:30 | 0:36:32 | |
and now it can't get itself back out. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
So, what I need to do is twist its head down one way, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
and down other and then it'll slip out. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
That's it. Freedom! | 0:36:42 | 0:36:44 | |
'It's important to check over the flock every day. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
'Two weeks ago, I spotted a lame lamb that had an infected foot.' | 0:36:48 | 0:36:53 | |
-Quite sore, isn't it? -Yeah. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:54 | |
Eurgh. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:55 | |
'We treated the foot and injected her with antibiotics.' | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
And now that little Cotswold lamb is doing really well. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
It's running around and it's not lame at all. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
And if we hadn't treated it, it would have been lame for some time, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
so it's quite a success story, really. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
There's lots to do, better get on. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:16 | |
BLEATING | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
We're right at the end of lambing, now, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
we've only got two or three left to lamb, | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
and this ewe has given birth to triplets, three lovely little lambs. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:29 | |
It's the first time she's given birth, | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
and she's a good mum, she's licking them dry, | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
but they're screaming a bit - they're obviously quite hungry. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
So, what I'm going to do is just tip her up and suckle them on, | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
so they get a belly full of colostrum, | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
the first milk she produces, it's very important they get that. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
So, there's the colostrum. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
There, he's suckling away. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
There's a ewe over there that's making quite a din. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:54 | |
She's obviously in the middle of giving birth, | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
so I think this one's all right now. | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
I'd better go and check her out. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
There you go, missus. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
She's making a lot of noise, this ewe, which is quite unusual. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
They usually lamb in quiet. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
There it is. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:18 | |
There we go. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:21 | |
Obviously a little bit stuck, it's quite a big lamb. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
Lovely. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
Just get it breathing. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
One little trick is to get a stiff piece of straw | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
and just tickle the lamb's nose | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
and then it makes it sneeze like that. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
And in sneezing it goes, "Achoo!" and it has a big intake of breath | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
that fills its lungs, and then they start to work. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
Now it's head is up and it's breathing. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
Good little mum, aren't you? We'll leave her to it. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
'While, my sheep seem to be in good health. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
'It's a big day on the farm for my cattle - | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
'it's the first stage of our TB test.' | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
The vet clips the hair on the animal's neck | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
and then gives it an inoculum of bovine and avian TB, | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
and then he'll come back in three days' time and measure the skin, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
and if there is a swelling | 0:39:12 | 0:39:14 | |
he'll be able to determine whether that's a TB reactor or not. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
And we've had a lot of trouble with TB over the last few years. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
'Last autumn, yet again we went down with TB.' | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
It's an absolute travesty, complete disaster. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
'Two of my precious White Parks had to be slaughtered. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:34 | |
'We passed a test 60 days ago, and if we pass this one | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
'we're in the clear, so I'm really hoping for some good news.' | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
Usually, at this time of year, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:44 | |
when the cattle have been indoors over the winter, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
they generally come out clear, so I've got my fingers crossed, | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
I'm touching a lot of wood, hoping that this one will be a clear test. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:55 | |
'Next up are my White Parks.' | 0:39:57 | 0:39:58 | |
'And finally it's my Highlands' turn, | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
'and with Eric the bull's new offspring we're taking extra care.' | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
Through the gate, go on. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
Go on, take your babies, go on. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:12 | |
Good girl. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:16 | |
Go on. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:20 | |
Hup, hup, hup! | 0:40:20 | 0:40:21 | |
Go on. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
Have to be quite careful with the little calves, | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
so I've left them out of this pen for now so they don't get squashed. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
But the poor things have been soggy from the day they were born, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
I don't think they've seen any sunshine yet. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
'The Highlands are such good mothers they hate | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
'being separated from their young.' | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
They have a very thick skin, these Highlands, very tough, | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
and this is the last of Eric's wives to give birth, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
and she's only a few days off calving. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
What she ought to be doing is lying in a field relaxing, | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
taking it easy, and not being stressed at all. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
So, putting her through this handling system is the very last thing | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
I should be doing as a cattle owner, but we have to do it, it's the law. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
'And I've got an anxious wait before the results of the testing | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
'in a few days' time. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
'Around 26,000 cattle were slaughtered | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
'to TB in England just last year alone. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:19 | |
'So, it is important that us farmers support one another.' | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
I'm heading to a farm in South Wales, | 0:41:22 | 0:41:24 | |
where the farmer has Longhorn cattle, which are wonderful, | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
old, traditional British breed, and in his latest TB test, | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
17 of his cattle have reacted positive, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
which means they have to go for slaughter. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
Dai Bevan has been farming Longhorn cattle for 26 years, | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
and they're his passion. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
He's built his herd up to become a prize-winning one. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
This year, everything that's in the shed here is going. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
As a breed, I'm sure you remember in the '70s, '80s, | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
you couldn't get cattle like this. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
You know, they were scraggy old things, | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
and the Longhorns improved so much over the last 20 years. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:10 | |
I love feeding. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:12 | |
My greatest pleasure is to go up and down the shed | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
with a bucket throwing cake at things. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
And when something comes to the barrier to eat, that is the most... | 0:42:18 | 0:42:22 | |
Well, look at them, they're a wonderful breed, | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
and I will, I will miss them. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:27 | |
I feel as if part of me has died, because, um... | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
When you've had stock, um... | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
Until you know what stock is... | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
You know, there's a cow there, she's on the point of calving, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
and I hope that she calves before she's shot. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
She's not going today, but she's inconclusive. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
But I'm hoping that she will calve, because, you know, | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
she is on the point of calving. | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
I don't know whether I'm in shock | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
or it's just anger that's keeping me going, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
but until I come into this shed and there's nothing here, | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
I don't think it's going to fully hit me. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
It sounds like they might be here, so, I mean, | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
I think it's something I don't want to see, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
but I'll leave you to it, and best of luck. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 | |
Thanks, good. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:23 | |
As a farmer, I'm used to life and death on the farm, | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
but I really don't want to see this. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
The slaughtermen are here now, and Dai wants to lead the cattle | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
out of the shed on a halter, because they know him | 0:43:33 | 0:43:35 | |
and they trust him, and then the slaughtermen will do their work. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:38 | |
And Dai has spent so much time over the last 30 years building up | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
a wonderful herd of Longhorns, and they mean so much to him. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:46 | |
It really sends a shiver down my spine. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
Later that night, Dai's inconclusive pregnant cow did calve, | 0:43:51 | 0:43:56 | |
and I really hope she survives | 0:43:56 | 0:43:57 | |
to give Dai the chance to rebuild his herd. | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
But, thankfully, for me it was great news. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:03 | |
My herd passed their TB test, so, for now, life's back to normal. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:07 | |
Next week, I'm off to buy a Gloucester Old Spot sow | 0:44:09 | 0:44:12 | |
and her piglets as a new addition to the farm. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:15 | |
'I've been up on the heath and moorland of Exmoor | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
'searching for Britain's largest land mammal - the red deer. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
'Earlier, I was lucky to see some and, as it's late spring, | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
'the stags are shedding their antlers.' | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
Throughout history, deer have been a good resource. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
Their skins for clothes and textiles, | 0:44:36 | 0:44:38 | |
their bones and antlers for making tools, | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
and, of course, their meat for food. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:43 | |
'It was the meat of choice for the nobility in medieval times. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:48 | |
'Nowadays, it's more readily available | 0:44:48 | 0:44:50 | |
'for the likes of you and me. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:52 | |
'Helping to put venison on our plate is red deer farmer Peter Herman.' | 0:44:52 | 0:44:57 | |
How many have you got now, then, in the herd? | 0:44:57 | 0:44:59 | |
About 140, altogether. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:00 | |
And why did you start with deer farming? | 0:45:00 | 0:45:02 | |
Because you were actually born on this farm. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
I was born on this farm. I milked cows for 30 years. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
I got worn out and the buildings were worn out, | 0:45:08 | 0:45:10 | |
and I'd always had a passion for wildlife, | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
which included deer, and my wife said, "What do you fancy doing?" | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
I said, "Well, deer farming," | 0:45:16 | 0:45:18 | |
so we went and looked at a local deer farm. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:20 | |
Of course, that was it, once I saw the deer, | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
the interaction between them and their owners, it's great. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
I notice, obviously, you've got quite high fencing. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
Yeah, six-foot fence, yeah. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:30 | |
They don't tend to go over a fence, | 0:45:30 | 0:45:32 | |
but they would find a hole. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
Do you find that the wild ones around here are quite inquisitive? | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
Yes, they are. We do get visitors, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:38 | |
usually in October when the rut is on. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:42 | |
It's a fantastic meat, it really is. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:46 | |
Compared with other meats, it comes up trumps on calories, | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
fat, iron and protein. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
Peter supplies his meat locally. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:55 | |
One of his customers is a pub just a few miles from his farm. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
Owner and chef Joanna Oldman is preparing | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
a mouth-watering venison steak. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:04 | |
It's pan-fried first to seal in its juices, | 0:46:04 | 0:46:06 | |
and then popped in the oven for about four minutes. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
Is this a special occasion meat, do you find from your customers? | 0:46:09 | 0:46:13 | |
I think it possibly is, | 0:46:13 | 0:46:14 | |
and it's a shame, because it is so good, and it's so diverse. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
You can do so many different things with it. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
People perhaps just don't know enough about it, | 0:46:20 | 0:46:23 | |
or maybe they're slightly afraid of it. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
I mean, today, for instance, we've made a venison cottage pie. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
Ooh! | 0:46:28 | 0:46:29 | |
We've made venison bourguignon. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:31 | |
Anything that you use with beef, you can use venison. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
'Time's up! The steak's done.' | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
A very important thing when cooking any piece of meat | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
is to rest it as long as you possibly can. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
'Whilst it's resting, I'm up for tasting the bourguignon.' | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
-That is lovely. -It's lovely, isn't it? | 0:46:47 | 0:46:49 | |
'Next, it's the cottage pie.' | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
Oh, that's amazing. | 0:46:52 | 0:46:54 | |
'And finally, I get to sample the king of cuts, the steak.' | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
In we go. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
It's great. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
It's absolutely brilliant. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:10 | |
What a day. I've seen wild red deer out on these glorious moors, | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
up close on the farm, | 0:47:14 | 0:47:16 | |
and even tasted the meat that was once reserved for royalty. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:20 | |
Now, in a moment, Ellie will be trying her hand | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
at the medieval art of falconry from horseback. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
Before that, let's see what's going to be happening | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
with the weather this week. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:32 | |
. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:57 | |
With a rich mix of moorland, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:12 | |
woodland, valleys and farmland, | 0:50:12 | 0:50:14 | |
Devon is a county where historically, | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
wildlife has always flourished. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
In medieval times, raptors like this peregrine falcon | 0:50:19 | 0:50:22 | |
would have been a common sight in the British countryside. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:26 | |
The nobility captured birds like falcons and hawks | 0:50:27 | 0:50:31 | |
and trained them to hunt game birds. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:33 | |
These days, getting a glimpse of one of these magnificent creatures | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
in the wild is a rare treat. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:38 | |
What precious few remain risk being targeted | 0:50:38 | 0:50:42 | |
by those who see birds of prey as competition. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
This is a picture of a rare goshawk found dead near Exeter last year. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:51 | |
It was deliberately poisoned along with three other goshawks, | 0:50:51 | 0:50:55 | |
but with only 20 breeding pairs in the whole county, | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
it represents a really significant loss. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
'Josh Marshall is a Wildlife Crime Officer.' | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
'It's his job to try and catch people attacking birds of prey.' | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
Who are these people, then, doing all this? | 0:51:12 | 0:51:14 | |
With birds of prey, the national picture would suggest that, | 0:51:14 | 0:51:18 | |
with goshawks you've got gamekeepers | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
or people associated with the shooting fraternity | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
that may want to poison the birds. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
Not saying that they all do - | 0:51:26 | 0:51:27 | |
-there's some really reputable shoots out there as well. -Yeah. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
And peregrine falcons, again - | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
the national picture would suggest that they are targeted | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
primarily by pigeon fanciers, | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
but also falconers that are a bit unscrupulous | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
and want to take wild birds for their stock. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
What can you do to combat the problem? | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
What we've done this year in response to last year is, | 0:51:45 | 0:51:47 | |
we've got these motion-activated covert cameras now, | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
which we've placed on certain nest sites within Devon, | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
hopefully to catch these people who are thinking about | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
committing these dreadful acts. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:57 | |
'Today at a secret location, | 0:51:59 | 0:52:00 | |
'Josh is checking a goshawk nest and a camera.' | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
Got your ladder. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
Yeah, yeah. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:06 | |
Ellie, goshawks are really sensitive and prone to disturbance, | 0:52:07 | 0:52:10 | |
-so we need to keep that to a minimum on the visit. -OK. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
So I'm going to leave you here while I go up | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
and service the batteries on the camera. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
-OK. I'll wait for you here, then. -OK, then. -See you in a bit. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
We've actually had to have special permission just to get this far, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
let alone going up to the nest, | 0:52:25 | 0:52:27 | |
so I'll leave Josh to that one. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:30 | |
It's a pretty cold day today, | 0:52:30 | 0:52:32 | |
so he's going to have to be really quick. | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
He's got to get in there, service the camera and back out again, | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
because we don't want the eggs, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
or the chicks if they've hatched already, | 0:52:38 | 0:52:40 | |
to get cold. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:41 | |
Gone. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
I think something's wrong. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:45 | |
What's up? | 0:52:49 | 0:52:50 | |
Well, unfortunately, the camera's gone. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
You're kidding! | 0:52:53 | 0:52:54 | |
Yeah. The good news is that the birds are still there. | 0:52:54 | 0:52:57 | |
The female was there when I was there, | 0:52:57 | 0:53:00 | |
and it doesn't appear that there's been | 0:53:00 | 0:53:02 | |
any attempt on the nest or anything. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:03 | |
Some cameras are wireless, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
so they'll e-mail the images back to computers | 0:53:05 | 0:53:07 | |
back at the police station, so potentially we could have | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
the image of them taking the camera there. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
So technology is actually a step ahead. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:14 | |
You can't just take the camera and get away with it? | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
-That's right. You'll get done for theft as well. -Well, there you go. | 0:53:16 | 0:53:20 | |
With the help of technology and policemen like Josh, | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
perhaps one day rare birds of prey | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
can prosper just as they did centuries ago. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:31 | |
In medieval times, the sport of falconry was big business. | 0:53:31 | 0:53:35 | |
A bird of prey was a status symbol that said power and wealth. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
So today, where we might have a flashy watch | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
or a piece of jewellery, back then, it was all about the bird. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:45 | |
Ooh! | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
'The wide open space of Putsborough sands' | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
'provides the perfect arena to meet Jonathan Marshall,' | 0:53:51 | 0:53:53 | |
'a falconer who's keeping the tradition alive...' | 0:53:53 | 0:53:57 | |
'and going one step further.' | 0:53:57 | 0:53:59 | |
Wow. What handsome-looking animals you have here. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
-So who's this? -Thank you very much. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
This is Quinn, a little male peregrine falcon. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:06 | |
-Beautiful. -He's a cracker. He's a beautiful bird. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:09 | |
I bred him myself. Very special. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:11 | |
And the hood's on just so he's not spooked? | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
We're just going to fly him shortly, | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
and so he doesn't waste all his energy, we hood him first, | 0:54:16 | 0:54:18 | |
and so when I do fly him, he's all revved up, ready to go. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
Amazing. So you bred this one? | 0:54:21 | 0:54:23 | |
Yeah, I bred this one. Had him since he was an egg. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:26 | |
He was a very good-looking egg, but he's | 0:54:26 | 0:54:28 | |
even better-looking as an adult. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:30 | |
-And what about this horse? -Well, this is one of my best horses. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:33 | |
His name's Tulio, and he's a Lusitano. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
He's an ex-bullfighting horse from Portugal. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
So falconry is a sport, but how come you've brought horses into that? | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
Well, originally, falconry was practised from horseback, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
because, of course, in years gone by, | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
they didn't have Land Rovers, so they needed | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
to get from A to B somehow, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:50 | |
and horses at that time were very much part of everyday life. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:54 | |
And this particular breed of horse - | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
in fact, all of the Spanish horses - | 0:54:56 | 0:54:57 | |
were exceptionally good for falconry, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
because they're quick on their feet, very agile and very manoeuvrable. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
These horses were about the best and still are. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
I'm looking forward to this, Jonathan. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:08 | |
-I'll go over there and see you in action. -Okey-doke. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:10 | |
What incredibly neat, tight riding. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
'Jonathan swings the lure above his head | 0:55:25 | 0:55:28 | |
'to tempt the falcon into diving for a catch.' | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
The speed of that peregrine! | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
HE WHISTLES | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
Oh! Awesome! | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
It flew right through the horse's legs. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:47 | |
Oh, through the legs again. That's amazing. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
'Seeing horse and bird move | 0:55:54 | 0:55:55 | |
'so gracefully under Jonathan's direction is like | 0:55:55 | 0:55:59 | |
'watching a carefully choreographed ballet.' | 0:55:59 | 0:56:01 | |
It's a beautiful scene. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
'Finally, Jonathan lets the falcon take the lure.' | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
Well deserved. | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
I have never seen horsemanship like it. That was amazing. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:32 | |
Jonathan, how would you even begin to start training to do this? | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
Well, rather than explain it, why don't I just show you? | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
-Yes, good thinking. -You have a go. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
-Get a glove. -Yeah. -There you go. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:41 | |
'Jonathan brings out his second bird, the Harris hawk.' | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 | |
Oh, here we go. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:47 | |
Oh, wow. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:51 | |
What a beautiful animal. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:55 | |
One, two, three... | 0:56:55 | 0:56:57 | |
But I must admit, I'm a little bit nervous | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
about doing this on horseback. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
-There you go. -Thank you very much. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
Stick that one on there. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:04 | |
Raise your hand up nice and high. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
Here we go. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:07 | |
Your best falconer's whistle. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:08 | |
Oh, wow. That was awesome. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
Jonathan, what an experience. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:14 | |
-Thank you so much. -My pleasure. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
Well, that's it from Exmoor this week. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
Next week we'll be in Dumfries - oh! | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
In Dumfries and Galloway, where we'll be revealing | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
the amount raised with your help | 0:57:24 | 0:57:25 | |
from the sale of the Countryfile calendar for 2012. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
And we'll be launching this year's photographic competition. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
See you then. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:32 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:54 | 0:57:57 |