HUNTERS in Kidderminster have decided to call a halt to their season after staging a show of defiance on Saturday.

Around 500 supporters backed 50 riders with the Hurcott Lane-based Albrighton Woodland Hunt as they rode out from Stourton the day after a ban on hunting with hounds came into force.

"We were there to make a point," said huntmaster, Peter Swann. "We used a couple of dead foxes to lay a trail and went out with the hounds.

"No-one could tell if we were hunting or not. We wanted to show this law can't be enforced."

West Mercia Police were at the start as Stourton became gridlocked with parked cars but a police spokesman said they were not aware of any illegal activity at any of the 20 meets in the force area.

"We would like to thank people for their generally reasonable and peaceful behaviour," the spokesman said.

Riders also gathered at the Chaddesley Corbett point-to-point site to stage a protest and will be back there on Saturday for the races.

Mr Swann said many Albrighton hunters would be at Chaddesley and they had decided to call off the rest of the season, due to end in mid-March.

"We will lose a couple of weeks of midweek meets and will start again in the autumn," he said. "We only went out for an hour or so on Saturday. We put up a few jumps but it was contrived.

"People could tell it wasn't the same excitement. Hopefully, by the autumn, the ban will either have been repealed or will be seen as unenforceable."

Mr Swann said the Albrighton faces selling three of its five horses and will not need all of the 60 hounds if all it can legally do is go trailing.

It also faces making its kennel/huntsman and horse groom redundant by the end of its financial year in April.