CROWDS turned out in their thousands to support Herefordshire's Boxing Day hunts.

The biggest attendance was at Ledbury, where around 6,000 people packed the town centre and waved off 200 riders.

To rousing cheers, Paul Smith, joint-master of the Ledbury Hunt, told the crowd outside the Feathers Hotel that he was sure they would all be back next year and "for many more years to come".

Around 1,000 braved icy conditions to ensure a warm welcome for the North Herefordshireshire Hunt in Corn Square, Leominster.

Joint-master Phillip Blackman-Howard spoke of the "sense of privilege" he and the hunt felt on their reception.

"With support like this, there can only be a winning outcome," he said.

Similar crowds and receptions awaited the 79 riders of the South Herefordshire Hunt at The Tump Inn, Wormelow, and the 80 riders of the Golden Valley Hunt at Hay-on-Wye.

In Kington, where around 2,000 gathered outside The Burton Hotel, Robert Jones, Master of the Radnorshire and West Herefordshire Hunt, made reference to the unfolding tragedy in the Indian Ocean saying that was where the "millions" put aside to police a hunting ban should now go.

Neither the hunts nor the police were troubled by the presence of protesters.