A toast to good hunting and the meet is off

Members of the Devon and Dorset hunt drink from the stirrup cup and propose a toast before setting off on their hunt. The stirrup cup symbolises a parting drink of good wishes before a hunt. A legal ban on fox hunting is in place but traditional meets have adapted to maintain a presence and continue the riding element of a hunt in the countryside without the bloodsport.

A stirrup cup is so called because it is given on parting so literally when a rider's feet are in the stirrups of a horse. At the meet, port or sherry is traditional before with feet already in stirrups, riders set off in search of a cunning fox.