HUNT masters and supporters are drawing up plans of how their animals can be exercised once the hunting with dogs ban becomes law in February.

Although the Countryside Alliance is questioning the legality of the ban, any action to overturn it may not be possible before mid-summer.

"Meanwhile, we will need to keep our hounds, beagles, any hunting animals exercised. They will be out working, hunting one day and then banned the next," said Angela Vaux, North-East chairman.

"Hunt masters are looking at different ways the animals can be exercised in all aspects of hunting. There is no way we can just sit back and wait. It will not be good for the animals. They are pack animals and to be penned up and not working will make them aggressive to each other. It may be that we have to set up exercise clubs instead of hunts.

"We don't want to shoot or get rid of any so we need to plan ways of exercising them once the ban becomes law," she said.

"There are so many strands of the legality of the ban to be looked into and we are determined to keep the infrastructure of hunting alive until the outcome of our legal claims," she added.

Farmers who support hunting also threatened at a meeting in Thirsk at the weekend, to refuse access to their land.

About 200 pro-hunting campaigners gathered to decide plans for co-ordinated civil disobedience and to be updated on legal challenges to the ban.

John Snaith, chairman of the Zetland Hunt, which hunts along the borders of North Yorkshire and County Durham, said: "We may be a little bloody- minded when it comes to people like water and electricity companies getting access to our land. They may find things a little awkward.

"We are on a learning curve here. We need to know how far we can go or what we can do to make our views known. We don't want to upset anyone or go to prison but we do want to keep hunting."

The Countryside Alliance will challenge the ban, through a challenge to the Parliament Act and to the European Court of Human Rights