THE West of Yore Hunt has donated £325 to the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Farmers in Need Appeal following it's highly successful cross-country ride in March.

Starting and finishing at Lightwater Valley, near Ripon, the ride attracted a record entry despite some dreadful wet weather. The donation represents £1 for everyone who took part.

A spokesman for the West of Yore, Richard Wells, said hunting and farmers shared an uncertain future because of a mixture of government design or indifference.

They hoped the money would go a little way to relieving the burden of Yorkshire farmers.

He said: "Hunts in Yorkshire and indeed throughout the country raise thousands of pounds for charity each year and this is our small way of thanking farmers for their generosity in supporting the hunts.

"We have a big battle on our hands over the future of hunting and that campaign has to be financed. But no-one in the hunt considered for a moment putting that money into our own fighting fund."

There are fears, however, that the cross-country ride, which began in 1995 and has attracted almost 2,000 entries since, may not take place again if the government bans hunting.