Rose Lana Reay

Location: Sherborne

Affiliations: North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs

Let's set the scene. Rose Reay comes from a family of artists and was schooled in Sherborne. She went on to the Screen and Film School in Brighton, a place built to send young people into film and television.

Hollywood, it seems, has not called so the countryside has had to make do instead. Reay has returned to Dorset as an active member of the North Dorset Hunt Sabs. Her loyalties are not confined to one group; however, she also keeps company with Weymouth Animal Rights amongst others in the South-West.

A Creative Outlet

Every artist needs a project, and Reay seems to have found hers in the fields of North Dorset. There is something faintly theatrical about the whole business: she turns up in camouflage as if in costume, performs on someone else's land, and plays mainly to the hunt she has come to interrupt.

Her devotion to the cause is no secret. In 2021 she changed her Facebook profile picture to a fox cub wrapped in a tartan blanket, captioned simply "Family". For most people, family is the people sitting around the Christmas table. For Reay, it seems, it includes the local wildlife.

Nor has film been her only calling. Reay is also supposedly a certified massage therapist. Artist, filmmaker, therapist, saboteur: she has auditioned for a good many roles, and none so far has made her a star.

Dressed for the Part

Members of local hunts describe her arriving in full camouflage, finished with expensive, brightly coloured designer trainers.

The trainers, by these accounts, set the tone for the day. Hunt members say she is reluctant to get wet, cold or muddy. She is often seen stepping carefully around puddles, and much of the time she stays in the comfort of the sab vehicle.

Therein lies the problem. Hunting is a seasonal pursuit, carried out in rain, wind and deep mud from autumn through to spring, and Rose Lana Reay, by all accounts, would much rather it were July. Lana Del Rey sang of "Summertime Sadness"; the Lana Reay of the South West seems to suffer from summertime sabness, enthusiasm that holds up only as long as the weather suits her flashy footwear.

The Other Side of the Performance

When Reay does leave the vehicle, hunt members tell a different story. They describe her as confrontational and obstructive in the field, particularly when she is out with her close friend and fellow sab, Chrissy 'Red' Connors.

Every production needs a supporting cast, and Reay's is a peculiar one. In footage obtained by BTM, Connors has previously been filmed calling hounds off a laid trail and towards a main road. She is also alleged to have struck a hunt whipper-in, while shouting "get him".

Reay's circle extends further still. She counts among her friends Dimitris Christoforakis, Emma Christoforakis and David Tibbles, three infamous figures in the South West sabbing scene. If this is the company Reay chooses to keep, the casting tells its own story.

Curtain Call

A film graduate still waiting for her big break, a saboteur who avoids the mud, a fox-lover in camouflage that hides nothing. Rose Reay has cast herself in many roles, but the countryside never asked for this production. Perhaps it is time she found a part better suited to her talents, somewhere a long way from the hunting field.