Staring at the risk assessment for the fourth time when he would rather be out on his horse, Ivan Massow might have been forgiven for feeling like he wanted to give up.

But as Master of the Southdown and Eridge hunt he had vowed that he would not be beaten by the saboteurs and their attempts to “bury” the Boxing Day meet under a pile of papers.

Animal rights campaigners have made numerous attempts to tie the hunt in red tape, including calling on the council to ban them from public land, making health and safety complaints and complaining that they did not have a licence for the toast they raise before setting out.

“The antis have tried to bury us under a pile of paperwork and it is very, very clever of them but everything will be covered and we will go ahead, we won’t be defeated,” Mr Massow said ahead of his hunt’s traditional meet in Lewes town centre on Thursday.

The multi-millionaire financier and leading gay rights campaigner has spent his life standing up for what he believes in and says that there are parallels between the fights he has taken on.

“It does feel like a struggle,” the 52-year-old told the Daily Telegraph. “That is one of the reasons it is so aligned to my previous experience in gay rights activism.