Sir - As the three monitors who were described in such derogatory terms by Anne Atkins (The thrill of the hunt, Country Times, March 30), we would like to put the record straight.

On the day in question, Ms Atkins approached not four, as she says, but three monitors. Despite her nasty description of us in which she says, perjoratively, we were "affected with dreadlocks threaded with ribbons, faces glinting with piercings", only one of the three of us has any piercings or dreadlocks - not that we can see why she should think either of these things so worthy of her vituperation.

Although we are all fairly new to monitoring hunts, we all felt that Ms Atkins' approach to us was extremely unprofessional. If she wanted to speak to hunt monitors and get their comments for her article, she should have gone through the proper channels, not approach us in the middle of a hunt in which she was an enthusiastic participant, speaking to us from up on her horse, which was very bad manners, with no tape recorder or notebook to ensure accuracy.

We would also like to add that Ms Atkins did not give us her telephone number as she claims, and nor did any of us "promise several times" to phone her. Nobody "barked" at her, she was answered matter of factly and without emotion.

Anne Atkins has distorted the facts, and we resent being used to promote her own fervently pro-hunt agenda.

Susan Grima, Wolvercote; Helen Ghalmi, Radley; Cathy Scott, Earlsdon, Coventry