distances to course hares. Hare coursing gangs film the chase so that it can be played later, if and when betting occurs. Description of formal coursing Modern hare coursing is practiced using a number of sighthounds: mainly greyhounds but also Borzois, Salukis, Whippets, and Deerhounds that are registered with a governing body such as the National Coursing Club or Kennel Club in Great Britain, the Irish Coursing Club, or the National Open Field Coursing Association (NOFCA) in the US. Events are conducted through local coursing clubs which are regulated by their governing body. The objective of legal formal coursing is to test and judge the athletic ability of the dogs rather than to kill the hare. Legal, formal hare coursing has a number of variations in how it is undertaken. Open coursing takes place in the open field, and closed coursing (or park or Irish style) takes place in an enclosure with an escape route. Open coursing is either run as walked-up coursing, where a line of people walk through the countryside to flush out a hare, or as driven coursing, where hares are driven by beaters towards the coursing field. In each case, when a suitable hare appears, a person known as a slipper uses a slip with two collars to release two dogs at the same time, in pursuit of the hare which is given a head start (known as fair law), usually between (). The sighthound is released elsewhere by the handler. The chased hare will then run at around 40–45 km/h (24–26 mph) and the course will last around 35–40 seconds over 0.5 km (0.3 miles). The greyhounds which pursue the hare will, being faster, start to catch up with it. As greyhounds are much larger than hares but less agile, they find it difficult to follow the hares' sharp turns which they make to evade the dogs. This agility gives the hare an important and often crucial advantage as it seeks to escape. Under some coursing club rules, the dogs are awarded points on how many times they can turn the hare, and how closely they force the hare's progress. In the UK, the contest between the greyhounds was usually judged from horseback, and the winning greyhound proceeded to the next round of a knock-out tournament. The 2003 UK coursing season ran from 1 October to 28 February. Variations in the Republic of Ireland Hare