The hunting community is in mourning after a much-loved member of the Duke of Beaufort Hunt was killed when he was thrown from his horse and broke his neck.

Farmer David Hall, 73, came off his horse in what has been described as a "freak accident" at Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire around 1pm on December 27.

Immediately after the tragedy the hunt was called off and the hounds were returned to the kennels as a mark of respect for Mr Hall, who was enjoying his 65th season with the famous Duke of Beaufort Hunt.

Hunt secretary Nigel Maidment said: "As I understand it David took his horse into a fence and it stopped – what we call a really 'dirty stop', when the horse goes into a fence as though it is going to jump and doesn't – and he was catapulted out of the saddle and broke his neck.

"He died instantly. The air ambulance came and all credit to them because they did a marvellous job and worked tirelessly to revive him but it was no good.

"It was a freak accident. I have been hunting for 30 years and I have only ever seen it once before. He was so in tune with horses it was the last person you would expect it to happen to. It is a huge loss to the community."

Mr Hall, of Parks Farm, Badminton, leaves wife Helen, 64, and two sons Philip, 37, and Richard, 40.

Yesterday a tribute from the Hall family said: "David, Dad, Grampy, Baddie. You were a very wonderful and special husband, father and grandfather.

"We have been devastated by your sudden passing, but know that if you had to choose a way to go then on the hunting field, following hounds on a good horse would have been it.

"You built a fine dairy herd and hunting was your passion. The hole you have left will never be able to be filled and we will always be very proud to have been your family. You will never be forgotten."

Other members of the hunt also paid tribute to Mr Hall.

Captain Ian Farquhar, joint master of the Duke of Beaufort Hunt, said: "We have lost a very popular and respected local farmer and stalwart of the hunting community.

"He walked puppies all his life and had a great interest in the hounds.

"He will be deeply missed and as a mark of respect for him, his family and the local farming community we decided to take the hounds home."

Mr Maidment, who had known Mr Hall for 20 years, added: "My view of David was that he was a great hunter, farmer and country man. He was one of those people who would do anything for you if he could.

"I had known him for more than 20 years as a fellow farmer and he was hugely respected and had an enormous knowledge about hounds and horses.

"David spent all his life riding horses and bringing them on as well as being heavily involved with hounds. He would bring the horses on and sell them to pay for his next horse to keep him hunting and was always helping out the hunt staff on hunting days. He will be sorely missed and this is a huge loss to the community at large."

Hunt member Jo Aldridge said: "He was a most lovely man who we all adored. He had been with the hunt all his life. He had probably been hunting with his father from about the age of seven. He was a very, very special person and there has been a huge hole left by his passing.

"He was a local farmer, a tenant of the Duke of Beaufort, who farmed on the Badminton estate and took a great interest in the hounds.

"He had a deep knowledge of hounds and the way that they work, and was very much a part of the hunting community.

"He was very well known to everybody and would have hunted two or three times a week. Hunting, in a way, was very much his life, along with farming. He was very much a man of the countryside.

"He had a wonderful plain way of speaking and had got a way with youngsters and would talk to them about hunting and the countryside.

"He was just the most smashing chap and an enormous character. They just don't make them like that any more."

A spokesman for Great Western Ambulance confirmed paramedics and the air ambulance had attended fields between Westonbirt and Easton Grey after receiving a phone call at 1.15pm from Westonbirt School.