I have used coon dogs in a similar way minus the horse and attire. It's incredible what hunting dogs will go through and fight through only to come out without a scratch, most cases of injuries I have seen come from the animal getting scraped going under a car( coons love junkyards,trees,holes) or a hunter doesn't have enough lead on his shot and ends up shooting the dog on accident because he took the shot while the dog was pursuing the coon or the worst is the dog is caught in a wire fence. I've shot raccoons point blank and took half their skull off via shotgun shell only to have the thing still charge you not to mention all the times I have watched them fall 50 feet from a tree onto a car hood only to get up and snarl like nothing happened. A raccoon can certainly fuck up a dog but it doesn't happen much and if it does that dog wouldn't be taken hunting again you don't want an overly aggressive dog you want a loud dog to tell you where the raccoon is and keep him up the tree. Foxes are even tougher than that though the ones who live in the drainage ditch in front of my house chase off the coyotes from my yard on a weekly basis not to mention the sheer beauty of seeing them on occasion. I love foxes and raccoons they are both intelligent and strong animals but my county puts bounties on them and it's usually 20$ a hide or more. I'm not trying to defend the fox hunts actions I'm just writing this for comparison between that version of hunting and the one I've grown up in. I've killed fox for a lot of reasons ranging from them killing my pigeons and chickens to just being short on cash and needing the fur for cash but there's always a quality of mercy involved, anytime I can I'd rather leave them alone or catch them and dump them in the woods. Hell I even put some straw in the drainage pipe this winter for the old mother fox and her pup outside my house. Little things sadly have next to no fear for people as they will approach within 20 ft before stopping. I just don't get the sport in killing them for the hell of it, they deserve better than that.