Festive_Felicitations
Well-Known Member
So having said how good B was the other day he decided to bring me down to earth again by blotting his copy book.
Aug 12th - Perfectly sound horse Sat pm, Sunday am a decidedly less sound horse
Apparently he'd been legging it round his field at 2am! *head bang*
Meet wasn't far away so went along anyway, and in a fit of madness decided to follow on foot. Mud & lack of roads here means it really was on foot....
It was a rather fun day, saw things from a different aspect and different view of the hounds working. Also had very interesting commentary from the Irishman who was also following on foot and knows a lot more about hunting than me! Totally lost track of everyone for an hour or so in the middle of the day but still managed to be there when they caught a fox!
It was a very windy day and I think it was effecting scent as a few times we saw foxes but hounds struggled to pick up the scent.
By the end of the day I was lame and exhausted and really appreciating how much work my horse does! I didn't quite last till the end of the day and limped back to the meet early
So you don't get too bored a photo! Ok so its from last year but I haven't managed to get any more this year...
Aug 19th - sound horse Sunday morning better start than last week... It was also gorgeous weather partially sunny fairly mild and enough wind to stop it getting hot.
5 & 1/2 couple out, and positively massive field of 5!
First covert we disturbed nothing but a pair of highly offended deer. Then moved on to draw some long marshy grass, didn't find anything the first time so put the hounds back in to draw it again and they found. Fox broke out the other side and they hunted beautiful straight up the hill, left along the ridge and straight on to a out of bounds property and towards the high way...
Short pause later and we had 5 couple back, and 2 whips sent to find the remaining 1/2. Whip shortage meant that I got asked to 'help' again!
Drew a blank at the next covert, I then completely failed to open a gate and the huntsman had to get off and help ...fail!
Next covert (a wind break of trees) the fox broke my side of the covert with 1 hound close behind & the rest the wrong side of the fence ditto the huntsman & other whip... Hounds then lost the scent and the fox ended up being headed by the other whip and crossing about 2 feet in front of me before disappearing into some sheep yards. It was decided that we wouldn't try and find him again and moved on.
Next covert they put up 2 foxes! One broke down hill my side 1.5 couple on its tail and the rest & the huntsman went uphill. On my side given that they were heading straight down the hill for the highway I'm glad they checked as I'd never have gotten in front of them other wise. Apparently the huntsman's had a very nice short hunt on the top of the hill, and watched the cheeky fox run round a tree before doubling back underneath him....
Once we managed to get all hounds, field & whip the right (uphill) side of the fence, the MIA hound & 2 whips had caught up.
So all reunited we moved onto the next covert where hounds found again. The fox broke, tried to duck back into cover and met the hounds. For a small pack in not very easy or small country they have a av. strike rate of 1/wk this month!
We then moved round to the other side of the property, where the hounds had a lovely interlude hunting in a gorse thicket on land we are no longer allowed on to thanks to a coal seam gas company the rest of us had fun over some panels trying to work out exactly where the hounds were...
As I was getting rather relaxed and having fun B decided to test my stickability by slamming on the breaks at one panel resulting in me doing a rather elegant (apparently!) slow motion head over heels down his neck & the panel into the mud on the other side. In front of a decent audience of course... I decided discretion was the better part of valour and didn't reattempt but went and found a gate. We were basically back at the meet so headed back to the lorry where Beau almost tied-up so maybe he was already starting to and that is why he stopped? Who knows...
No harm done to either of us.
Sorry it got a bit long, hope you found it interesting and that your all enjoying hound exercise.
Aug 12th - Perfectly sound horse Sat pm, Sunday am a decidedly less sound horse
Apparently he'd been legging it round his field at 2am! *head bang*Meet wasn't far away so went along anyway, and in a fit of madness decided to follow on foot. Mud & lack of roads here means it really was on foot....
It was a rather fun day, saw things from a different aspect and different view of the hounds working. Also had very interesting commentary from the Irishman who was also following on foot and knows a lot more about hunting than me! Totally lost track of everyone for an hour or so in the middle of the day but still managed to be there when they caught a fox!
It was a very windy day and I think it was effecting scent as a few times we saw foxes but hounds struggled to pick up the scent.
By the end of the day I was lame and exhausted and really appreciating how much work my horse does! I didn't quite last till the end of the day and limped back to the meet early
So you don't get too bored a photo! Ok so its from last year but I haven't managed to get any more this year...
Aug 19th - sound horse Sunday morning
better start than last week... It was also gorgeous weather partially sunny fairly mild and enough wind to stop it getting hot.5 & 1/2 couple out, and positively massive field of 5!
First covert we disturbed nothing but a pair of highly offended deer. Then moved on to draw some long marshy grass, didn't find anything the first time so put the hounds back in to draw it again and they found. Fox broke out the other side and they hunted beautiful straight up the hill, left along the ridge and straight on to a out of bounds property and towards the high way...
Short pause later and we had 5 couple back, and 2 whips sent to find the remaining 1/2. Whip shortage meant that I got asked to 'help'
again! Drew a blank at the next covert, I then completely failed to open a gate and the huntsman had to get off and help
...fail!Next covert (a wind break of trees) the fox broke my side of the covert with 1 hound close behind & the rest the wrong side of the fence ditto the huntsman & other whip... Hounds then lost the scent and the fox ended up being headed by the other whip and crossing about 2 feet in front of me before disappearing into some sheep yards. It was decided that we wouldn't try and find him again and moved on.
Next covert they put up 2 foxes! One broke down hill my side 1.5 couple on its tail and the rest & the huntsman went uphill. On my side given that they were heading straight down the hill for the highway I'm glad they checked as I'd never have gotten in front of them other wise. Apparently the huntsman's had a very nice short hunt on the top of the hill, and watched the cheeky fox run round a tree before doubling back underneath him....
Once we managed to get all hounds, field & whip the right (uphill) side of the fence, the MIA hound & 2 whips had caught up.
So all reunited we moved onto the next covert where hounds found again. The fox broke, tried to duck back into cover and met the hounds. For a small pack in not very easy or small country they have a av. strike rate of 1/wk this month!
We then moved round to the other side of the property, where the hounds had a lovely interlude hunting in a gorse thicket on land we are no longer allowed on to thanks to a coal seam gas company
the rest of us had fun over some panels trying to work out exactly where the hounds were...As I was getting rather relaxed and having fun B decided to test my stickability by slamming on the breaks at one panel resulting in me doing a rather elegant (apparently!) slow motion head over heels down his neck & the panel into the mud on the other side.
In front of a decent audience of course... I decided discretion was the better part of valour and didn't reattempt but went and found a gate. We were basically back at the meet so headed back to the lorry where Beau almost tied-up so maybe he was already starting to and that is why he stopped? Who knows... No harm done to either of us.
Sorry it got a bit long, hope you found it interesting and that your all enjoying hound exercise.