Day 42 of the Hunting Season - November 13th, 2010
Meet: Down Patrick
Temps: in the 50's
Couples: 22 1/2 Couples Total - Joint Meet
11 couples from River Hills Foxhounds *Including Puppies: Ivan/Issac/Jessie
11 1/2 couples from Warwick Village Hounds (Doc Addis)
Staff:
MFH- James Paxson(River Hills), MFH-Doc Addis(Warwick Village), Staff - Priscilla Godsoe(RHF), Hoppy Stearns(RHF), Dr. Carl Mease(RHF), Nina Christiansen(WVH), Ed Gallen(WVH), Mark Powell(WVH), Field Master - Gary Kennedy, Hound Trucks - Karen Kennedy, Leo and Flora Erb
Start: 10:00am
End: 1:40pm
Foxes! Foxes! Foxes!
We had foxes everywhere, and to the joy of the field and staff, and car followers they were much obliged to play with our hounds today.
We started out by casting out behind the meet and heading up through the old corn field to a small group of trees where sometimes we push out a fox. Hounds picked up where the fox had been, it had to be an old line, it started out pretty spotty through the cornfield and across the driveway. The weather wasn't in our favor today so the hounds had to work very hard to find what scent they could through the leaves and the dry ground.
Hounds worked their way through the covert by the Gibson's House and then moved along the fence line towards Ankrum's. They started to pick up the line again that took us along the Gibson's little stream. MFH Jimmy and Doc, pulled the hounds up over the small ridge and cast the hounds into the Bonewoods. Not everyone knows it but there is a dead spot in the Bonewoods where the scent literally disappears.
Poof! Gone! Adios!
Hounds worked really quiet as they came through the dead spot and then lit up again when they worked into the briers. Hounds sounded great as they headed back towards the little ridge in the woods at Gibson's but the fox reversed back crossed the Ankrum's little stream and worked up along the pipeline in the direction of the Fishing Creek Road.
MFH Doc went into the woods with the hounds along the pipeline as they worked toward the flat, and TALLY HO!, MFH Jimmy and Jim Herr viewed the fox coming out from the flat and heading toward the stone pile, he stopped and ran straight back on his line, went along the wheat and went along the old fence line and the brier patch near the pipeline. Hounds at this point were still in the woods running along the flat when the field view another fox that came out from the stone pile and then went back into the woods.
Hounds continued on their fox that took them along the Palisades and up through the little ravine that takes you to the Spring and the Old House. MFH Leo and Flora view another fox as they were sitting in their truck, this fox went up the lane by the old house and into the briers there.
I was on the right side of the hounds as they were running between the Old House and Adam's when out popped another fox from the Furness Road side and he went in the direction of the hounds, heard them them running and drifted off a bit towards the Ankrums Meet. At this time, the field viewed again, a fox that came out from the Old House, and straight back towards the Stone Pile.
At this point in time everyone was sitting tight and trying to stay put so as to not mess up the hounds who 'had their paws full' trying to stay on the line of the hunted fox. To all of our amazement the hounds were working together fantastically, stayed tight together and ran the fox all the way back to the Stone Pile. Here they hit a bit of a miss in the heavy briers.
MFH Jimmy got off his horse and jumped into the thick of things with the hounds and helped them work everything through by encouraging them to keep plugging their way through the windfall and briers. Hounds managed to work through a lot easier than MFH Jimmy and MFH Doc took the hounds on as the came out of the briers and they went up across the wheat and back onto the Pipeline, dropped down by the Chicken Feathers, crossed the little stream and 43 hounds came charging up the hill on the meet side.
As they came out to the corn field Ivan and Issac had carried it really strong but they all hit a miss out in the field. Little Cyndy and a white bitch of Docs kept inching and inching their way back onto the line that seemed to have vanished in the warm sunny field. The two girls in perfect timing opened up and all the hounds harked on to them and dropped into the horse shoe below Doug's.
Whipper-in Carl was on the road as the hounds stayed pretty low along the Fishing Creek. I went out around the back cornfield at Dougs to watch 'Sinclair's' Fox lope along the cornfield from the Boot Hill Cemetery, moseyed along the towards the woods line and then went out of my view. I thought that the hounds were going to come out on Sinclair's fox but the Whipper-in with Carl viewed a fox that crossed the road in a red flash as hounds were no more than 200 feet behind him. Sadly, we had to pull the hounds up because we didn't want to cross onto the other side this close to the deer season and upset any hunters. All of us our governed by the same rules for hunting. Respect to all is key! *even if the hounds are smoking.
So, the hounds were sent up from the bottom and MFH Doc put the hounds on the fox that I viewed. Hounds had a little trouble working the line through the cornfield but once they got into the shade of the woods they were flying again. It sounded beautiful! Hounds ran the fox into and huge compost pile of branches and grass clipping and small logs. We got the hounds out of there quickly because we didn't want to harm the fox, he obviously wanted to get away at this point, and we definitely wanted to make sure he would be out to play another day.
No sooner did we pull the hounds out of there they picked up another line that took them along the Fern Glen Road and up behind the new house right behind the meet. Hounds hit a miss out of the woods and that's when everyone decided.. 'We are back at the meet, we have all the hounds, its been a great day...let go in.'
RHF and WVH had a great spread of food and drink and Little John played his fiddle for us. It was a great way to sit, relax and talk about todays hunt, and old hunting stories from both hunts.
It truly was a great day - one to be remember.
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