Dear Friends of the Frozen Tundra:
First, I would like to thank Hilary M for suggesting that we change hunting from Sunday to Saturday! Praise GOD!
As I headed to the barn at ODN (oh dark nothing), what should cross my path? A fox! Tally Ho I yell to the dogs in the back seat. It’s an omen of the day to come 🙂
We pull into Dave and Charlotte B farm in deep fog-but, NO WIND! WhooHoo!! The fog lifts, the sun comes out, the wind stays calm and we head out going South.
Huntsman Tyce M, Professional Whip Hilary M, a whole bunch of NHH hounds, Jay and Camie S, Mary C, Libby and Tim C, Lana L, Kelly L and I.
I am loaded for bear: new marine radio given to me by my hunting friends for Christmas: Libby, Tim, Lana, Kelly, Kathy and Daryl. And my new Helmet Cam 🙂
We jump No Gate Back, which needs to be re-named 🙂 Monte, Cody and Jay have continued to do country work and lately gates have been added right next to the coops, making it easier for the non-jumpers to keep up with the jumping group!
We start swinging East and we are supported by Road Whips: MFH Monte and Diane A, Finely, Cody M and friend Eric. What a fantastic job they did through the day!
We don’t scare up anything and we start heading North. This will be the last direction you will get, because now I have no idea which way we’re heading-but I don’t care! I’m having a great time 😉
My radio doesn’t have volume so Tyce takes a look at and presto-westo, I’m in the loop now.
We head up into this field and someone has seen a coyote, so Tyce starts carrying the hounds towards the viewing. The hounds are working it and we’re picking our way through a strand of trees, around the edge of a barb wire fence and very close to a creek drop off and to a huge brush pile. Cody has seen the coyote run into the pile. The hounds are screaming and climbing all over. Tyce calls them off with lots of atta lads and they move to another pile about 100 yards away. Then Hilary calls to Tyce and we start cantering up this hill. The hounds break left and start working this grove of trees. Suddenly, Tyce stands in his irons and shouts Tally Ho! We look in the direction that he is pointing his cap and thar he blows! A BIG FURRY Coyote! Yippee!! My favorite hound is HOT on his tail. Havoc! (She had pups this year and her pups should have names like Mayhem, Wreck, Chaos)
The field tears off in pursuit and we pretty much stay in visual. A long distance visual, but still discernible. We get to Oxford Road and Lana (Indie decided he was going to be FM on that run), Kelly, Tim, Libby, Jay and Camie (she is riding a young horse)have opted to bow out of the run and head home. Mary and I continue on. Zoe is tired, she bruised her foot at Opening Hunt and has had a long lay off. Mary is ahead of me on her brave, fast new mount when a coop comes up. Mary hasn’t jumped any coops on Major-he has jumped stadium jumps at home-I take the lead and Major jumps right behind. What a good boy! It was a beautiful coop-a skinny-but still a great approach and landing. THANKS AGAIN all who worked on coops at Cumberland 🙂
There we catch up to Tyce, Hilary and the hounds. They have a loss, but what a ride!
While I’m galloping I can hear Cody, Eric, Hilary, Monte on my awesome radio: He’s heading West, East, South, by the North Coop, etc….they might as well be speaking Russian: but it’s still fun to hear all that and pretend like I’m in the know 🙂 Where is Mary Lynn?? Steve Evans??
Now my Helmet Cam 🙁 I did record the beginning of the run when they made it to the brush pile. I proceed to shut it off, start it up, shut it off…. and did not have it on when we viewed the coyote and ran those 3-5 miles. I’m so bummed 🙁 I can’t tell what I’m doing, because I just reach up and press the on button and then record, I can’t see if I’m doing it correctly. I’ll keep practicing. I’m certainly not a techie……
We rode home and jumped No Gate Back. So basically a huge circle.
Mary C provided lunch. Elk chili, with Ted C donating the meat from the elk he shot this past fall.
Hilary shared her stats from her app EquiTrack (which I have now downloaded). She went 17.5 miles with her fastest recorded speed at 33 mph. (I think Lana had her beat at 37 mph)
My Rider of the Day is Mary Curran and Major. She went from going through the first gate to taking pictures, texting and jumping 3 coops! A Qualified Field Hunter in one day 🙂
Next Sunday we are scheduled at 11:00 at the kennels. The weather looks kinda of cold, so we’ll see…
Have a cheerful week and stay warm!
Carine and Zoe
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- Helmet cam!
