I feel the need to endanger myself every so often.–Tim Daly

We hunted at Arlington on Saturday and what a day it was! The weather was exceptional. Blue skies, no , about 35 degrees at stirrup cup time.

The field was huge! I forgot to count, but there were about 50 RSVP’s. We had riders from our Tipton area, riders from KS and a great turnout from our local members. Jana and Steve Kruger were are brunch hosts, Keith R and guest Leslie Knobbe provided our WW snacks.

Huntsman Dave was joined by Dolf I with a couple of his hounds. Our hounds are so good, other hounds can join up without fighting or any issues. Join us! We’re all going hunting. WhooHoo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our first groundtester before we even left the Kruger farm….if this was a novel, your English professor would be asking for forshadowing notes. The rider was unhurt. She found a mounting block and hopped back on.

It was such a fun day to ride and everyone was having a grand time. Laughing, talking, just excited to be out hunting. The hounds were so good. Working diligently in every cover. The horses were so happy, maybe a little too happy. One horse bucked her rider off. Then stood quietly to be remounted. Oops….

We have three fields. I’m leading first flight on Jenni T’s new hunt horse, Aiden. He was absolutely brilliant-not very fast-but earned an A+ for excellent behavior, bravery, lots of action through the corn fields (C- for not staying in his corn row and tossing me around in the saddle like a chef’s salad).

Holly is leading the slower paced field, although they were with us the whole time and Nancy E led the walk-trot group.

Not much is happening and until this one horse spooked (she sometimes see dead people) the rider landed in the corn field and those spear like corn stalks ripped two holes in in breeches and she’s not wearing her unmentionables. I once helped a rider  who landed in a patch of cockleburs and she didn’t have any unmentionables on, either. I saw her popo and I’m now know as Dr. Cardisco since I’m a GYN doctor

Holly Barrrett and Bray Duckworth

I did take the first flight around on a fun little gallop through the bean field. We pretended that we were on line and Keith R and Jim McNutt blew by me. Aiden was giving it his best, but he couldn’t keep up.

We’ve been hunting for about 2 hours at this time and we haven’t seen a thing. No deer, no racoons, no eagles, no pheasants, no bunnies, no frogs. Nada. However, we’re still having so much fun.

Now, I make a critial mistake. I fall too far behind Huntsman Dave. I can see him and the hounds, I hear Professional Whipper-in Bre K on the radio that we have a Tally Ho and I can see the coyote streaking away with the hounds in hot pursuit, but dang it, the field is too far away for everyone to really see the hounds working. We start running and I can see the hounds have put the coyote to ground, but I also see a horse without a rider and a rider on the ground-not moving. I know it’s Bre because she is the only rider without her jacket.

One of the whips saw Bre riding hard next to Dolf, Bre asked her horse to stop and turnback towards the pack of hounds. Lucille did just that and Bre became a human lawn dart and hit the ground so hard, she was knocked out. Dolf got to her in about 45 seconds and she was starting to come around. I got to her in about 2 mins. Everyone was truly amazing as we worked with Bre, assessing her injuries. Dave and Jubilee took her the Blair hospital. She had a CT of her head and cervical spine. X-ray of her chest, 3 views of her lumbar spine, 2 views of her pelvis, sacrum/coccyx. No fractures/bleeding were found at this time. Diagnosis is a concussion and multiple contusions. Tail bone took quite a beating witha very prominent hematoma on it.

She’s home and resting. She will be very, very sore for the next week or so. She will be shopping for a new helmet, Sam M and a new hunt shirt (they cut hers off in the ER)

Back to the hunt. Dolf gathers all the hounds, all the whips get in position to carry the hounds home. The fields regroup and we ride home. I can’t say enough how wonderful everyone was. Filling in where needed, quiet, helpful, perfect. I also want to give a big shoutout to my RIDERS group. They all ride so well, are very respectful and I’m so happy that they LOVE hunting. Our sport is safe as long as we keep bringing up young riders-Thank You Becca F-for bringing your young riders, too

Becca Fellman and her young riders

my young riders. Cece Knobbe on Jinx. Not a RIDERS member, but this was her first hunt. Audrey on Millie and Faith on Harley

RIDERS member Stella Christianson on Oakley

We had a great meal at Jana and Steve’s. Chili, Chicken and rice, meat and cheese, fruit, various desserts.

Next week we’re hunting at Cumberland. See everyone there!

Carine and Aiden