Hello my friends,
We hunted at Cumberland on Saturday and we had WAAAAY too
much fun. We were all exhausted on Sunday.
It’s Junior Hunt weekend! Saturday had 35 riders in the field. We had
4 flights. It was a beautiful day ☀️ like a top 10 day! All the crops are
out and the bean fields are so fun to gallop across.
I rode up front with Huntsman Dave and was able to watch the hounds
work. What a great group of hounds he had out. They worked so well
together.
We got rid of our jackets at the first WW break. Which was amazing.
Beef sticks, cheese sticks, cookies, beer, pop, water. The WW and
brunch was hosted by RIDERS. We are so grateful to our WW people
who follow us on the roads bringing us refreshments. All that laughing,
riding and hunting is a lot of work!
BTW this was the first time that I have hunted at Cumberland when
there is no wind. Like zero. The wind turbines aren’t moving.
We go through the bean fields and to our first CRP field. Wicked
doesn’t like all the dead, tough, tall weeds poking her and dragging
along her body, but she keeps picking her way through. Huntsman
Dave asks me how she does with pheasants and I don’t have an
answer. We have another quick WW and head south. There is a small
creek that traverses back and forth across this section of land. Trees
have grown all along the edges and we’ve flushed coyotes out of
there. Not anymore. The farmers have gone in with bulldozers and
cleaned it all up. Frees up more land for farming, but dang it, messes
up our hunting.
We hunted through another CRP field. The hounds have fanned out
and are hunting well. Boom * this pheasant blows up between Dave
and I. Both horses were perfect, thank goodness. 4-5 more pheasants
flushed out right behind us. Besides a few deer, that’s all the game we
saw.

Baby Levi needs a whoopee wagon, Prof whip Bre is getting a lift back to the staff by Melinda B

We hunted for 3.5 hours and went around 11-12 miles. We never did
see any coyotes, but we had a great day of riding.
Lunch was Mac-n-Cheese, baked beans, roast beef (Thank you Claire
Winklebauer), salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie and ice cream.

I had three plates. I dont like my foods touching each other

RIDERS is a 501(c)3 program that I have at my barn. It supports kids
that would like to go hunting. This year I have 5 kids: Rylee Heavey,
Audrey Schultz, Jamison Badje, Faith Winklebauer and Stella
Christianson. We have RIDERS events at Ponca Hills Farm all
summer long and riding there has really helped everyone improve
their riding and jumping outside of the ring. A big thank you To Mick Moriarty and Jan Mactier for opening up Ponca to us. We had one of our Safe Rider Programs there.
Sunday was at the kennels and Professional whipB re K said that
they had 35 RSVP’s. We had about 15 in the field. The rest must have
blown all their allotted fun time yesterday.
The wind was in pretty good form today. I rode Jenni Toebben’s new
Hunt horse, Aiden. He’s a 5 year old Saddlebred. Beth Van Dyke was
my babysitter. He wasn’t so sure about going through the trees-they’re
whacking him in the face… he had never been across a cornfield.
The wooden bridge is out, so we did this sketchy walk around a post,
death defying ditch drop off path. Thank you, again, Beth!
Bre has viewed two coyotes, but we can’t get to them.

riding into some new land that we have gained permission to ride across

Raylan Kruger helping at the WW

We hunted 11 miles and the hounds again worked well, to no avail.
The wind was so strong that when we got back for lunch at the
kennels, some of us were deaf.
Lunch was hosted by Huntsman Dave and Bre. Mac -n- cheese, this
really good bean dish, hot dogs and a bunch of desserts.

Thank you Bre K and Laura Allen for the pictures.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will see everyone in
December.
Carine
Wicked, Aiden

PS Hannah Hamiltons black hunt jacket went missing on Sunday. If anyone finds an extra jacket please text/call her (402)208-8723