Arrived on Dec 18th, and hit the ground running, driving up north to Hornby to visit our friends with the Vale Of Lune Harriers and attended an interesting fundraiser. John was supposed to ride with them on the 19th, but from all the rain the ground was too muddy for a mounted field, so out we went on our own private hunt on foot - what FUN!! It was just us, Eugene the huntsman, the senior master Mr. Patrick & 2 dedicated amateur whips, plus 17 couple hounds. We had a 3-hr practically non-stop hunt, standing on a large hill watching the hounds run hares round & round & round. The accounted for 2. We enjoyed watching one hare circle back around a few minutes ahead of the hounds, then at a fence row with lots of brush we watched her dance back & forth for about 5 yards, back & forth stitching her scent heavily into that line, then HOP off in a perpendicular direction. The hounds checked there, but weren't fooled, and eventually caught her just over the next rise.
Anyway, on to the trip report.
Sunday we spent visiting at the kennels and took a quick trip to Kendall to
see a kennel of Trail hounds (bred for racing trials).
Monday the 21st John went out with
the Lunesdale Fellhounds and had a great time, viewing 2 fox & getting
to watch a great pack work (I was feeling under the weather that day, so stayed
at the hotel & then went shopping).
The 22nd we went out on
foot with the Pendle Forest & Craven Harriers, and had a wonderful time following
in a Land Rover with the kennelman navigating us to the best viewing spots.
Wednesday the 23rd we were back out with VofL, this time with John
mounted on a huge white horse that was 1/2 Shire. He looked so spiffy
in his hunt outfit, grinning from ear to ear & then some! Drisly &
cold, but I had fun hiking around with some friendly foot followers.
Boxing Day (Dec 26th) saw us out with the Black Combe Beagles - absolutely
*horrid* weather (rain & sleet driven horizontally with gale force
winds), but amazingly the Beagles had little problem. They didn't hunt
the entire day, so we retired to the pubs for the rest of the day, and were treated
to an inspirational group of tipsy singers singing all the traditional
hunting songs. The 28th was blanketed in thick heavy snow, but we went
out anyway with the Conniston Fellhounds. The hunt didn't last long however,
because the snow was so thick that no one was able to see from one hillside
to another.
We saw the Black Combe off Wednesday morning in Conniston, but couldn't stay the rest of the day.
We drove down to the High Peak Harriers on the 29th, visiting the hounds
& Barry the huntsman in kennels, and we picked out a 5 yr old bitch named
Minty to bring home with us. We went out with the High Peak on
Wednesday the 30th, and got to see Minty hunt. Given the large territory
they were covering that day, we followed by car instead of on foot, and got to
see some nice hunting.
We took Minty with us as we drove that day
down to the Stratford area to visit Andy Myatt with the Warwickshire Beagles. who we met via foxhunters on-line.
(The master kindly let us kennel Minty with the Beagles for a few days before we
went home). New Years Day with the Warwickshire was a beautiful day,
and we stayed out for 5 hours, returning well after dark (navigating muddy
fields and hills by a full moon is rather tricky btw). The Beagles worked
very hard that day, and pushed the last hare for well over an hour but it
was too dark to finish the hunt, so they were reluctantly called off.
And then, before we knew it, it was time to make the mad dash to Heathrow with a stinky hound in the back seat. We finally drove up to our house at 8pm on Sunday (but my body swore it was really about 4am on Monday).
Hope everyone has a good New Year!
Donna