Hunt Reports

Posted with kind permission of Paul Delaney, MFH of Grand Canyon Hounds:

Western Challenge Winning Hunt Report

The Grand Canyon Hounds met at one of their most productive fixtures, about
25 miles south of their namesake canyon. The country is rolling, high desert with beautiful views of the Canyon's north rim far to the north and northern Arizona's rim country equally far to the south. Huntsman Peter Wilson hunted 14 couple of American hounds with whippers-in Jimmy Boyle and Amanda Wilson.

The field of 17 included visitors from the Caza Ladron and Fort Carson hunts. Weather was warm and dry and coats were waived for those wishing to keep cool, though a northerly breeze persisted through the day. Hounds cast at 9 AM.

After working through some antelope, hounds arrived to drink at their first
tank of the day. This is where a coyote was viewed. Hounds maintained a line of vision for a mile and a half across open country before the coyote ran up a bluff and broke the line of sight. The pack then struggled to find, casting west then east. Finally, they opened as the quarry was seen running northwest, a minute or so ahead. The coyote was pushed and the gap closed quickly, the coyote in view only ¼ mile ahead of the pack.

After 3 fast miles, the front hounds picked a check as the coyote turned southwest. RoseTree Ox and Grand Canyon Quarter (both PMD drafts from Jody Murtagh) with Kryer and Angle pulled away from the rest of the pack, to the satisfaction of Judge Grosvenor Merle-Smith, as these were from some of his favorite bloodlines. Hounds, staff, and judges galloped for several more miles before the coyote disappeared into juniper cover. Hounds checked and the horses were given a breather, the pack collected, and the field allowed to catch up. Hounds had run more than 7 miles in less than 50 minutes. The pack was gathered and taken to water. Hounds then began casting, drawing through a few jackrabbits and up onto a ridgeline.

A coyote was spotted moving eastward, downwind, and hounds were brought on but were unable to maintain a line after more than half an hour of trailing northward. The decision was made to head to the Blanco Tank for more water. (Yes, hunting in Arizona has a lot to do with taking hounds to water!)The hounds never drank, as yet another coyote was viewed. After some effort, the hounds locked on, as did Judge Adrian Dangar riding Peter's favorite mount Pinky, who ran ahead of the pack right with the quarry!

Hounds were determined and ran the scent for 2 miles, before Jump and Goblin (a draft from Red Rock) closed the gap and ran the coyote's heels another couple of miles. Both these first season hounds, lacking the support from the pack,hesitated, relieving the pressure and giving the coyote some needed distance.

Adrian was not to be deterred and continued with the coyote for another mile where it took a break on a rocky ledge. Peter gathered the hot and thirsty pack for a last-ditch attempt. The coyote proved to have more gas in his tank than did the hounds, who had run to exhaustion. More water from the nearest tank and the hounds were hacked back to trailers after a productive day."

April 1 Kingsbury Harriers/Paradise Valley Beagles. Flagstaff, AZ

The Paradise Valley Beagles and Kingsbury Harriers combined their packs to hunt on April 1st, April Fools Day. We hunted 7 couple of Beagles, 2 couple of crossbred Beagle/Harrier, and 5 1/2 couple of Harriers.

The joint pack huntsmen were Suzie Stevenson and John Auborn. The whips were Jennie Cure, Colleen Auberle and Jane Baare.

Hounds cast at 8:30 AM on a sunny, warm, very dry day in Flagstaff, Arizona. After about 15 minutes a jackrabbit was seen by a whip, but hounds couldn't find the scent at all. So we knew it was going to be a rough day for hounds.

Hounds hunted North West into an open grassland dotted with rabbit bush and sage. The pack worked well together sweeping and trying to find at every bush. One other jackrabbit was spotted and hounds worked hard and tracked her for a short distance. So we decided to water hounds at a tank and headed for the juniper trees at the fringe of the pasture.

The field saw a jackrabbit and this time the hounds could follow with much hard work. For quite a while we followed this jack up into the junipers climbing the side of Rattlesnake Crater, losing and finding the scent until all the grass disappeared and we only had volcanic cinders on the ground.

Later we found another jack making a break down the hill toward the ranch house with Harriers very close. We lost for a time and then put her up again and she did a 180 and ran back up the hill, so all hounds viewed and Harrier/Beagle cross Herald screamed after her. Again the jack foiled the hounds in the raw cinders, but hounds persisted.

We went for more water, and everyone passed around flasks. The riders from New Mexico handed Adrian a flask of "New Mexico Mix"... Poor Adrian as it was Hatch chiles and vodka. The pack then ran 3 more jacks briefly, as scent was fading fast. We hacked back to the trailers after 3 hours of hare hunting.

Susan Slocum
Treasurer
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
2910 Centre Pointe Drive
Roseville, MN 55113

Monday March 31 Grand Canyon Hounds Flagstaff, AZ

We had a good day. Rode out with a field of 15, casting 14 couple at 9:00
AM. The weather was warm, approaching 60 degrees, the sun was out in full,
but we were blessed with a cool northerly breeze. We waived coats, but those
who took advantage were probably a little cool from time to time.

Anyway, we jumped a coyote at our first water and ran it hard for a mile and
half before the hounds checked and had to get down to work. They picked up
the scent and we had a four and a half mile run with the coyote, the whole
shebang taking about 40 minutes.

Grovsenor was really happy to see that the
lead hounds came out of bloodlines which he really liked, all tracing back
to Doc Addis. It took a while to regroup and get the hounds back to some
water.
Well, we sited again pretty quickly, possibly the same coyote. This
one took off like a bullet and the hounds never really got a hold. We
trailed it for about half an hour to no avail. Peter finally decided to go
north to give the hounds some more water (yes, hunting in Arizona is a lot
about going to water!).
Just before getting there, we viewed, the hounds got on and we ran full out for about four miles.
Adrian was in the lead, right with the coyote for the last three miles. The pack got strung out and the lead hounds, both first year entries, only yards behind the coyote, finally stopped.

Peter regrouped while Adrian sat with the coyote. But, when bought
to the line, the hounds just didn't have it in them. And, the coyote had had
time to think through his situation and bolted at full throttle.

By the way, we did all this in a 50,000 acre pasture. The closest we got to
a fence line all day was about a mile!

Susan Slocum
Treasurer
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
2910 Centre Pointe Drive
Roseville, MN 55113

Friday March 28 Ft. Carson Hounds Hunt Report
Courtesy of Bev Heffernan and FOL

Here's the link to the Fort Carson pictures: http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/BevHeff/Fort%20Carson/

We had a nice hunt and breakfast at Arapahoe on Wednesday, March 26, and Thursday was a welcome day of rest, spent cleaning tack, polishing boots, and tending to my horse at a leisurely pace.

Thursday night, the Fort Carson Hounds hosted cocktails and dinner at the Celtic Crossing Pub in Castle Rock, CO. Joint-MFH (and Major, I believe) Jared Norrell was our Master of Ceremonies. He was absent from last year's Challenge as he was serving in Iraq at the time, and though he was able to dine with us this year, alas, he had to spend Friday briefing some brass at Fort Carson and would not be able to hunt with us.

Arapahoe Joint MFH and Huntsman Marvin Beeman likewise expressed his regret at having to miss hunting on Friday...having rearranged his schedule to take us hunting on Wednesday, he needed to practice some veterinary medicine on Friday! Dr. Beeman noted in his remarks something that hadn't yet occurred to me- he is the first MFHA President to
have never hunted fox, as coyote has been Arapahoe's exclusive quarry over the decades. Oh, you'll see some little bitty kit foxes in their country, but these are tiny creatures- 2-3 lbs adult weight- and in addition to being protected in many parts of the US as a sensitive species, they're also not likely to run very far from a den.

After a lovely dinner and fairly reasonable bed time, I was awakened on Friday morning not by my alarm clock, but by the wind howling outside. This would definitely bode for the long johns, even if the temperature reaches the promised low 50s. After a quick cup of coffee, I headed to the nearby stable and groomed and tacked my horse.

Yesterday was indeed a relative scorcher here in the Denver area.
By meet time, 2 pm, sunny and high 60s. Thus, as Dr. Beeman explained later, he elected to head east and hunt first along the creek bottom, abandoning his original plan to hunt the western part of the country first.

After introductions at the meet by joint MFH Rob Deline, Dr. Beeman and staff unkenneled 19 and a half couple and away to the east we went, along the main drive toward the county road, then hanging a right and dropping down to the creek bottom. I would say there were 40 in the field.

Heading down toward the creek, whipper-in Tom Mallard viewed a coyote heading up a ridge, but Dr. Beeman elected to ignore that view. He explained at the breakfast that veterinary research shows that as hounds become dehydrated, their olfactory senses decline rapidly, and so in the heat he was keen to let them hydrate and work along the creek. As it was my young horse's third day in a row, I elected to hilltop, taking the inside of the circle without sacrificing the view of all the action, though I couldn't hear the hounds.
They did push something along that bottom for a while, headed out the far side of the bottom, and lost in an open field.
Then, Grosvenor viewed a coyote and 3 couple were quickly away on it, with the balance of the pack opening as well- but heading the other way. Dr. Beeman explained that in a perfect world, he'd have gone with the viewed coyote, but things move fast and that 3 couple was already a half mile away, so whipper-in Grant stayed with them while

Mar. 25 Knoxville ...Bonus Hunt...Courtesy Bev Heffernan and Fol

We indeed had a splendid bye day in Douglas, WY yesterday, hunting from Knoxville's kennels.

Joe Emily hunted hounds, Grosvenor, Adrian and Jennifer whipped in (the latter being the 'regular' whipper-in but she dropped back and decided to let the guys have some fun, this could be a different angle on bribing the judges, as opposed to wining and dining them...). Self and Ann rounded out the half-dozen. Unkenneled 17 and a half couple. The advertised 'couple of hours' turned into 4. No complaints here, though my hoss got a bit tuckered when hounds found in a stretch of creek bottom, went up and over the top, and when we got up top (with a brief detour to knock a couple of hounds off deer), well, they were goin' hard, away from kennels, so I putzed along in hilltopping mode and reached a point where I decided to let the hoss graze a bit and catch them coming back. So, we were out of touch for a half hour or so, during which time the pack split, and so at the end of the run huntsman was with 9 and a half couple. But other than that, it is still very cool to be able to watch hounds even a couple of miles away, when they are out of earshot.

Back at the kennels, I cleaned up my horse and watered him, then loaded up and headed 260 miles or so to Castle Rock, CO. Tucked him in at a nice facility 5 minutes from my sister's house, where I am presently tapping on my keyboard.

Arapahoe's meet is at 2 pm today, and let me tell you, it is sunny and already shirt sleeve weather at 10 am! Soooo, I will be wearing the sleeveless ratcatcher and likely leaving the vest off.

Mar. 24 Knoxville Hunt Report ...Courtesy Bev Heffernan...and FOL

And a splendid day it was, too. Those of us staying at the Best Western in Lusk, WY all greeted each other at breakfast just off the lobby. Then, except for the judges, the rest of us drove the 40 seconds or so to the fairgrounds to groom and tack our horses.

All involved met at the 3 Sisters Truck Stop in Manville, WY (pop 97), about 9 miles from Lusk, at the appointed hour, 9 am.
From there, we headed north 6 miles in convoy to the meet.

The Stirrup cup was provided by Stephania Williams, jt-MFH of Grand Canyon Hounds, though I must confess I missed it, was off out of the way having my own little private rodeo. This was my 5 yo's magical third meet, and yes he knew what we were up to all the way from the fairgrounds, and I suppose maybe I hadn't ridden him in a week or so, and so he was a bit exuberant. He got over it quickly, though, happy to say.

The hounds moved off at 9:45 am,
I think- a dozen field members led by FOLer Beth Dixon (she and two other coaches from U of Montana-Western, and 4 members of their riding team, cut classes to come hunting).

Knoxville is a small hunt, this is the first time they've ever actually designated someone to take the field.
Stephania and Amanda Wilson, wife of Grand Canyon huntsman Paul Wilson, made the trek (and I must remember to steal that nice little Welsh cob of Stephania's that Amanda was hunting today).
Betty Hollendorfer from Fort Carson was there, and Ann (haven't gotten her last name yet!) from both Arapahoe and Knoxville, I think. And I made 12.

Judges Grosvenor and Adrian, MFH and huntsman Joe Emily and whippers-in Jennifer and Dacota and Bob Knox (visiting from Arapahoe but also a member here) complete the attendance list, I think. (When I get around to posting pics, you will note Bob on a nice grulla horse, sporting an official Knoxville jacket w/colors.

Mar. 23 Western Challenge: Greetings from Wyoming

I pulled into Lusk, Wyoming around 4:30 today.
It was a 9 hour drive from Sandy Utah.

I met up with the Montana bunch, Beth Dixon, John ... I'm not going to try to spell his Greek surname, and several members of the U of Montana riding team, at the fairgrounds. They went for a ride while I was setting up my horse's lodging.

Dinner tonight was at the Silver Dollar Bar and Restaurant in downtown Lusk, with the group including judges Grosvenor and Adrian, our host Joe Emily MFH and huntsman of the Knoxville Hunt, and his secretary/whipper in Jennifer, plus Betty Hollendorfer from Fort Carson and several from Arapahoe including Bob and Jennifer Knox, and two stalwarts from Grand Canyon Hounds. Won a quick pool game before dinner.

Must dash now and lay out stuff for the a.m. Forecast sunny, 50s, and since it's Wyoming, wind,no doubt. More tomorrow night!

Regards,

Beverley Heffernan
Sandy, Utah, USA

Saturday dawned a chilly twenty four degrees with a strong north wind that had horses stomping and riders downing an extra stirrup cup. At ten a.m., MFH and Huntsman Steve Evans led l3 1/2 couple from the kennel with the able assistance of whippers-in Nancy E, Tyce M, Hilary S. and Helen S.

We welcomed our guests who are following the Western Challenge this year, Betty Hollendorfer from the Fort Carson Hounds in Colorado, and Kathy Adams and Ray Orth from Mission Valley in Kansas.
Ray took over 500 photos and you can view these at http://www.tallyhoartworks.photoreflect.com He even caught the most spectacular fall of the day including the "airs above the ground" performed by horses trying to avoid coming to the same end.

North Hills hunted four hours plus and covered eighteen miles, better double that for the hounds.
On the first draw southeast of the kennels, the field had a brief run across the corn field to the wooden bridge, but scent was lost there, and our huntsman headed east for Big Jim's country, (Big Jim was a horse who had a heart attack and died in this area several year's ago.)

Hounds then turned south past Wilson's pond. The Huntsman and hounds checked out the dead longhorn cow covert, then turned south to Salerno's CRP. Turned east and went through Berg country on our way to Fox Tree pond. (Yes, in the past, we actually did tree a fox here). Nobody home today though.
East towards Fox Canyon, where deer jumped up but were ignored, a brief run here, then nothing.

Tension was building in horses and riders as everyone recognized that hounds were working with attitude and purpose. A fox or coyote might spring from any covert and the chase would be on. No hound spoke, every one of them working together as a team to find a whiff of scent.

The excitement was tangible enough to communicate itself to the car followers also and not a sound was heard except for the huntsman encouraging his hounds to hunt. It was the heart stopping emotional moment all who ride to hounds recognize, but unfortunately, no foxes or coyotes were roaming around in North Hills territory this day.

Both judges rode up and complimented MFH Luke and MFH Steve on how hard the hounds were working and were as disappointed as we were at the lack of game today.

Back at the kennels and after marvelous food, Judge Grosvenor spoke to the group, gave kudos to the hounds, MFH Steve and staff on a fabulous day of hunting. We had it all today, all except Mr. Coyote or Mr. Fox.

Respectfully submitted,
Bev. Crouter
North Hills Hunt
Co. Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Ne.

Leslie is writing up the "official" version, and here is mine.

Since I've only capped with one other hunt, I was a bit nervous about going out today. I arrived in plenty of time; literally ran into the hunt secretary, so I signed and paid and got all settled. When I got back to my trailer, some kind person had braided Buddy's tail! Later I found out that Stephanie Mihlbaugh thought it was someone else's horse, and did it up. I felt quite fancy going out! The day was incredibly beautiful, but I thought the scenting conditions would be challenging. Lots of high streaky clouds in a deep blue sky; tons of sunshine and quickly warming air temperatures. Mary Hensel (MFH Bridlespur) welcomed the field, and introduced the dignitaries and guests. It was nice that Mary mentioned the guests and their hunts by name; made me feel very welcome. Lil Lewis further put me at ease by complimenting me on my turnout. What a friendly, warm group of people!

Due to the heavy recent rains, the fixture was changed to Busch Wildlife Area. Since it has been 3 weeks since Buddy and I rode (let alone hunted!), I opted to ride in the Junior Field. Better safe than sorry, right?

I have no idea how long we were out before we had our first run (Leslie will know - lol!). The four of us in the Junior Field were trotting, then cantering down a road bordered by heavy woods. I was last in line, and Buddy started slowing down. He was bending to the right, and staring into the woods. He got slower and slower, and finally came to a dead halt. With his history of lameness issues, I immediately thought I'd pushed him too hard; his feet hurt; something was wrong. Nope!

Gleaned from [FOL]
Courtesy Leslie Gra ...Thank you

Tonight was the grand kickoff party for the Western Challenge. The midwest has been hit hard by rain and floods so we had to move the location of the hunt meet and the kickoff party. We've had over five inches of rain since the weekend. Our rivers are near flood stage. One of our Masters had to move her hunt horses yesterday to another members farm as the road into her farm was going under water.

We met the Charming Grosvenor Merle-Smith tonight. Unfortunately Adrian Danger missed his plane in London and will not be in until tomorrow night so we will have to start the challenge with only one judge. We had 20 or so Bridlespur folks on hand to welcome him. We cheered many a Guiness in his honor at the local Fox and Hound pub.

The weather looks to be sunny and in the mid fifties tomorrow so there will be a brief respite from the rain we have had. I'm sure we will be hock deep in mud and a mud tail will be proper turnout. My horse's are out 24/7 so I can't wait to see how muddy they are in the morning.

So we are set and ready for the start of the Western Challenge tomorrow. We will be hoping for better hunting conditions than we have had the last two years and a better showing for Bridlespur.

Leslie Granger
Bridlespur Hunt

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