March 26 Arapahoe Hunt ...Courtesy of Bev Heffernan and FOL

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
Dr. Beeman went with the rest (see photos). I didn't look at my watch, but I would say the pack ran that coyote for 15 minutes or so before they got on an open ridge where predictably, scent was nonexistent. Happily, putzing along in my hilltopper mode, I was able to take in both the split, and most of the action of the main pack. Soon thereafter, Grant reunited 'his' 3 couple with their huntsman and canine colleagues, and they were off on another brief run in a matter of minutes, repeating the pattern of losing any hope of scent up high despite the best efforts of the hounds.

By the way, as is typical at Arapahoe, if you didn't view a coyote somewhere along the way, whether the hunted one or not, you just might be blind, they are numerous, though as Dr. Beeman explained, this time of year their behavior does change a bit owing to impending births. Had a couple of more little spurts before hitting a pretty good line heading, if memory serves, to the northeast, way off toward the county road (where Dr. Beeman had hounds stopped, they do have permission to hunt the other side of the road but as it is a pretty busy road, he didn't want to continue on that line yesterday).
From there, Dr. Beeman hunted back toward the kennels, a quiet return, with hounds rekenneling at 5:40 pm.

Thereafter, we enjoyed the usual delicious Arapahoe breakfast, with Dr. Beeman asking Adrian and Grosvenor to say a few words, and then recounting the day in some considerable detail, it is always great when a huntsman takes the trouble to share what happened, and why he did what he did.

And so, yet another great day with Arapahoe! They are always very welcoming to Western Challenge travelers, and announced at the meet that the caps collected on the day will be donated to the winning charity of the Western Challenge.

Today, day off! Fort Carson is hosting a dinner tonight, and we will be hunting tomorrow at 9:30 am. Report and pics, maybe by Sunday, since I'll be driving back to Utah Saturday!

Regards,
Beverley Heffernan
Sandy, Utah, USA