Friday March 28 Ft. Carson Hounds Hunt Report

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.
Then, I headed east 48 miles to Fort Carson's Jumping Cow fixture, about 20 miles east of Kiowa, Colorado (yes, you can see Kansas from the meet!).
As we shared a stirrup cup, the wind was in my opinion a steady 20-25 mph or so. From the south. You will see from the photos that there isn't much in the way of windbreaks in this country.

Off we went, 13 couple of hounds, staff, WC judges and four field members including Fort Carson member Allison (sorry, I've forgotten the last name!) acting as our Field Master and keeping us in the huntsman's hip pocket all day.

Fort Carson is a new pack, this is their second (or at most third) season. The pack's foundation was a draft of Walker hounds from Lynn Lloyd at Red Rock. I don't know what Gary has added to that mix, but they have a spectacular voice, and are low scenting hounds as well. On this day, that might have been as much as hindrance as a help, as they often found very old lines that took them back through country we had already covered. Nevertheless, they worked tenaciously throughout the day, and we enjoyed numerous if brief gallops.

About three hours and 15 minutes into the day, the pack made Their Big Find and went away screaming. Unfortunately, whippers-in failed to stop them before they traversed the fence line into Forbidden Territory, so all we could do was stand at the fenceline and watch, and listen- you could still hear that pack in the wide open country when they were a couple of miles away!

About 20 minutes later, we saw a big herd of antelope, I would say at least 30 o
f them, heading right to left in front of us...and a couple of puppies not too far behind. But it appeared that the rest of the pack had ignored that nonsense and were trickling back to Gary in dribs and drabs.

Gary invited the field to retire as he was simply going to pick up hounds (blowing in what was by now a steady 35-40 mph wind doesn't accomplish much when hounds are upwind!).

Back at the meet, after tending to horses as best one can in a howling wind (it grew in intensity as the day progressed and was by now steadily in the 30-35 mph range), we gathered in the Worralls' living quarters trailer for some libations and appetizers while awaiting staff and hounds, and while Jt MFH Sal D'Alessandro was whipping up the breakfast in HIS living quarters trailer. No chance of setting up an outside tailgate in this wind!
Staff returned down 3 couple, and I believe these were all in by the time we left the meet.

The breakfast was delicious, we went to Sal's trailer to serve ourselves and then wedged ourselves back into Gary and Jane's trailer to eat, a system that worked pretty darned well. Breakfast was capped off by a chocolate cake that surely countered the effects of any calories burned off during the day.

I bade my goodbyes to all my huntin' buddies and on Saturday morning, while they were all heading to Flagstaff, I was heading home, my Western Challenge jaunt being concluded for this year. Alas, work does get in the way, but it pays for the horses, so whatcha gonna do?

The 608 mile drive from Castle Rock CO to Draper Utah (just adjacent to Sandy, and where the horses are stabled) took me 10 hours and 45 minutes, owing to a steady 30 to 40 mph headwind all day long. But, I only saw one camper shell and one Fed Ex semi trailer flipped over in the median as I came across Wyoming, so it appears that most heeded the frequent warning signals to not attempt to haul empty or light trailers in this wind.

Today, I believe the Kingsbury Harriers and Paradise Valley Beagles are hunting as one combined entry in the Challenge. That should be a lot of fun. It's snowing at my house, and I have a fire crackling in the fireplace. Silly me, I had pencilled in working in the yard today. Never mind. In any event, I've told you all I can about this year's WC, so I hope someone down the road will chime in on the remaining meets!

Regards,

Beverley Heffernan
Sandy, Utah, USA