Lili Wykle, MFH and huntsman, Stonewall HoundsOn Tuesday October 19 we welcomed Todd Kern and fourteen of his Snickersville Penn-Marydel crosses to join the Stonewall Hounds (VA) for a weekday hunt. Todd was coming this way with a horse for one of is his whippers-in, Julia Bayliss, who is currently attending Sweet Briar college and hunting with us. This was very exciting for Stonewall because we had never hunted our country with a joint pack. Adding his seven couple to our eight-and-a-half couple made for a nice size pack.
Todd anticipated a good run on something besides red fox, his usual quarry. He wanted to get his hounds on game that they normally don’t hunt, such as gray fox or bobcat or coyote. We have that type of varied game (and even an occasional bear) in our country and not many red foxes.
Of course, as fate would have it, hounds found a red fox quickly after the first draw. I believe Todd’s hound spoke first as I did not recognize the voice. They sounded pretty urgent! Then…silence. After a few moments of disappointment, hounds quickly confirmed and honored and the silence instantly became a roar of thirty-one voices of the great American and PMD bloodlines that make each of our respective hunts proud!
As I was deciding which way to go, whipper-in Gretel Mangigian positioned back in the field where we parked heard hounds coming closer and their cries intensifying. She was not disappointed when a beautiful red fox broke covert and ran along the tree line in the field below her. She quickly came on the radio alerting the staff of her view. Then she cried her view halloa and the hair, already standing up on our necks, bristled further as we knew quarry had been viewed.
Todd, who did not have a radio, excitedly asked what she viewed. “Red fox,” I screamed and off we galloped to get to the field by a busy road, where we thought the fox was headed. He turned in the woods, however, and headed back toward the hay bale field. We went one way, and Field Master Cheryl Microutsicos led the riders back the way they came (as it would have meant all of us galloping down a busy road!). We heard another tally ho. The fox had crossed back over the gas pipeline into the area in which he started.
We galloped to the gas line and heard hounds coming, circling counter-clockwise . We galloped down to the bottom where he might cross, just in time to hear the roar of the hounds and watch them cross the gas line again on the fox’s line, where whipper-in Kate Fairfield, had viewed a red blur. What a treat!
Of course this meant the fox was headed back toward the busy road. Road whip Howard Moore and Diane Burroughs were there just in time to stop most of the hounds, as the fox and three hounds had crossed. Staff worked hard to get them all back. Later a report came in that a passing car stopped to ask what was going on and to say they had seen a fox cross in the direction of the meet.
Although Todd may have been slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a gray fox or a coyote, we were all truly thrilled after an hour-long run on a red fox with all hounds on and working together. Throughout the morning hounds blended better than I had anticipated, and this was a treat for me.
We enjoyed the hunt breakfast, reflecting and sharing our individual stories of the day.
Posted November 11, 2011