A good whipper-in can be the decisive ingredient in turning a mediocre hunting day into a brilliant one. If you need a better authority before agreeing with my premise, how about Peter Beckford? Here’s what he had to say in 1781.
“In a country full of riot, where the covers are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full of game….I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excellent huntsman…. The whipper-in, if he have genius, may show it in various ways: he may clap forward to any great earth that may, by chance, be open; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails; he may stop the tail hounds, and get them forward; and has it frequently in his power to assist the hounds, without doing them any hurt, provided he should have sense to distinguish where he may be chiefly wanted.”
I recently witnessed a great example of Beckford’s “without doing them any hurt” admonition. It was just a simple thing, yet after forty-five years of hunting it still made me shake my head in admiration.
My hunt has all new professional staff—huntsman and whipper-in—who are learning the country on the fly. Hounds had checked in a thick covert, and we in the field could see them, heads down, trying to recover the line. The whipper-in came galloping by headed for the end of the covert.
“Over here,” called the Field Master, pointing to a concealed trail. “You can get in over here.”
The whipper-in came back, talked urgently to the Field Master, then turned his horse and continued in the direction he was originally going.
After the meet I asked him what that exchange was all about.
“I had just been rating a couple of the hounds,” he said, “and they were probably a bit apprehensive of me. I didn’t want to go into the covert where they were working, because I was afraid they’d worry and lift their heads.”
Simple but sophisticated! In fact, hounds recovered the line and went on. If the whipper-in had gone in among them and they had lifted their heads, that might have been the end of that hunt.
Talk to your huntsman or whipper-in after a meet. Ask them why they did what they did. They can stun you with levels of sophistication in dealing with hounds that you never expected. And you’ll enjoy the day so much more.