Coyote takes refuge after nine-and-a-half miles across country / Pam Gamble photo
The Longreen Foxhounds met at Eastover Plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi on Saturday, January 5, 2012 under a light rain and gentle wind in thirty-eight degree temperatures. While most riders opted for raincoats, whipper-In Chip Carruthers boldly rode out in his scarlet.
Hounds moved off at 10:00 am just as the rain was stopping. Blue skies opened over the first covert—the Cigar Woods. Hounds trotted the mile across the turn row from trailers to woods, with the field branching off to the west. Staff was already in position. Hounds have been known to erupt in full cry on coyote once inside woods and always in full cry by the southern end of this covert.
Not so this day. Cigar Woods, blank. Swamp Woods, blank. Hounds were picked up and hacked down Reinhart Rd to the Twin Woods. Blank. Now overcast with temperature rising slowly.
Huntsman Susan Walker opted to hunt Chip’s Woods from west to east. We were now almost four miles from the trailers and just shy of reaching the Little Sunflower River. Whippers-In Missy Stierle and Ani Carruthers later reported that the open plow west of the Cigar Wood was carpeted with fresh coyote prints. The coyotes had heard us pull up and jumped ship over an hour ago! With so much flood water around, their scent disappeared with dilution!
The field crosses a turn row to position for a view. / Pam Gamble photo
As the pack approached the eastern half of Chip’s Woods, voices declared a find. After five minutes of hair raising cry, silence. Chip reported hounds moving out of covert across the field south to the river, not trailing. Susan galloped to that side and blew her drawing note. Hounds lifted their heads and returned to Chip’s Woods drawing the east half again. Total silence. All we could figure was the coyote went deep into the central flood area and hunkered down real still, and it worked.
Susan picked up the pack and crossed Kline-Johnson at the bridge to work the ditch north to the Cadillac Woods. Staff again galloped to positions giving good coverage in anticipation of the promise of a good run from this well known patch of woods with Geisbeck’s catfish ponds north and Gable’s ponds south. For the first half it was all quiet.
Young hounds jumped a deer on the south side, midway through the covert. They were ready to run something! Adults lifted their heads and stopped in their tracks to check out the music. Not their tune; such good tattle tails! Susan blew her riot call, and whipper-in Hugh Boone flew into action having seen the deer head south across the plow. The three youngsters promptly returned to the pack, which had resumed hunting.
Shortly thereafter a vocal chorus rang out, declaring the line of their coyote, finally found after perseverance! Then voices checked. Then rang out. Then checked again. A strong “View Holloa” from Ani while covering north by the catfish pond. Susan opted to let the hounds keep bumping their line in case they could work it out in the flooded woods. She galloped through the trees to confirm the line with Ani who positioned her horse, Lucky, just inside the woods heading west.
This was perfect! Hounds were still bumping the line in the flooded woods to the east. Susan blew the pack forward to the line. Hounds materialized from the dense covert and swarmed around Ani in silence. Noses to the ground they spread out as Susan worked them west suspecting this coyote packed up his scent as he skedaddled after hearing the vocal “Tally Ho.” Sure enough, Beamer, Yogi, and Zack hit the line about a hundred feet further west and the pack flew away in full cry leaving the woods to run the grass along the ponds, then dropping back south into the woods to race east, then breaking out along the woods’ edge to the south midway to Palmer Rd. This coyote then ran north from Gable’s catfish ponds with Missy viewing in the sage break between the east fingers of trees just west of Palmer Rd.
I have to confess, the huntsman went down at this point. Valor found a hole in the crossing west of Gable’s ponds and went to his knees. I rolled off his left shoulder. He stayed on his knees til I rolled out of the way, then stood on the bank and waited for me to catch up. We found a low spot so I could get back on, all the while hearing staff continuing to report on the pack as the race continued. Between the outback coat and the rubber Aigle boots, I didn’t even get wet.
With the pack close to his brush, our pilot flew to the woods west of the Geisbeck house, bent east and then north crossing Reinhart near Young Rd. A quarter-mile north he changed east toward Palmer just south of Charles Unruh’s house with huntsman and Billy Anderson galloping to stay north of him and turn him south. He crossed Palmer just north of the church then raced south back to Gable’s ponds viewed again by Missy and the field. The coyote dropped off the gravel access at the ponds and turned north once more. Missy helped Future catch up after getting thrown out at Palmer by the ponds. Once more the pack’s cry went to the tree line west of the Geisbeck’s and turned north.
This time our third field of Dawn, Susan, Nancy, and Laura with Allison and young Georgia, was ready for the coyote as he broke covert. Allison sized up his path and sent Laura, Dawn and Susan to intercept to keep him from going west. Laura’s big gelding, Beecher, took this task seriously as he attacked the open plow on a mission with Susan and Dawn in hot pursuit! They succeeded in turning the coyote who opted to take refuge in a nearby culvert off to the side of Young Rd just north of Reinhart Rd.
Now they stood back and waited as half the pack still in full cry marked the coyote to ground in the culvert. The remaining staff and riders caught up. Susan blew to ground cheering the pack and praising them for a job well done as tail hounds caught up. Georgia got off her horse to stand by one end of the culvert so she could see the coyote inside, but she had to wait for several hounds to back out before she had a clear view. In short order all hounds were present except Emma. Hounds were extracted from the culvert, albeit unwillingly, and sent north with Susan and staff for the mile up Young Road to the trailers.
John McClure wearing “buckshot feet” / Pam Gamble photoWith effort, John dislodged about twenty pounds of delta buckshot from his walking boots; then he drove back to Reinhart spotting Emma trailing the pack at the Geisbeck’s. “All hounds accounted for.” What a wonderful thing to hear after such a glorious run! Multiple views by all and wonderful hound work. A gallant coyote left in his refuge for another day.
Once hounds and horses were cared for at the trailers and a beaming Georgia was picked up by her mom, riders and car followers made their way to Rest Haven Restaurant for some grand spaghetti, lasagna, sandwiches, and Lebanese cooking. Best of all was the time spent sharing each rider’s version of the action. Those long-eared, long-legged, bugle-voiced hounds of Longreen gave us another great day!
Facts:
Total miles: 15
Length of run: 9-1/2 miles
Hounds: Panda, Biscuit, Yogi, Zipper, Zack, Zorro, Zinnia, Beamer, Bonnett, Butter, Bubbles, Bizzy, Crenshaw, Courage, Daisy, Emma, EQ, Justin, Future.
Huntsman: Susan Walker, MFH
Whippers-In: Hugh Boone, Chip Carruthers, Ani Carruthers, Missy Stierle
Road Whipper-In: John McClure
Outrider: Billy Anderson
Field Master: Jenny Haste
Hunt Secretary: Kim Michelson
Field: Nancy Manire, Laura Tarver, Kim Williams, Kim Michelson, Allison Crews, Georgia Dulaney (age seven, out for her first foxhunt), Dawn Hinton, Susan Gustafson, Andrea Baioni.
Photographers: Pam Gamble and John McClure.
Support: Tracey Carruthers, Wes Lawson, Mrs. Dulaney
Posted January 13, 2013
Author/foxhunter Allison Crews and 7-year-old first time foxhunter Georgia Dulaney / Pam Gamble photo