The Master and Huntsman for Red Oak Foxhounds gives a hunt report back in the heat of August. Her favorite hound, Red Oak Alice, didn’t disappoint.
Red Oak Foxhounds cooling off in the pond after their run. Photo by Theresa Miller
Wednesday, August 29th was our eighth hunt that month. On this day we started hunting at 7:00 am. We are in southern Virginia and have had a dry summer. But the night before we had rain.
We have a red fox family that has given us great runs this month with no blank days. I took out fourteen couple, including two young hounds and a couple of older hounds who had not been out yet. Alice was one of those older hounds, who was nine years old in December. She is the toughest and best hound that we have in our pack.
It took just a few minutes into the hunt before the hounds hit, and off they went in full cry, turning sharp towards Coyote Swamp (not really a swamp but just a huge mud hole) and then to the Pepsi Trail (where an old Pepsi machine had been there for years). The hounds turned back towards the Kennel Trail and then turned to the hunt club. The nearby creek is usually where they lose it. However, they didn’t lose the fox this time. Kim Harrison, one of our Whipper-Ins, was right with the pack, and we could hear them screaming over Kim’s radio!
I was left behind catching up, as our hunt territory is wooded with most of our trails pretty tight. Thankfully my horse knows the trails, so I put him on autopilot. The pack turned back in the direction they had picked the fox up and in the direction of Judd Road. Where the truck whip, Susan Kerner, was waiting with my husband, Harry, and Whipper-In, Carol Holton. Just in the right place, the fox turned again, about to make the same loop! I was right in the middle of the pack by now, with the hounds still in full cry. I couldn’t believe my pack could still be going so strong in the heat of August!
The fox made another loop and this time headed toward L Road. I was able to cut through on the Bear Trail as the pack turned toward the back of Betty’s Pond and onto a small block of woods near Betty’s horse trailer. I could see Carol on Judd Road in the right spot to see the fox turn and go back behind Betty’s. The fields were planted in soybeans, so I couldn’t see a thing.
That fox made another loop; honestly, the pack made so many turns and loops I lost track. At one point I was right with them, twenty yards away in the thick of the brush, and that fox still got in front of me and crossed. By this time, I had checked my watch and the hounds have been running for fifty minutes. With no water in the creeks, most of the pack finally checked. I started to blow them back to me. The hounds Eager and Hercules had gone way ahead still on the fox, but the rest of the hounds were just fried.
We finally got them collected and headed to Douglas’ Pond to cool them off. All hounds, including the puppy Red Oak Nestor, stayed tight the entire run. On her first time out this season, Red Oak Alice was right up front, never dropping back. She has drive! Best nose and voice in my kennel.
It was just an amazing hunt for August. Hounds went twelve miles, and my horse and I went ten miles.
The best hunting is Cubbing; it’s well worth getting up at 4:00 am!
Nine-year-old Red Oak Alice. Photo by Theresa Miller