Belle Meade huntsman Epp Wilson, MFH, and 8-year-old Midland Maiden 2013
Midland Fox Hounds (GA) has drafted a lot of fine hounds to us at the Belle Meade Hunt (GA) over the years. Most have worked out well for our country and our way of hunting. Most drafts are un-entered pups, but often they will draft an entered hound to us when they’ve had a large litter and find themselves with more of that bloodline than they need. That’s how we got Midland Maiden 2013, and she turned out to be one of the best hounds they ever sent us. She is so good, I think Mason may have some regret about having drafting her to us.
Maiden is a special bi*ch,* as opposed to a “royal bi*ch.” We have all known a few of the latter, too. Maiden is special in both her personality and her skills. She is wired up a little tightly, and she loves attention and validation more than most hounds.
Body Language
She has a big smile and wags her entire back end when she’s happy, not just her tail. She squats down a little when I pet her and look into her eyes and tell her how brilliant she is. It is one thing to pet hounds and call them by name. It is quite another to look them in the eye while you are doing it. Like people, they need to look back at you, acknowledge you, and establish that special connection that many refer to as the “invisible thread.”
I am not fortunate enough to be one of those gifted huntsmen who just “has” the invisible thread, effortlessly. I have to connect that thread every time we go out. I do that by touching each hound and calling them by name. I try to touch each one. At Belle Meade, we are fortunate to hunt from the kennel most of the time. We let the hounds out and I mill around with them on foot for several minutes before I mount up and move off with them. Most of the hounds come over to me for their pat and loving. For ones who don’t come over on their own, I call them by name and try to get them to come over for a pat. When we have a new one or a puppy who doesn’t want to be touched, I consider that a problem. They need to allow me to pet them. I think this is how they acknowledge me as the alpha dog for the day. If they don’t acknowledge me in that doggy way, they seem to be less likely to stop or mind me — play by my rules — than those that do. Those aloof hounds seem particularly more likely to run a deer and not give a damn that I am hollering at them to get them to stop. That’s when the whippes-in take over and stop them.
For those hounds who don’t want me to pat them, I will get them to come over. Then I will hold them to keep them from running off. Then I look them in the eye and pet them until they look me in the eye. If they still don’t want to look me in the eye, I will take both hands and scratch their backs really hard and fast―left-right, left-right―pulling the hair from back to front, against the grain, and try to make them do that thing where one back leg starts scratching the air. That reflexive thing dogs do. And then they usually look me in the eye. I will do that hunt after hunt until they become comfortable with me and decide that I am their friend. And boss. This almost always works.
I would love to get ideas from other foxhunters as to how they get the shy, the aloof, the hard-headed, or otherwise difficult hounds to bond with them when the usual methods don’t work. Please *email* me.
The Whole Package
We never had a problem with Maiden. From the first day she arrived from Midland she was all about getting the loving, patting, and scratching. She’d look me in the eye and smile the whole time.
She has an incredible nose. She is not as fast as she once was, and she doesn’t keep up on the longest runs anymore. But that’s okay. I want her in the pack for her ability to find a good line. She is worth her weight in platinum for her ability to take a weak or stale line and puzzle it out. Often she and Colleen are the only two who can smell it. The others will try hard at first, then gradually lose interest and drift away looking for something fresher. Something they can smell better and hopefully follow.
Maiden was always good. Over the years she has honed her skills and gotten gradually better. When she’s not in the pack we can tell the difference―something’s missing―particularly on days with mediocre to poor scenting.
Another great attribute is her unique voice―deep and a little warbly. I am not one of those gifted huntsmen who know the individual voices of many of their hounds. I only know a handful. Thankfully, both Maiden and Colleen, my two best strike hounds, have distinctive voices. Like E. F. Hutton, when they speak everybody listens. All the other hounds and the staff and the field members listen!
The Verifiers
The nicest part for me is how the two hounds can verify the quality of the line. I don’t have to see Maiden. If we can hear her, we know the line is good. And no one else sounds quite like her.
Sometimes Maiden and Colleen find a line that is so old they are never able to trail up to where it’s fresh enough to turn it into a run. After a few minutes, we have to move on. Those two would probably be content to work that cold line for an hour if we let them. They are both pretty good about moving on when we are ready and call them and the other hounds.
Team Sport: People
Foxhunting is a team sport. Huntsman. Staff, including a pair of whippers-in on each compass point. An extra pair of whips on the southeast corner to help keep the coyote from going to the airport. Another pair riding in the middle, near hounds, like the traditional first whipper-in, to help stop puppies if they try to take off on trash. Road whips on each flank. It takes all of that to hunt here safely and responsibly. Particularly during deer season, when certain lands are out-of-bounds on certain days. Field Masters for our four fields play an important part as well. It is critical that they not cross the line or flank the action in any way that might turn the quarry in the wrong direction.
Team Sport: Hounds
Foxhunting is a team sport for hounds as well. The strike hounds find the line and get it going. Others can take that find and carry it forward faster and add the additional power and voice it takes to give us a good run. The sprinters are great at leading the way. But, they sometimes overrun the line. That’s when the older, slower hounds will turn accurately or cast themselves to recover the line and keep the action rolling for the rest of the pack. And the rest of us.
God Bless them all: strike hounds, sprinters, middle of the pack hounds. It takes all of them to make a good day.
It takes all of them and all of us to create the mountaintop experience―that handful of hunts that are the very best of the season. It’s for those memorable days that we bust our butts all year, keeping up the trails, maintaining landowner relations, and caring for hounds. Those hunts make all the effort worthwhile. Those are the hunts that will stick in our memories long after we have hung up the spurs and remind us that we have lived the best sporting life of all.
It is important also to give visitors the mountaintop experience as well. In this way, we will keep foxhunting in America going strong.
Posted June 21, 2021
*Note to our readers: Foxhunting Life has found that when we publish words that some internet provides or other filters confuse as coarse language, some of our emails go undelivered. So we have chosen the silly but prudent course and disguised those words. Such as bi*ch. When artificial intelligence gets less artificial and more intelligent, we won’t have to do that any longer. –Ed.