Huntsman Spencer Allen with the LIve Oak foxhounds, accompanied by whipper-in Alexandra Taber and kennel huntsman Sam Andrews. / Leslie Ballenger photo
Marty’s Weather Channel said no way but my Weather Bug gave me hope, and hope springs eternal! It looked highly likely that we might have to cancel due to heavy rain and possible thunderstorms, but, never wanting to cancel unless totally necessary, the call was made at 5:30 a.m. to go for it.
We were in the saddle at 8:30 and headed for the Dip Vat. What a shame, as it turned out, that so many were put off by the weather prediction of three inches of rain, to have only two in the field—Cameron and David Reid. “Small field, good hunt” could not have been more true!
Twenty-four-and-a-half couple of Live Oak’s finest opened in the Dip Vat at eight-forty-eight on a coyote that was viewed multiple times throughout the morning, beginning what was arguably the longest hunt on the same quarry, without changing, that I have ever had the privilege of enjoying in my fifty-two years of hunting multiple times a week in the United States, Canada, and England!
The hounds were totally relentless, and you could have covered them with a blanket for the first two-and-a-half hours. The run lasted a remarkable two hours and fifty minutes, and there was not one check that lasted even ten seconds.
The coyote tried all of his tricks—running foiled ground, 180-degree turns, long points to Green Snake Covert , Garr Fish Lake and towards the end, Seminole Main House, but the hounds were glued to him. The lead hounds changed many times during the run, which is what you want to see in a good pack of hounds, a plethora of talent all vying for the front end.
At just under the three-hour mark of non-stop running, when three couple of old hounds had gotten understandably strung out behind, the race seriously faltered. Strong rain was imminent, and despite the disappointment of second season Huntsman Spencer Allen that this strong coyote had not been caught, we counted them on and called it what it truly was, a red-letter day.
Posted February 21, 2018
Mark Atwater photo