Juniors love to go hunting, but for them isn’t it mostly about the rider and his or her horse? How about the hounds? Couldn’t we set the foxhunting hook deeper by connecting interested juniors with hounds as well?
Huntsman and whipper-in, Andy and Erin Bozdan, spend a day with the Loudoun Fairfax juniors acquainting them with hounds. /
The Loudoun Fairfax Hunt (VA) is thinking about just that. They are hosting a Junior Hound Clinic this summer—a one-day affair, easy to put on. I’ve long been involved with hound programs for juniors and this is one idea that I hope appeals to other hunts.
As a suggested format, start the day early with your huntsman talking with the juniors about the plans for the day and what he or she would like them to learn.
Juniors would then accompany the huntsman into the kennel to learn and to help him in the daily routine: feed, walk out, clean kennels, hose it out. After all that, they’ll love to get under the hose themselves!
After a break and a cold drink, everyone loads up in the back of a pickup truck, drives into the fields, and pulls up at a typical covert. The huntsman and whipper-in talk about the fixture and how they plan a day’s hunting. They discuss how they will draw the covert and why. The huntsman can talk about how he/she deploys the whippers-in.
The huntsman can discuss the type of hounds he prefers for his country and what he expects from his hounds. How the pack works as a team. How some hounds are good in finding scent (strike hounds), some have the drive to pull the rest of the pack forward, some hounds turn more accurately with the line instead of flashing over. Explain how the progress of a hunt can be a team effort with different hounds contributing at different times.
Open space and natural habitat are such important ingredients of our sport that any program with juniors must include a discussion of conservation. Talk about what your hunt does to help preserve land and habitat.
Junior Hound Clubs
When I was a whipper-in with the Fairfax Hunt I started a Junior Hound Club. Kevin, the huntsman at the time, had Sundays off, but as a whipper-in I was knowledgeable in the kennels. I got the kids together every Sunday afternoon. We walked the pups out, repeated their names to them over and over, and gave many hugs. (Kids and puppies bond like peanut butter and jelly.) The kids enjoyed it, and a couple of them become junior whippers-in. The club even had its own embroidered t-shirts.
These programs appeal to juniors, and there’s still plenty of time left this summer! Think about it for attracting and educating juniors for your hunt.
Posted July 16, 2016