Dulany Noble

Joe Bills / Monica Powell photoThis excellent hunting morning started early, as I arose at 5:00 am to check the forecast and discuss it with Carrollton Hounds MFH and huntsman Dulany Noble. Being "the weather guy" in the hunt, I checked radar and several different weather services as sleet had been predicted the night before. The precipitation had been shoved back so we decide to give it a go.

I drove out to the barn to prepare Joe, Jr. for the day’s hunt. Luckily my barn is within hacking distance from the fixture, so I got him ready and tacked up. We went up the driveway, down into the bottom, back up through the neighbor’s and up to Begg Road. We saw a family out walking with a small child and stopped to wish them a Merry Christmas. We paused to give the child her first encounter with a horse. Then on we went up the road. I enjoyed the view from the ridge, looking over the farms of Maryland’s Carroll County and seeing the houses decorated for the season. The skies grew steel grey as the morning progressed, portending the coming precipitation. The air was heavy and winds slight.

Five-Year-Old Anabelle Small holds huntsman Dulany Noble's horse, Smitten, after the meet. / Elizabeth Martin photoWednesday, October 17 was a perfect day for cub hunting in Central Maryland. The morning was clear, crisp, and chilly, the dew covered the ground, and the fall foliage is coming into full color. This Carrollton Hounds fixture—Ships Quarter Farm—is one of my favorites, not only for the quality of hunting but also for selfish reasons as it is where I board Joe, Jr. It means a more leisurely morning as there is no hitching up the trailer and driving to the meet.

This day would see small fields and me leading the Second Field as our regular Field Master was indisposed with work. After hounds were off loaded, announcements made, and guests welcomed, MFH and huntsman Dulany Noble rode off for the first draw, the bottom of Cranberry Creek below Ships Quarters. This covert is always productive as Sir Charles makes it a home. This summer we had two cubs that would come out to play in the driveway and pastures.

Accompanying Joe Bills’s story are Karen Kandra Wenzel’s photographs, including a sequence of one of the foxes viewed away.

“I love to shoot there whenever possible,” says Karen. “Carrollton has gorgeous territory—all rolling farmland and not a housing development in sight!”