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Fox Hunt Season

5K views 54 replies 14 participants last post by  my2geldings 
#1 ·
Finally going through the photos we got from our fox hunting season. None of the hunts have ACTUAL hunting of a fox, but everything else is followed from hunt jackets, braided horses, horns. We usually had 60-80+ riders. Absolute blast and a great group of people. Everyone dressed fantastic and the horses looked great all cleaned up. We had falls every hunt :lol: but everyone survived. Always looking for new members! You just gotta make sure you can handle your horse in a huge group of galloping horses jumping over cross country fences all over different types of terrain. Took one of our young mares out for her first season. She had never jumped until we showed up to hunts :falloff: but she was a gem. She tried so hard to please. Do we have any other forum members out there who fix hunt?
Pm me for info!
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#6 ·
They do coyote "fox" hunts here, but hounds are not allowed to harm the coyote, and there are penalties if any coyotes are actually harmed/killed. My ISH's breeder and trainer are avid "fox" hunters and while I don't know much about that world, I do know that at least one of them is a Master (?) and they have always had rules against harming any live animals during the hunts and they run with the largest fox hunting group in our state, and the group has always been very well respected in our community.

The trainer, who is a very blunt and interesting person, says his favorite thing about the hunts is all the drinking that goes on!
 
#12 ·
For many years I hunted with Iron Bridge Hunt in Maryland, and later with Marlboro Hunt. It was a lot of fun, and we did hunt foxes--got up quite a lot of them, and had a lot of adventures over the years. The two Maryland hunts that I rode with did not stop up the dens so the foxes came out when they felt like it and went "to ground" when they had had enough. We had a "Four O'Clock Fox" who regularly came out at that time and gave us a grand time. In Maryland, the foxes really do seem to enjoy the chase as do the hounds (never call them dogs), the horses, and the riders.

We had some experienced field masters who got the field to places where we could watch the fox lay down the scent and then watch the hounds coming along after him. It was a grand sight. The most amazing one happened at a Marlboro hunt. The hounds had lost the trail of the fox in a bunch of brushy bushes in a fairly large pasture. They were casting around in a group when suddenly the fox popped up right in the middle of the hounds (there were about 20 of them), jumped on the backs of hounds, made his way across the brushy overgrown pasture, and high-tailed it, obviously laughing, off into the woods, with the hounds screaming their heads off behind him.

Yes, we did a ton of wild galloping, jumping, and splashing into creeks. It could be pretty hairy at times.

Nowdays, I ride to Field Trials that take place behind my house. There, the dogs (not called hounds) search out quail, point, and the handler pretends to shoot the quail. Field trials are like tame fox hunts, with a lot of gaiting, no jumping, and not too much galloping. The handlers want to go as fast as they dare as they only have 90 minutes to show how well their dogs can hunt. Field trials are fun, too, and more my speed now that I am so much older.
 
#14 ·
Fox hunting starts in the U.K. In November, clubbing starts in August (training the young hounds)

I was out early with the dogs this morning, a white frost, and dark but by the time I was heading back the sun was coming up as a bright red ball over the sea and the lower parts of the Island were shrouded in a mist which I knew would soon be burnt off by the sun.

A beautiful day for chasing foxes!
 
#22 ·
I've always been curious about foxhunting ... What is the purpose of wearing the nice expensive coats out on what is essentially a steeplechase? I would have thought, in a sport where a fall is so likely, one would be more interested in wearing tough, inexpensive clothes to keep your nice stuff nice ... although I guess one could argue that a fall is equally likely in something like showjumping, another "dressy" sport over fences. Also, do you know what the fences are going to be beforehand or are you just winging it? 0.o I'm assuming the fences aren't frangible? That last fall looked like a wire fence, though maybe it was just the angle ... I would terrified to jump that! What if your horse gets caught in it? And the one with the road would scare me too ... lol I don't think I have the guts to partake in that particular hunt!

If it's a drag though, or a faux hunt like the one in the video, it looks like a heck of a lot of fun! Galloping and jumping with 40 or 50 other riders sounds like a real thrill. Do they have training runs or something like that? Or do you just take an eventing horse and meet up with other like minded folks and go for a cruise through the country? : )

-- Kai
 
#25 ·
That video was cuts from different days out, it isn't always like that and varies a lot even within each Hunt as to where they are meeting. Some days you can get stuck in woodland or forestry and it is totally different

As for clothing, hunting gear is exceedingly well designed. Hunting capsto protect ones head, although way back it was top or bowler hats for the field and only Hunt staff wore the actual caps.

A stock, properly tied, not these pre tied things, supports the neck and can act as a bandage or a sling.

A hunting vest, made with a wool mix, is warm and has no collar so the stock can be fixed to it.

A waistcoat, added warmth.

A Hunting coat is a wool mix, it is thick and heavy. Practically waterproof, it is warm and also acts as a good protector in a fall.

Breeches, most wear the modern ones as they are easier to wash and the thicker variety are warm.

Boots, Hunt boots are made from box leather, this is when the inside of the leather is on the outside. This is so that when they get scratched working over the surface with a deer bone, removes all the scratches and working on them with polish and a bone, you can bring a polish to them as bright as patent leather.
This is called boning and a dying art.

Fox Hunting was changed in 2004 when effectively it was banned. As with many Acts of Parliament, it was very badly written and all Hunts continue within the law. It is a bit like a Drag Hunt in that someone lays a trail but chances are a fox will cross that trail and Hounds will veer onto that scent.

As for jumping, again it varies greatly. Fields are a lot smaller here, especially grazing fields, so there are plenty of hedges, a good stock proof hedge will have no wire in it. Hunts build jumps, with the farmer's permission, if there is wire.

I can assure you, when Hounds are running and your horse's blood is up, you take on fences that when you walk and see them, you think you are insane to have jumped it!
 
#24 ·
I can't see the photobucket pictures, either. I grew up begging rides in Michigan. The club members were very tolerant and generous to a little city kid.

We do a drag hunt locally in the fall with lion hounds. Same as **** hounds.

There is a group in western Montana that does hunts. Has a good kennel of fox hounds. I've not gone because of the distance and my horse is usually barefoot by the time they really get going up there. They most often hunt in snow so the horses must be sharp shod.

I did ride with a crazy old jump race jockey in central South Dakota a few years ago. We trailed a coyote for an incredibly long distance at a high rate of speed. Again with lion hounds.

The complaint we get here from people used to hunting in the eastern US and England or Ireland is that it is too far between fences. :)
 
#26 ·
That's really cool, I didn't know that a stock tie acted as neck support. And boning to remove scratches and polish, I'd never even heard of that. Very interesting hearing about the history of the sport. As far as taking on more than you would normally, I hear that .... I taken a couple huge logs or ditches on my western trail horses when we were having a good gallop that I later looked at with horror ... but hey, if the two of you make it to the other side in one piece I guess it's all good! : )

-- Kai
 
#27 ·
A very good friend of mine bought herself a smart little horse for hunting. She had half a day out with him and bought him subject to the vet. As the horsemwas on the mainland she used the vet I used and the horse passed with flying colours.

It was only after she took him out with hounds that she found out just how strong he was and, on a run one day, he put his foot down a hole and came down. She was catapulted over hos head and was knocked out cold.
They got the Air Ambulance to take her to a hospital on the mainland. She wasn't expected to live. She had broken her neck in three places. The Drs all said if she hadn't been wearing a correctly ties stock then she would have died.
In an induced coma for three months, when she came round she had to learn to walk again but she is remarkable in her recovery.

The horse came to me to be sold, and I was flabbergasted at how strong he was when ridden. There were other issues too. I asked the vet about the horse (he had taken a blood sample at the time of vetting which ran negative for any tranquillisers) and had thought he had looked very strong to rode as in his rider had no brakes! He didn't know my friend and physically the horse was sound so he passed him.
Later other people told me he dealer he came from was renowned for giving horses a couple of. Ace tablets before they went hunting with a prospective buyer.
 
#29 ·
A friend sent me her horse to hunt for her to freshen him up. This was a horse that had done pure dressage.

First day out I had my 8 year old niece on a lead rein on her 12 hand pony. The idea was to just quietly follow on behind. It was a quiet Meet, lots of woodland where normally we did nothing but potter around. Ideal for amdressage horse and a small child first time out.

Of course this was the day when the fox was found and he ran straight through the woods into open country. Tally Ho - All On. We were at the back of the Field but no one was hanging around. We were charging along a wide path, came round a corner to be confronted with thick heavy rails about 4' high on the brow of a steepish hill.

The horse I was on might have been very good at halting at X but he wasn't going to halt that day! I told my niece "Big piece of mane in both hands!" We jumped it as a pair, it was certainly bigger than the pony and my horse had only ever done a few poles.

They know what to do when the time comes!
 
#33 ·
I would loved to have done that. The closest I've come was a day ride about 40 years ago, without any foxes or hounds. I was dating a farrier from Northern Virginia. One of her clients invited us to ride with her one weekend. The lady had 3 horses and 2 saddles. The ladies got to ride the saddles.

In that area, anyone who didn't mind riders crossing their fields would put a chicken coop jump over the barbed wire fence. The neighborhood agreement was, that if you put up a jump going in, you had to put up a jump going out. You could ride all day long just jumping from one neighbors field to the other.

I had never jumped before. But the horses were fit and well trained. All I really had to do was "point and shoot" so to speak. All these years later, I still smile when I remember that ride.
 
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