New Years Day Hunt on MEL!!!!!

This is the first time I've had Mel ( aka "Annie's Irish Melody"), my 13 yo homebred  Irish Sport Horse out with hounds in over a year.  I had turned him away when he came up lame a year ago October ( after getting him ready to hunt!), and for all last season,I pushed my poor out of shape QH into service.We managed to get through it, but  I was missing the big guy,big time.

Then, I rode Rap all  this past summer to get him fit , thinking Mel's hunting days were over. And now Rap is not 100%.   However, in July,  I started Mel  on a regimen of Polyglygan injections. WOW! I've got my old horse back!! And today was his return to the hunt field. He was perfect!!  Not as fit as he needs to be but he'll get there. Today I was able to  save him by knowing when to just sit still and wait patiently for the fox to come back to us. Mel  had enough to make him tired, but not enough to make him cranky.

 We drew the pistol range woods  with 12 1/2 couple  at 7:45 am. It was 32F with a good frost on the ground, winds calm but were to blow quite hard out of the south by late morning. Forecast was for 20-25mph sustained. The temp was to soar to close to 60 F. We wanted to go early and beat the heat and the wind!

At 7:57, hounds opened on what we soon discovered was a brace of reds.  They flew through the woods, crossed a tax ditch, and went on through the Latham Woods, headed west. Within minutes, they were swinging back to the pistol range woods. Everyone  got a beautiful view of the brace running abreast over the wheat fields.

Now here's the thing, folks: Mel is a 17.2H ISH,and not as easy  as Rap to ride.  So trying to get him to the view, get hi m stopped,pull the camera out of my pocket (after pushing the radio back into its case), put the whip around my neck, and get the camera turned on, is a challenge. O-and still have one hand on the reins!

So- I missed getting the brace running together. But the foxes split once they got back into the woods, and  the dog fox made another round, running all that open again only minutes later. I got that, but not all of it is in focus.

Anyway,  the dog  fox ran round and round until I think there was a trade off after a very brief check in the woods at 10:10.  Despite the fact that we knew we had  AT LEAST 2 foxes running around all morning, we had only 2 splits. Right after the brace got into the "pistol  range woods" , they split with 4 couple running one and 8 1/2 on the other.  But the pack  got back together again before the one fox went away over the open.  Then later,   Roscoe and Repo did split off again in the Pistol range, and Bobby told me to the break them.  As I  rode around the edge of the covert to get in front of the hounds, I almost ran over the fox!  He turned around, ran the edge right in front of me for about 50 feet, then made a hard 90 degreee turn and ran the tall grass along another ditch, headed  north and straight for Billy Parkers house.  I got Roscoe and Repo turned back and harked them to the others. After that, the  hunted fox's pattern changed. The pack was being taken in tighter circles and  more to the south than before.  I viewed him several times, but most of the time I was looking to the Southeast, straight into the sun. I turned on the camera, and  got the fox a couple of times ( but you'd better have a keen eye!), and some  hound work.

At  around 10:55, this fox made a swing close to  Burrsville Rd more than once.  And then he slipped out over the road, headed to the cannery. It was  a few minutes after 11:00.   But the hounds had been having a lot of trouble staying up on Charles  as he wound around the thick briar beds during the last half hour of the chase.  They had a long check at the road, and  it was decided to pick them up.  All were on, after a very hard run of over 3 hours.

It was one of the best hunts for me, not just because of the views and the way the hounds worked so well. But because Mel did not disappoint me. He seemed so happy to be back out with hounds again. That big stride of his is back!!! I love Rap, he's good as a back up horse, , but he will never move like this ISH moves!!!

Happy New Year!!! Some champagne, and a nice rib roast beckon!

(And the hounds will eat VERY well on some prime rib scraps over the next few days. The butcher gave me about 10lbs. of it! )