My horse and my young bitch, Marilyn, found fox # 2 today

35 degrees at 7:15, but there had been a hard frost last night.  Winds were to be out of the SW,with the temps forecast to reach almost 60F. A chilly start, and then a quick warm-up- so much like spring hunting, but we are still in February!

The first fox , found at 8:05am, made a couple turns around the woods where he was roused and then hounds lost him in the cutover.  I had most of the pack with me, and I walked them out to Bobby.  We tried our next draw in the Dead End woods,walking the hounds in from two directions.  I waited on Rap ,watching for a fox to get pushed my way at an intersection of 4 wide dirt lanes in the woods.  It was taking a long time to find the next pilot.  As I looked in one direction, Rap snapped his head up and looked in another. My bitch, Marilyn, was with me.  Bobby was approaching with the other hounds. ( 9 1/2couple out today).   I walked Marilyn  down the lane where Rap had looked , and she began feathering like mad, first in the lane and then on into the woods downwind.   I kept hoping and hoping she would open, but although she did not, she continued to feather, nose to the ground  and going deeper into the woods. I asked Bobby to bring the other hounds up to her, explaining my hunch, and no sooner did he put the hounds into the section of woods where Marilyn was, then the pack opened. THANK YOU Rap!!  I missed viewing that fox, but my horse sure didnt!  And although Marilyn didnt tongue, she did show me where Charles James had gone.  It was 8:55.

We were off and running and had a nice chase, albeit the pack split after about 20 minutes.  5 1/2 couple running one red that kept circling round and round the Dead End woods, while the other fox  ran a bit further to the west, but never breaking covert, either.  It was "hound stero" for Rap and me until the fox with only eight hounds on his/her brush went to ground at around 10:15am. The hounds at the hole were loaded, and harked to the group still running their fox around the Dead End.  Not 15 minutes after those hound harked, this fox went to ground in the same hole! 

We moved upwind , to draw Johhny Boys thicket. My horse trailer was parked on the east side of that woods ( it was the closest place to put it, and I had a short hack to get to where we had begun the morning.)
By 10:45, hounds were opening on the next fox . Since the pack was running directly across the dirt lane from  where I had parked,  at 11am I put Rap on the trailer. He was tired, and he had done well.  He spent the last hour munching hay and listening to the pack  as they ran all through the Johnny Boy woods only a few hundred yards from him.   At noon, our last fox went to ground with all hounds on. 

NOTE:  I always forget to mention that our hounds are akin to a "trencher pack". We have different hounds out all the time. (A core group of "regulars"- Tommy's, Bobby's,and mine that hunt weekdays and weekends. And then other hunters' hounds  who only hunt on weekends or occasionally during the week.  Yesterday,we had some of both. It might explain why hounds split. And then again, it might not,what do I know, lol!)

Just a quick look at the fox Rap and Marilyn found us:

The long version of the days' events:

 I took video when I could  with both cameras, and mingled the footage into one 10 minute movie.  It is a synopsis of the days' events, as it is all as the day unfolded. I mostly editied out lots of footage of Rap's head bobbing up and down as we went along - that gets really boring. But the video shows when our hounds lost the first fox, how we brought them out of that covert and put them into the next one, where Rap 's fox was found,  some video of that fox and also a fleeting view of our last fox of the day. If you arent interested in hound work, most of the video will probably bore you. All of the foxes stayed within the briar-choked woods, so  there were no runs in the open. But still, a great day out with hounds!