End of an Era...

.....My homebred ISH, Annie's Irish Melody, aka "Mel" or "shithead",died  July 5th .  He was only 15, and he was supposedto be my old ladies hunt horse, butkhaving inherited his mothers' delicate digerstive system      , he colicked for the 4th time this spring/summer, and this timeIcouldnt save him.  He had his faults ( stubborn Irishman at times), but he was solid as a rock out hunting - NOTHING fazed him.  Solid as a rock. 

I have a new project now, a 6yo OTTB who may or may not make it as a hunt horse for me.  Ihe seems to prefer ring work to being in the great outdoors alone.  We'll see.....

We had our first cub hunt this morning - only Bobby's hounds and mine,making a very small pack of only 4 1/2  couple.  But they found a fox less than 5 minutes after being cast and ran him til my friend Shirley viewed him crossing the lane she was on. We broke the hounds then - all on and all already very hot.  It was very short, but just a perfect run for them, as none of them are very fit.  We have a new area to cub hunt in this season, and I am hoping this new horse can handle being out there by himself because it has rides cut all through the corn. 

My blog page wont let me correct typos or edit, so please excuse this disjointed entry.  It was 7:35 when we held up the hounds.

In addition to losing Mel, I also lost Sara and Reno . Well, as of today, Reno is still alive but she has cancer and is spending her last days as a barn dog, enjoying her freedom to mosey around the farm.  It was a sad summer, and I am hoping the worst is behind me now.

Here is a VERY brief clip of then hounds running in the corn, taken by my friend Shirley. (Also screwed my right hand up, and she came along to literally lend a hand, lol!)