I would be lieing if I said that I didnt miss Mel and Reno and Sara.
Revy, the new ottb, is doing GREAT with the hounds, but it will be some time before I am comfortable hunting him by myself. Fortunately, I still have old Rap, and I will make do with him until I am more confident on Revy. Meanwhile, Revy will go hilltopping with Alex in the saddle and Shirley and her steady horse, General, as the babysitter, a few more times.
We've missed Reno's cold nose on more than one occasion, as our foxes have been prone to running the dirt roads quite a bit. But Reilly, my 2nd year young bitch, has been consistently credited with finding foxes. And even Marilyn has surprised me this season by finding a couple of foxes herself. ( Yeah, the black-backed gyp, wise ass -you know who you are...) And Marney- well, she's always been a bit shy, but this season she is being very good about loading into anyone's hound truck. Very proud of all my girls, just wish I had a few more.
Another aside -all 3 bitches have been in season recently, so all 3 should be good to hunt clear through March! Marilyn - last to come in season- may be a bit chunky at the moment, but it wont take long to run that off of her! I started her back last week, and it was she who found our first fox this past Tuesday.:-)
So , my plan: take lessons with Revy to build our confidence ( he's gotten me off 12 times out in the woods so far, lol. It's #13 that kinda has me spooked!), trail ride and hilltop him ( leave my hounds home on the days I hilltop him so I have no worries there), and be content to hunt Rap for the time being. Revy is excellent with the hounds, stands still as a stone, and goes in a rubber snaffle. He just needs me to learn how to ride him through his spooks! haha. We'll get there, no hurry.
Starting next week, deer laws relax in Delaware. We will have two complete weeks with no deer firearm days to get in the way of foxchasing. Our next hunt is Monday.
