Unsung Heroes of the Foxhunting World
- Details
- Autumn Clarke
With the official start of mounted hound exercise well underway, opening cubbing seems to be just around the corner, which also means the start of school is too. It’s such a flurry of excitement and dread, I can hardly stand it. My summer has been one happy mixture of work, hound walking, and riding, only to be brought to a screeching halt by piles of books, mountains of notes, and never ending lectures on the fascinating properties of hydrogen. However, until August 18, I am free to continue immersing myself in all things kennel/hound related (when I’m not at work, of course).
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I wake up and look at my alarm clock-4:41 am.
The moment I finished my last exam, I had one thing on my mind; the kennels. There were three new hounds Shakerag had recently drafted, and I HAD to go meet them! Plus Shakerag’s Leapfrog had recently won third place at the Southern Hound Show in the Single Entered Dog class, two puppies, Tarnish and Taboo, had returned to the kennels after completing their time on puppy walk, and Shakerag’s annual summer fundraiser, the Poker Ride, was coming up soon! It really hadn’t been that long since I had last been to the kennels, but there was so much to do, so much to learn, I just NEEDED to get out there as soon as I could!
With final exams over, I can officially say I have survived my first year at college! Overall, I didn’t hit too many bumps in the road, but there were several occasions where I was reminded that this crazy thing we all call fox hunting really isn’t a hobby, but an all-consuming lifestyle. Maybe you don’t have to be a freshman in college for parts of this list to apply to you, but you could say this list is a summary of my year. It seemed no matter where I turned, there was something reminding me that even though I lived two hours farther from Shakerag Hounds than normal, you can take a girl away from the fox hunt, but you can’t take the fox hunt out of a girl.
Shakerag Hounds’ Closing Meet fell on St. Patrick’s Day this year, and the masters sent out an mail the night before saying that in spirit of the holiday, anything that is normally white could be green for the day. I started to get creative with my ideas, but by the time I drove home from school, got horses and the trailer ready, I was frankly too exhausted to make a night-time run out to Party City. Thankfully there are a lot of creative members at Shakerag, and we saw everything from shamrocks painted on horses and giant green bow-ties attached to breast plates to vibrant green and shamrock patterned stock ties, and even a horse that had been painted green!
In early January, Wayne Thrush, our family friend who takes me hunting, told me that his horse, Bailey, turned up lame, the result of a pulled hip muscle. The prescription: time off, then light work building up to a regular working schedule. I knew it might be a while until we were able to get back out hunting. Of course, road whipping was always an option, but who knew when Mr. Wayne’s schedule would be open? That’s okay…deep breath…I would find a way to survive. I asked Facebook friends for updates on hunts, added a few pictures of hounds to my dorm room wall, kept reviewing my hound list…but one day, I found myself researching hound pedigrees in class. It was like one second I was taking notes on the rhetorical triangle, and the next I was immersed in the MFHA website! I don’t even know how it happened! Something’s got to give soon, I thought. Needless to say, when Mr. Wayne e-mailed me about road whipping at a fixture I’ve never been to, it took me all of three seconds to respond with, “YES!”