Sunday mornings

I love that my husband comes and hunts with me. When we got together years ago I said, "You know you are going to start foxhunting,right?". We had met in martial arts class, so I figured he was athletic enough ,even tho' he knew nothing about horses and was also very allergic to them, I firmly believed that everyone loves hunting once they try it!

Well he was game and years later he loves his Quarter Horse, Bob. And Bob has a good relationship with Mike, my husband- he waits for Mike when he falls off as long as Mike lets him eat a fair amount of the time hunting. That is sort of a joke- it is the cute part of the relationship , but actually they have a good time and seem to look out for each other. I love seeing Mike and Bob (the horse) when I go tearing by, chasing errant hounds etc. They are just cool, hanging out, talking to other field members and enjoying the Fall, the foxhunting, the hounds, the whole thing.

Today was lovely until there was more excitement than I wanted. Hounds found in the corn , but instead of heading south where we could go , the fox went north! To the road. Damn, this means I and Greg ,the other whip today, ride like bats out of hell down somebody's driveway to the paved road, hoping to head the hounds off. Well I hit the road at a gallop, thanking my blacksmith for the borium with every stride (keeps you from skidding on the road) and raced west, yelling at hounds to -hopefully- quit their quarry, the fox- and not cross the road. At the same time I am praying this isn't a coyote who run in straight lines for miles!

I pulled my gun, hating to do it on the road 'cause I'm sure someone is going to call the cops on me and fire the rat shot into the side of the road. Hounds will sometimes listen to the gun and the anticipated peppering of shot and stop even when on a hard run. I fired 5 or 6 times and luckily no one called the cops and the hounds checked long enough for the huntsman to pick them up. We travelled back south to the corn and tried again. Now this was all on my little mare, Lily who, during most of the off-season is the spookiest mare. But, give her a job and she is terrific. Knows exactly what we were trying to do, dashed down the driveway onto the road, ignoring a million things she usually has a heart attack about. Go figure horses- I love her when she is super like that and she can jump the moon. It was a fun day after all.