We are planning to relocate to North-ish/East Texas in the future for the weather and footing improvement over NW Oklahoma. One of my vices/pleasures is foxhunting, so I’ve been looking in an area east of Dallas in a convenient haul to Cloudline hunt. With the awefully cold weather we’ve been having this winter, I’m wondering if farther south would be better. Someplace closer to Kenada. Anyone familiar with either hunt/areas?? I’d love some personal opinions on either hunt. Feel free to PM if you have negative ideas!! Thanks.
So you can just move any place you want? Don’t forget Independence Hounds which hunts out of Brenham, and Longacre, which hunts from Dobbin – both further south than Kenada.
Living in the Dallas-Fort Worth areas gives you the advantage of being close to 3 hunts: Cloudline, Brazos Valley, and Hickory Creek.
Isn’t there one outside of Houston as well ? Altho you wouldn’t want to live too close to Houston.
That would be Longacre. I’ve PMed the OP some information.
Cloudline
Hi,
I live in the Rockwall area, and its very convenient to Cloudline. I would say it takes me 45 mins or less to get there. We are very close to Dallas (civilization!) and we also have the awesome SANDY LOAM soil! No mud, and excellent arena footing if you til the grass off. I would highly recommend.
Cloudline is an excellent hunt. Great, challenging territory. Fun, fast. The MFH, Susan, is extremely welcoming and pretty ‘all out’ in the field.
Feel free to email/PM me, if you want.
K
Thanks IrishWillow. Those are all of the good things I’ve heard about Cloudline. I did hear that some of CL’s territory was gumbo mud in the rainy season, but I can work around that. I was trying to decide which was better…to live in a warmer area (Kenada) or near a nicer local hunt!!! Shallow of me I know, but I do enjoy hunting with nice people!!! We’re looking in the Sulphur Springs area at ONLY sandy loam ranches!!
I hunted with Cloudline once in Feb (so not a regular). The gumbo mud is not something you can work around unless you just don’t ride during the rainy season. Horses sank up to their hocks in the clay through large, unavoidable sections. And then there are the three inch long thorny bushes that you have to be very careful about not getting near.
Although the people are quite nice and the area lovely, I wouldn’t ride my horse in there on a regular basis during any of the wet season.
As a North Texan, I can tell you that last year was an incredibly wet year. This year is not so bad so far.
[QUOTE=crosscreeksh;5380322]
We are planning to relocate to North-ish/East Texas in the future for the weather and footing improvement over NW Oklahoma. One of my vices/pleasures is foxhunting, so I’ve been looking in an area east of Dallas in a convenient haul to Cloudline hunt. With the awefully cold weather we’ve been having this winter, I’m wondering if farther south would be better. Someplace closer to Kenada. Anyone familiar with either hunt/areas?? I’d love some personal opinions on either hunt. Feel free to PM if you have negative ideas!! Thanks.[/QUOTE]
Our whips for the Artillery Hunt now hunt Brazos, south of Wichita Falls. They have great things to say about it but since I’ve been in AZ for awhile, I haven’t talked to them in about six years.
I just started hunting last fall with Kenada, and although I have no other hunts to compare them to I highly recommend them. As a whole they are a very welcoming group and every hunt I have been on has been a blast. The area that they hunt has varied terrain from open pasture to pecan river bottom, and the footing is very good over the majority of it.
If you relocate that far south, the area northeast of Austin is convenient to Rockdale and has a pretty active horse community. I am farther south, near San Antonio, and although I like it here I do with there were more options for an english rider. It seems like 99.9% of the riders in the area ride western only.
Hope this helps a little, and good luck with your move.
Elegante E - I bet you’ve never hunted in SE Kansas or Oklahoma!!! You haven’t seen gumbo and coal pits like we have here until you do!!! And thorn trees, bushes and green briars that will stop a horse in his tracks!! I think almost every bush and tree has some sort of defensive equipment on it!! The first time I hunted in Ks. 5.5 years ago…I was following a sizeable field across a coal pit - aka cattle watering hole, when my trusty TB horse got about 8 feet from “shore”. Suddenly only his front end/legs went chest/throat deep in muck. He stayed calm, drew his front end out of the muck only to bury his hind end in to his crotch. At that point he flopped on his side like a beached whale…I took off on my hands and knees assuming he was going to come up like a wild thing!! He fought his way up and out to dry land and stood calmly. Already muddy, I walked him across the muck, adjusted my tack and remounted!! THAT is what our muck is like!! After almost 50 years of foxhunting -I now pick my hunt days depending on the weather preceding hunt day as well as hunt day!! For the past few years our opening hunt and closing hunt were not that far apart due to foul weather/footing! Cloudline is about 5 hours south of where we are now, so that should make it a bit warmer and more pleasant…but not too hot, too soon.
Wait wait wait…there is hunting in the Dallas area?? So when I move home in a couple years I really WILL be able to hunt? Hooray!
I thought I had to get it it done by the time I leave North Carolina, and it doesn’t look like I’ll have the horse for it before I move…phew.
More time to work on items in my bucket list!
Yes, there are 2 hunts west of Fort Worth (Brazos Valley and Hickory Creek) and one east of Dallas, Cloudline.
If we’ve had a bunch of rain, Cloudline can be pretty muddy. That said, its only bad around the creeks and such. I’d say most people hunt draft crosses, but I’ve hunted a few TBs and QHs (as have others) and they do fine. Another nice thing is that the jumps start out small (good for bringing a young horse along) and then get larger (3ft+). Its really fun and everyone is VERY nice and welcoming.
