I had the privilege & fun of car following a local hunt Sat. and had a most interesting observation/experience. The pack had a stellar cubbing time in a corn field for the first hour or so and had gone on to nearby woods and lost or denned. Huntsman blew them to him and was drawing the woods parallel to the cornfield. I was out of my car hiking around the edge of the corn to get a good view at the corner to view both ways. And suddenly there was a bear running all out right behind me clear of the corn and up a hill. THATS not the interesting part!! Me, on foot, so close, coulda been tho"! :winkgrin:
Chaos in the corn, lotsa crashing & movement, but no voice! And the pack came outa the corn all together, running the bear line, mute (for the most part) with their heads UP! Now I get the the heads up part. Bears smell strongly and aren’t low to the ground. They weren’t sight hunting as he had gone on. But it was like watching a run on TV with the sound off!! :eek: Coulda thrown a blanket over them, shoulder to shoulder but it was eerily quiet.
I saw the huntsman later and commented on the sound and he said well, you oughta hear/see what it sounds like when the bear chases them!! 
I didn’t know that can actually happen!! Has anyone seen how hounds act when coming across bears out foxhunting? Seen them chased by a bear!??!! :eek: How have they sounded when getting on a bear line?
And I LOVE cubbing in our area when the corn is still up. The sound is fabulous and they can ring around in there forever! You can just sit & listen. Good place for a view if/when the fox breaks covert!! I’m all about the view!!! :yes:
Any bear experiences? Any other species experiences?
Several years ago we treed a bear down near Culpeper, in a lone tree in a big field. The pack sounded/acted normally, we didn’t even know it was a bear until we saw this large black blob in a tree. They were definitely speaking on the line. The bear stayed in the tree for a few minutes, hounds milled around under the tree, not that interested in going up there after the bear. Then, apparently, the bear got bored, came DOWN out of the tree, through the hounds, and ran off back into the woods. We managed to stop the hounds. One hound got swiped by the bear and needed some stitches. It was all quite interesting.
I’m not sure whether I would prefer being on a green horse (as I was), or on foot…
Another J Swan moment…
I was out with a Basset Pack a few years ago - Mr. JSwan was with me.
The hounds were at the top of a hill in a large brush pile - whips were nearby, along with the Master.
The field was at the bottom of the hill, watching the hounds work the cover.
All of a sudden the hounds go wild; obviously rioting. We hear them start to come toward the field.
The Master yells, BEAR! BEAR!!!
The field stands there.
Mr. JSwan grabs my jacket and tries to drag me away from the hounds. I start protesting - and he, clearly frightened, keeps trying to drag me away from this pack of hounds hot on the line of a BEAR.
I finally get away from him, just as this deer pops out and runs past us - and of course, the field, having been standing there, stops the hounds from rioting.
I turn around and asked Mr. JSwan, quite sharply, “What on earth were you doing pulling me away?”
Mr. JSwan replies, breathlessly, “I thought she was yelling ‘BEAR’, not ‘DEER’”.
And I said, “And what made you think you could outrun a bear?”
He says, I swear to God, he says, “I didn’t have to outrun a bear. I just had to outrun YOU!”
So that is my bear story. Mr. JSwan thought the Master had shouted that a bear was coming and was warning us to get out of the way - and Mr. JSwan had complied, thinking the rest of the field was a bunch of idiots to stand there and get in the way of a bear being chased by dogs!
The rest of us heard correctly - the hounds were rioting (we could tell by their voices) and the Master was shouting DEER because the folks in the field were the only ones that were going to be able to stop those little Bassets - the whips couldn’t run down a hill that fast.
There is no point to the story - except it illustrates how a person can tell what is happening by the hounds voices. And maybe, that if you go hunting with Mr. JSwan, you better be able to outrun him!
Ms. WateryGlen was with the Old Dominion Hounds here in Virginia Saturday. So nice to have her out. She helped a poor pup find his way back to the pack (he was scared and confused) and I did not know she’d viewed Bre’r Bear.
The ODH hounds have often found the line with a bear. I thought they typically spoke as normal, that the staff would not know until quarry was viewed, but this could just be a layman’s take on it.
I often hunt with Melvin Poe in Hume with his private pack and we often run bear; he knows when they are doing so, but I assumed it was because he viewed. It could be that the hounds run more mute or that they speak in a different pitch. I do not know.
I do know that it causes quite a stir, still, when the hounds open on a bear. Very very cool to see. They do often tree-up like described above. I saw one once, though, swim across the big swan pond at Windsor Lodge here in Flint Hill as a diversionary tactic. Worked well. Hounds did not want to follow, and they did not think to run around the pond to head him off.
ODH had a famous bear run back in the early 80s or so. Bear and pack traversed at least one back yard where a startled lady was hanging her laundry on the clothesline. After that run, hounds were recovered in Front Royal if memory serves.
Last Wed., we were hunting and I heard the hounds open on a line, but it wasn’t quite right. Next thing I hear is the huntsman blowing for help. It seems hounds hit the line of a 2 bear. The pack split, with 1 bear going up the tree and 1/2 the pack marking him there, and the rest of the pack running the 2nd bear down the hollow. I got them away from the tree, and was just moving off when the bear slid down and ran off thru the woods. ( I was also very impressed with my new mare hadling the deal like a pro.) We then went up on the hill and blew for the rest of the pack, which the other whip had gone with. They lost the line down the hollow farther, and were coming to the horn. This is the first time we have found any bears in this part of our country. But, usually, we will tree at least 1 or 2 bear a year around here.
No they were yellin’…
JSwan!! Are you sure the huntsman wasn’t yelling BEER, BEER!!!???:lol::lol::lol:
Also, deer said with a heavy southern accent can sound like a 2 syllable word like dee-ar which sounds like bay-are which sounds like bee-ar. See? BEER!!! 
The bear hunt I was on a couple years ago the hounds were in full cry, and it’s a fine fine thing, cause even so we were all pretty much hilltopping at high speeds - that is, from the hilltops we could hear the pack getting further and further from us (and when I say “us,” it’s a very small hunt and I was in the huntsmans pocket, and he’s a damn fine huntsman who isn’t often far from his hounds, but still we were floundering)
It was an amazing day, I was lucky to be there, and I’m glad it’s not often like that. Took me all winter to get the pony un-tucked up again, for one thing! And I really like to see the hounds work. Not a chance that day. I still get goosebumps remembering the sound and the general thrill of the day, though. Not often the only real way to get back to the trailer is to run shuttle with a car after borrowing a stall. :lol:
Me Me Me!
A few years ago at one of our fixtures we saw a Mama Bear with two cubs. It wasn’t as dramatic as some of the other postings, they were just hanging out, but it was still neat to see.
My farm borders 2 of the Thorton Hill, Rappahannock Hunt fixtures. I had a roving bear that was after the bees in my yard. I have photos of it in my riding ring.
I ran upon a baby in the trails one year and my dog took chase. I turned the pony to home as I did not know where momma bear was!
Yes, I have seen a bear !
In 2004 when my husband was hunting the hounds ( I was the MFH) for BHFH in Ontario, Canada we had a rather exciting Opening Meet. My hubby and I were kind of stressed… we had a huge turn-out, we were still greenhorns at hunting the hounds and the pressure was on to produce a good opening meet for our newly restored hunt.
Off we went down past our neighbor’s farm towards a small covert bordering on a big wooded area when our hounds belted off on a hot line past the covert and straight into the woods. The hounds were yelling their heads off in a strange way and I figured the beasts had finally found the big old buck that roamed the area - not good. I took one of our whips with me around the field & small covert and into the next field beside the woods while my husband tried to get closer through the dense bush with the other whip - but hounds were just screaming along. Lots of noise and crashing was happening… I was quite convinced that they were running the buck right towards us.
I told the whip to get ready - we would cut them off when that buck came out of the woods. Crash, crash, lots of noise, and suddenly a full size adult black bear came running straight at us from out of the bush with my English hounds right on his tail! My big stupid horse, who usually shied at rocks, birds and other harmless things, stood like a rock ( great - shy from rocks, but stand still when a bear is charging at you ?)
When the bear realized he (she?) was running into an even more frightening pair of beasts he/she turned sharply back towards the covert - and into the waiting field. At that point, still quite stunned, I started yelling “It’s a BEAR !” into my crappy little radio, and my husband thought I was yelling DEER. Not for long.
The bear ran through the small covert and straight past the second field full of little kids and nervous riders, but thankfully no one really freaked out and no one fell off. We lost half the pack that day ( bears can run far and fast) and it took a couple of days to get everyone back, and a week after that to get them settled. One of my best dog hounds came back with his head severely damaged and swollen like a football. He was never the same afterwards.
Since that opening meet we have had a few bear sightings, but nothing as up close and personal as that encounter in 2004.
Crashing around!
I like that common description of the “crashing around” sound that accompanies them! I always associate it with a deer (not that I’ve EVER :winkgrin: seen/heard deer out foxhunting with ANY hunt locally!!!) but it still raises my hackles when it’s coming in my direction. And it does seem the horses aren’t bothered by seeing them? Maybe cuz they see them in the pastures at night?
Wateryglen keeps hearing the music from Jaws right before the big guy
shows up…duh, dump, duh, dump…Maybe I need to hike less; stay in the car more!! 
I sure hope we don’t see a bear - my husband is worried about it as we are taking our horses to ride the trails in algonquin park on thanksgiving monday. Friends of ours run the trail rides up there and we are going with our horses.
Also hope to hunt with the beaver meadow gang up near keene in october so I sure hope we don’t see any.
Living vicariously though the hunters again… sigh
I’ve seen bears riding though the fields at the farm I used to board at in PA. Looking back, I’m glad their weren’t a pack of hounds chasing them when I saw them. Mir never gave them much notice, but we were always in the company of smaller horses. Same theory as Mr. JSwan, I guess.
