RE: the emails shooting all over.
Gosh, you gals are so organised! Now all I have to do is make my husband calm down (He just shot off to the grocery store because we weren’t bringing enough Tonic to share) and pack my “clean jeans” without my house pets noticing!
Oh, and call the Master. <giggle> this is actually happening?
You guys - both my fridges are filled to the brim. I have a little room in my upright freezer, but … if you’re bringing ‘extra’ stuff, please bring a cooler for it to stay in (if it needs to stay chilled.) Room will open up as we eat/drink our way thru what I’ve prepared – just be aware I won’t have too much space available!
Hacking out at 4 pm tomorrow. Come dressed to ride. : )
Have our cooler ready to go. Hope to make it by 4:00, if not I’ll be waiting with a glass of cabernet for your return in time for dinner. I can hardly wait!
Don’t worry, we’re not bringing anything that needs refrigeration. Just our normal “hotel” kit. All we need is ice cubes and glasses and we’re set! My husband can tend bar for ya’ll.
I’ll be traveling in my schooling tights.
I called the Master! Woot woot! Bought the hunting license, found the boa! Yes SmartAlex it really is happening!!! Finally!!!
Working tomorrow till noon then packing, grocery store and schlepping. HR please call me by 1:00 if you need anything else from the store.
Whicker Re the Loaner Tiara: my BFF is adorable enough to be a beauty queen but she actually procured the Tiara for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and wore it to slog w/the power of her own 2 feet 13 miles through the Magic Kingdom 3 weeks ago! She is my hero and a princess if ever there was one. For this I’m bequeathing her my old too big helmet so she can come with us next year.
And I put the tiara to very good use today; very long story but that’s what the weekend’s for. I have to say few things make a gal happy like a getting to wear a tiara!
Re the itinerary w/clothing recommendations Hunter’s Rest dear, you are a national treasure! FYI “clean jeans”=too funny. Pretty much the best adjective that applies to any jeans I can get into at the end of winter/ski season is “fat jeans”; not sure I’ve got enough so I may just have to embarrass y’all and overdress. I don’t think anyone needs to see me in the old standby yoga pants!
Wateryglen keep those jokes coming. Laughing my A$$ off!
Finally again HR and Whicker thanks for making this possible! I’m so glad to be getting this chance to realize this little fantasy 6 years ahead of schedule.
Can’t wait to meet everyone and their horses have that big cross country riding grin plastered all over my face.
Lesson13
P.S. CarrieK those boots are warped! 333-tee hee! You=hilarious!!!
CarrieK,
Where did you find those boots?? we need them for the next episode of the coth hunting princesses! I bet they are smashing in black. My dressage diva is black, so she will happier if I match her in black. Although, she will probably gently point out that my legs will never look as good as hers, ::cough, cough::
The stiletto heels will be useful in quelling any snickering from Shazam, the mini horse. All 26" of his cigar smoking, evil joking self…narcissistic soul that he is.:lol:
We will be calling you Saturday night, to include you in the mayhem of our proper sedate princess party.:uhoh::winkgrin::lol:
Trail report
It was damp, with only slipperiness by the streams and in low lying woods. Streams weren’t elevated, muddy or fast.
Stay tuned for the next trail report…
Should be good be Saturday!
Coolers on the checklist.
Hack Friday 4 pm - got it. Looking forward to it.
Clean jeans for Saturday night. Check.
Indeed we do. In my other innerwebz life, not the celebrity-stalking one but my other other innerwebz life, I hang around some very boisterous knitters and crocheters–yes, you read that right! yes, I crochet! DON’T JUDGE ME!!–and a couple of the women there are shoenatics. They turned me on to the
rockin hoof shoes
We will be calling you Saturday night, to include you in the mayhem of our proper sedate princess party.:uhoh::winkgrin::lol:
Hhmm, a Saturday night, me at home alone waiting for a phone call, while all the cool kids are out partying. Holy crap, that sounds like high school all over again.
If you guys don’t call, I swear I’ll do myself an injustice!!!
I have arranged for anyone who wants to visit a real foxhound kennel and meet personally with a living legend to tour the kennels with Melvin Poe Friday afternoon.
Anyone wishing get/bring a copy of his book (Foxhunting with Melvin Poe by Peter Winants) (available at Horse Country Saddlery in Warrenton).
He will sign your book for you.
Or else I have zillions of photos of him on file and I can make a CD with pix on it for anybody to take into Warrenton after riding Friday morning to get print/s made for him to sign those.
He will introduce you to the Bath County Hunt hounds – most of which are ‘drafted’ from other hunts around Virignia and show you his kennels. Wear jeans/sturdy shoes.
I will lead you guys over there but have to come back here instead of hanging out with him (my road, North Poes, is of course named for his family - his farm is a 5 mile drive because we have to ‘go around’ a river crossing) since I need to feed the horses/wash the grays/prep for dinner.
He’s a first rate story teller. Asking questions - intelligent or inane - will get him talking.
He has a thick piedmont Virginia accent - hard to understand.
I’ll play the Melvin Poe video tonight during cocktail hour.
Change in plans for Pleasant Meadow
Ladies,
My mare and I will not be joining you for hunting this weekend. Each time I’ve arranged to bring my girl down for a weekend of gaiety, traipsing across the beautiful Virginia countryside, she keeps reminding me that she’s a NJ girl! She ended up with a tummy ache a couple of days after our beach adventure, along with some heat & swelling over her “weak” hind leg. All of her gentle reminders of the Queen wanting to stay home weren’t enough to stop me from throwing her on the trailer, so she threw subtlety aside and went for the big guns!
My back up gelding is heading to his new home TODAY! He’s wasn’t supposed to leave until the end of the month, but the shippers called and told me to get im ready. Betsy was kind enough to offer a hireling, but I think I’ll try to get down in time to see everyone off from Hunter’s Rest (deliver my beer/cookies for the hunt tea) and meet up with the crew to revel in your adventures second hand at the Princess Party in the evening.
Yes, I’m crazy enough to drive for 9 hours for a dinner party - Y’all are worth it!!! I’m just not comfortable leaving my mare for the entire weekend.
With all the exciting activities Betsy has planned, I know a fun time will be had by all!
Pleasant Meadow, our horses must have chatted…
I am just getting in from morning chores and my guy is dead lame. Heat and swelling in FR. Not quite sure whats going on, vet will be out later to give him a once over and possibly do some x-rays.
I am local, so I may still come over for Saturday and possible Sunday. I am jealous, it’s going to be a lovely day Saturday for hunting 
Come on and car follow with WateryGlen
Just because your horses are coming to the hunt doesn’t mean you can’t.
Wateryglen is in charge of the car followers. She always has ample coffee and pastries, four wheel drive and an awesome pilot with covert communications with the field. Frequently, they are friends with the landowners and have permission to go on the fields to get to the high hills and see the action. Sometimes the fox uses them as a foil, too.:eek:
At least one of my gallant sons will be along, as well as Bicoastal. They will have fun!
I’m pumped! Will leave right after work today, so I hope to get to HR before you guys go to dinner. Thanks for arranging for us to meet Melvin Poe, Betsy. Definitely an event not to be missed. Safe travels, everyone, and see you soon!
Car following for the first time
Bicoastal chiming in here to welcome any other car followers. Wateryglen has me super psyched about it! As if I wasn’t excited enough already :D!!
Little ginger ales, cookies, and maybe some sandwiches in my cooler. I’m in for all day Saturday (hunt, point-to-point, princess party): there is plenty to do even without a horse! In fact if I was riding, I probably couldn’t participate in the full itinerary.
Do come ladies! Even if your ponies are protesting, you can still take part.
Having a fabulous time; wish you all were here! I went over 4 jumps! And kept my stirrups on the last one so I must be getting better!!! Next stop: Horse Country Warrenton & then meet & greet w/ the hounds.
My face is hurting from smiling!!!
Posting this from Wateryglen’s computer, so not logged in under my user name. For all those wanting to know, here’s the track of the hunt yesterday…
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1005787
ENJOY!!
Jawa
From the Passenger’s Seat
Thirty knee-high tan and white hounds pour through the open gate in the black three rail fence at Hunter’s Rest. Stern-faced whipper-ins on mounts with shining white socks trot efficiently after them. A horse waiting up the hill with the field of riders nickers to the pack pooling into the bottom field.
The master addresses the crowd of riders: their horses are all colors, sizes, and breeds, from a 12h pony with mohawky flaxen mane to a gleaming white-grey draft. The master shouts out a few business matters then declares, Let’s hunt.
The hounds lope onto the road from which they just came, whippers flanking them on either side like border collies on sheep up a ridgeline and down into small patch of woods. First field trots after them, then second, then third: waves of banged-tailed horses breaking onto an ocean of hilly dormant hayfield.
The car followers hustle into a trusty rusty van and head up the private road of whoever owns the land the hounds are sniffing out. We drive to the top of the farm and park near a bluestone dressage arena with an amazing view of the ridges, fields, and ponds. We stand outside and listen, cars abandoned with doors open and windows down. Nothing… Nothing…
A horn. Another. The horn blows break across the distance from the invisible riders to our vantage point. Then I hear what I’ve been waiting for: a hound singing out his exciting find. Within seconds the sounds of horns and hounds are coming towards. A husband to one of the newbie hunt riders asks, “What happens if it comes at us? What happens if the whole packs comes towards us?” As if speaking the words made it true, a fox lopes up from the invisible gulley and across our patch of grass, pink tongue waving in its own breeze out the side of its open mouth. He never glanced at us as he crossed in front and down into another tree-ridden gulley. Half a minute later the fastest hounds come howling, then the rest and an excited red-coated whipper-in on a fit bay. We humbly point to where we saw him disappear into cover. The whipper screams the hounds on, praise and encouragement in the same cheerful cries. The master is next, followed by first flight galloping up and down the hills in a spread and bunching accordion of horses.
The car folks trot back to our vehicles and head down the road, hoping to catch up with the pursuers at another farm. We stop along the blacktop and listen to hounds and horn. Up onto a gravel driveway we go only to stop midway, kill the engines, and listen. Crunching and shuffling in the woods to our left reveal a string of hounds and a whipper on a chestnut with brilliant hind socks. The hounds crash through the woods at a run, tongues flapping out of their loud mouths. The trees are naked and ground is covered in their fallen decoration. You can vaguely see shapes through the gray-barked trees. Pinto and grey horses are spotted first: chestnuts and bays are better camaflouged in the woods.
The hounds break up and search about, noses to the ground with long ears nearly dragging in the leaves. The huntsman casts his hounds into the woods like a fisherman throwing out his line. The whippers encourage them enthusiastically: "Go on gihrls. Go on!" as the busy group trots out of our sight. But we learn the hounds find the scent once more because they sing to the heavens. Horns blast across acres of fields. The cars wind our way from one farm drive to another, following the sounds as best we can. Hounds burst out of the thicket roadside right at our front wheels, whipper trotting after them knowing the fox is nearby. They cut across the road down another thicket and through the woods.
The noises we follow place us back at the same farm we first saw Mr.Fox. My company shouts and jumps around: there he is!! We can see the hounds way off at the road, pacing back and forth noses to ground. The whip on the bay sees him too and shouts to her girls. But they continue weaving across the hayfield and onto the road, crisscrossing their tracks and circling each other. First flight stands back a respect distance, hot horses now happy for the rest. Second and third are stationed at equal distances, waiting for hounds to find it.
After soaking up twenty minutes of sunshine waiting for the hounds to smell what the humans saw, the car followers head back to Hunter’s Rest satisified with our close encounters. This time the field of riders follows us: back to chili in paper cups and beer. Horses walk in through the open gate sweaty and calm, marching to their trailers with no guidance needed from the reins.
Just after I laid down in bed last night, exhausted, sore, and achy; my eyes snap open. I just heard a horn. What the…?!! No, my roommate was watching tv. After a sunny day of trailing a fast hunt, even a siren can sound like a horn blast.
Just got back home and put pony to bed.
Bicostal, Thank you so much for your wonderfully written account of the day!! I wish I could half as well as you. WOW, what a great description from a car followers point of view. ODH has an amazing pack of hounds. I was worried that the warm temperatures would make the day a slow one, but within just a few minutes of heading out, the hounds were screaming!!!
I went first flight, but as I went round and round the country side I noticed that I would see the hilltoppers here, hilltoppers around the bend and DAMN, how did those hilltoppers get here before we did???!!! Not only did the hilltoppers get EVERYWHERE, they also got there in time for 2 views!!! As my friend commented, we in first flight were on the move so much that we didn’t have a chance to open our flasks until the walk in.
A HUGE thank you to Wateryglen, Wicker and last but not least Hunter’s Rest. It was a wonderfully choreographed weekend, and I think we can safely say that fun was had by all.
Ditto, Jawa… I obviously don’t have the literary gift of Bicoastal, but it was a fabulous weekend and I loved every minute of it! Hope everyone made it home safely and thanks to everyone who made it happen!!!
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