Opening Hunt for the Paradise Valley Beagles was yesterday (12/6). We really lucked out on the weather, because it’s been pouring down rain all day today - we even have a flash flood watch for this evening. But yesterday was quite reasonable. Little wind, slight overcast while hunting, and then the sun came out to warm us during our post-hunt potluck (which was, as always, scrumptilicious).
We had a good turnout, including some visitors down from Flagstaff and some other people I didn’t know. Hopefully, someone who was actually paying attention to details will come along with the relevant numbers of riders & hounds.
Mr. Blondie had had a 6 mile trail ride the day before, with quite a bit of trotting and even some cantering, so I was hoping that had settled him down a bit. In my risk-averse way, we tailed along at the back, far enough away that if everyone took off, we wouldn’t get caught up in the madness. He was plodding along like the good horse that he usually is until everyone disappeared over a rise. Then he perked up and started squawking, but before he had a chance to get terribly agitated, we spied a horse & rider heading our way. Well, sort of heading our way - spinning and bouncing in our general direction.
It was Senorita Ruby, the dark and mysterious Peruvian lady with a black forelock down to her nostrils… working herself into a major tizzy. Her rider spent 5 days in ICU after being dumped by Ruby’s half-sister, so she’s working on getting her confidence back. And Senorita Ruby’s shenanigans were NOT helping.
I was, of course, QUITE happy to have someone along who wanted to go slowly, so we set off ambling towards where I thought the hunt had gone. And we ambled. And Senorita Ruby settled down. And we ambled some more. And stopped and listened.
Nothing.
Not so much as a distant “woof!”.
The terrain at this fixture is - to say the least - rolling. So there was no way to be sure that the hunt wasn’t just lurking quietly behind the next hill.
More ambling. More listening. More horsie radar ears that heard nothing.
Eventually, we heard the hounds way off in the distance behind us, and caught sight of a couple riders. So we purposefully ambled in that direction.
And we did finally get reasonably close while they were stopped at a check. We were far enough away not to worry about distracting the hounds by chatting, so we were merrily nattering away when… we realized they were gone again.
sigh
We were pretty close to the road at the west edge of the fixture, and I thought they must have gone around the other side of a nearby hill, so we struck off in the other direction and did indeed find them again.
We had several nice opportunities to watch everyone trotting / cantering past along the ridge lines without being drawn into the pack.
We’d been out about 2 hours when it looked like they were going to be heading back, so we started off towards the trailers, too. Then the beagles were dashing madly and loudly in the opposite direction. We elected to continue back to the trailers… and then found ourselves being overtaken by the hounds. Apparently the staff had managed to turn them back off whatever it was they were chasing.
Somewhat embarrassed, we scootched out of the way and continued to meander back.
And it turned out that we weren’t even the last of the riders to come in, amazingly enough. Another group (sort of a secondish-flight) come up behind us on the road just before we reached the trailers.
Our little 3rd / 4th / 17th flight of 2 saw 3 jacks quite close up - one popped out right under Mr. Blondie’s nose. I don’t know how many the hounds found, but apparently it was too dry for them to follow very well.
All in all, a very low-key hunt for me. Which is Just Fine.
I have to keep reminding myself that there are many people who won’t even ride outside a ring (not to mention those who won’t ride at all) - so doing even the weenie bit of pseudo-hunting that I do is a good thing. But I do wish I were brave enough to go galloping across the desert.
Whine, whine, whine.
(Oh, and rivenoak had a gravity incident when her mare tripped in an arroyo and came close to flipping over on her. Banged head & some other body parts, but no major damage, and the mare’s okay… so it could have been much worse. I think that was the only dismount of the day. )
