OK, so nobody told me...

[Rt66Kix]

that after the first of the year, when your horse is fit; when you finally have a clue as to what is going on; when you can sleep the night before a hunt because you aren’t so nervous; when your every waking hour is spent thinking about the next hunt; when you count the days until it’s Sunday again…

that the weather turns rotten and the hunt is canceled! When they say that February is the cruelest month, I now know why. Sigh.

We had 6" of snow on Thursday night/Friday morning, some did melt today. But plenty is still there, and it should freeze again tonight. The Master canceled due to bad footing, which makes sense.

But I’m not going hunting tomorrow! WHHAAAAAAA! My neighbor is having a scrapbooking party, so I’ll head over there to work on my hunt journal/scrapbook. At least I can drool over my pictures, and re-read my hunt reports.

If anyone gets to hunt tomorrow, please think of me! And know that I am jealous beyond belief!

[Painted_Wings]

I took beagles out today

In the same 6" of snow you had.

Took one of my barefoot horses so the snow wouldn’t ball up.

This was after I had already skied 4.5 miles on my X country skis with the goats behind.

I’m working on teaching the goats to pull me. Might take a while.

Anyway, I took four couple out of beagles. They spoke once down by the creek. I didn’t see much but deer tracks around but they were steady and we had a great time.

My usual whips weren’t up for it though. The beagles were fine without whips. I took my horn and had to use it a few times to keep them on track.

My young horse is so tolerant of the beagles she probably won’t bat an eye when I take her out foxhunting for the first time.

[TBlitz]

I’m in the opposite situation. It’s a windy 70* outside and I’m stuck in my apartment because of medical reasons (when one goes away, another one appears). I haven’t been able to ride in a month and am going crazy! Having pictures of my boys everywhere isn’t helping me any! I want to be with them not just look at pictures! Not to mention all the other drama going on in my life :dead::dead::dead:

Soon I’ll be able to ride a pretty pony! And then I can steal my boys back from my Daddy (prison-keeper and master pony spoiler) and give them love!

[gothedistance]

Oh, Barbara! My condolances! I went through “hunt withdraw” almost all of January, so I feel your pain.

That said, I promise to be thinking of you tomorrow afternoon as I and one of my best foxhunting buddies (coming as my guest) gallop around the uber-muddy fields behind our hunt’s wonderful, melodious PenMaryDels. We had almost 2" of rain yesterday, but that apparently hasn’t phased our Master who is hosting a joint meet tomorrow. Temps are supposed to be mid 50’s (wow!!) and we are meeting early enough so that everyone who wants to can be home in time for Super Bowl. For those that want to linger and enjoy foxhunting company – he has a big Super Bowl cake for us to enjoy.

I also promise to post a great hunt report, too. :yes:

[SLW]

Aw, what bad luck for you but the scrapbooking will be neat w/ all your hunting stuff.

That storm missed us and we were able to hunt today w/ very moderate temps for Feb. 2. Plus, no wind! Surprisingly the field was small for excellent roads & weather, I think I heard 15 total. After the first hour the ground thawed enough to make footing okay if you used common sense and understood that even with that, an accident was possible and one horse did go down in slick clay. There were no coyote to stir up but the hounds were out 4 hours. I lasted 3.5 hours and enjoyed every minute of it albeit a bit tired since I haven’t been out for a couple weeks.

[Painted_Wings]

This is what my day looked like

Unfortunately the snow was melting fast. Tommorrow will just be Beagles and horses.

[SLW]

[QUOTE=Painted Wings;2982195]
Unfortunately the snow was melting fast. Tommorrow will just be Beagles and horses.[/QUOTE]

I miss having goats! We raised Saanens for a few years.

In the photo it looks like the goats have taken you out for a walk.

[Painted_Wings]

That’s actually my friend. I took the photo. When I walk out the hounds on foot the goats act as whips. They go at 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock behind me and make sure no beagles stop or wander off. Then I can look forward and watch the ones in front of me. It also has pretty much served to deer proof the hounds.

When I take the hounds out on horseback the goats don’t bother to come, I guess they know it’s too much work to keep up for them.

Goats are the best pets.

[JSwan]

What cute goats!!! No farm is complete without some pet goats. My vet suggested I drive mine to get some weight off them. I’ve yet to convince Mr JSwan this is a good idea.

Barb - around here we having a saying: "Hunt as much as you can before Christmas; it gets spotty after that. " Not true for every hunt - but ours has a lot of bottomland so often we cancel because it’s just too wet; but other hunts still go out.

I too have a fit horse and no place to go - but instead of scrapbooking I crochet. My house is going to be full of little old lady doilies if I’m not careful. :eek:

[gothedistance]

@J Swan;2982375

…No farm is complete without some pet goats. My vet suggested I drive mine to get some weight off them.

Uh, where will you drive them? To Weight Watchers? Jenny Craig? Do they like to drive in the car? Do they hop right in and sit in the front seat with you, or do you make them sit in the back? Do they get noseprints all over the windows watching the world race by? Do they lean out the window maaaahing to passerbys or bleating to other goats being walked by their owners as if to say “nah-nah-na-nah-na-I-get-to-drive-while-you-have-to-walk- pffftttt!!!” or do you belt them in with stern warnings NOT to bicker, argue, fight,whine, or otherwise make ANY noise while you’re driving?

Oh. Wait.

I think you mean …

Umm… nevermind.

[SLW]

Before I drove mini’s we had this…http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2625151080052639572bmmJSd He did the county fair parade and was a hit!! The Jack Russell riding shotgun thought she was hot stuff having a vantage point that high.

[wateryglen]

I’m smitten!

I, too, am smitten with the goat pictures! I have a mental picture of JSwan mounted on a horse driving her goats around the pasture with Kevin Bacon the pig following along…OR JSwan with a long staff and a beagle helping herding the goats around the pasture…you know shepherd like!?? Horses running around all wound up, bucking, etc. Please be sure to call me so I can come watch!! GOTTA be there! Maybe we could make it a COTH function! I’ll bring popcorn! Cool!

Herding goats - like herding cats!??? Driving goats - like driving goats?!! :lol:
OR…you could rent them out to local hunts to deerproof their hounds! That’d be some exercise!! :winkgrin:

[Rt66Kix]

SLW, your picture won’t load! I wanna see!

PW, I LOVE your goats. How adorable. We have an ancient pygmy, Iris, and I just can’t even imagine harnessing her. I might as well try to harness the wind. She’s as wild as it gets when it comes time to medicate or do something with her that SHE doesn’t choose to do. My vet has to rope her to give her the Goat Wasting Disease shot each year; I think he looks forward to it! LOL.

Then she got so fat that we figured Goat Wasting Disease might be a good thing. She used to go on walks with us when we rode the horses around here, but now she stays back at the barn. She’s quite amusing and funny, and between her (she’s about 9) and or 26 y/o mini, I feel like I’m running a geriatric home at times!

I can’t really say I’m surprised we canceled, and it’s best that I don’t trailer 110 miles in this. The main roads are clear, and we had a ton of melting yesterday, but it got down to 14 last night so everything is frozen hard again. It’s quite icy and slippery underneath the snow, and the icy ruts are pretty bad. It’s just not worth it to have a horse slip and fall. Snow isn’t a problem since Buddy is barefoot, but it’s that ice that would be the problem.

Sigh. Maybe next weekend?!?!?!?! Watch us get warm temps and rain all week, so that next Sunday we are hock deep in mud.

[gothedistance]

Barbara -

How I wish you could have been out with us today!! We had almost 3 hours of non-stop runs – fox after fox after fox after fox – including TWO fabulous views!!! Those hounds never let up and spent the whole time screaming their music to the high heavens, racing at top speed around and around that 1,300 acre fixture, with all three fields in hot pursuit! Never in my life have I been so glad to be riding an endurance horse who can gallop like a demon, never gets tired … and loves the hounds!!

I put it all on my foxhunting blog on my website – come read and enjoy!

[Rt66Kix]

GTD, all I’m finding is the report from 1/31. Maybe the link didn’t update yet?

[gothedistance]

Try this link.

Doing a blog is new for me – haven’t quite gotten all the bugs figured out…yet.

[Rt66Kix]

WOW! What a hunt! Now I really AM jealous…:lol:

[Vkent]

Sigh We had ice. I hate ice. I hate the wind that comes with the ice and more than ever I hate that I don’t get to hunt when there is ice. My hunting escapades are slim anyways because I don’t belong to a hunt, but the boss takes me when she can, but this ice thing really did not please me, nor her, nor the horses. I don’t think our goose liked the ice either. I certainly did not like driving the tractor and spreader in the ice/sleet. I am not very good at back the spreader into its narrow parking space either so I got soaked and cold to the bone. Of course I tried to go faster. Never go fast with a 1950’s tractor and a manure spreader, it only takes longer. Moral of story: I hate ice.

“I already know my horses can’t ice skate, lets not prove it!” - My dear boss

[Beverley]

I bet nobody told you the corollary, either!

Which is…

That after a few weeks of being snowed and iced in, when everybody has cabin fever, and the huntsman finally can’t stand it anymore and says ‘come on, everybody, we’re taking the hounds out for a bit of exercise- we won’t go faster than a trot, and it’s too cold for good scenting anyway…’

That’s when you can bet the ranch that hounds will find in the first 10 minutes and be off, screaming, for hours…and that trot turns into as fast a canter as one dares, even w/snow pads and borium…and you learn that yes, it IS possible to take off and land over a coop with blue ice on either side, and live to tell about it…and jumping said coop is pretty much your only option, 'cause the nearby gate is frozen and snow drifted shut.

Whyizzit they say foxhunters are crazy?