Okay, I’ll play… although feathering could mean my hair in the eighties… I actually remember this from, yes… the 80’s while hunting…
The hound finding a scent, waving his tail, not speaking… close enough I think.
Sorry, incorrect.
Keep guessing!
Hounds throwing up their heads and losing the scent. Sometimes said “Heads UP”.
What’s a “skirter” ?
since I’m here for the game now…
skirting… when the hounds run back and forth searching for a scent?
Oh an I"M sorry about opening hunt jswan… I know you have been excited about it. 
why exactly is the pig throwing a hissy fit to come in? he doesn’t like the rain?
Nope - that’s feathering!
um… yeah… feathering… that’s what I ment… wink…
hey… I thought that was a fair guess for a non-hunter…
I want the wee child to hurry up and get big enough to ride so I can have someone to ride with… was even looking up the closest hunt to us… Middleton Place Hounds in Charleston, SC… sighs eventually.
could skirting be when the hounds gather round the horses or the huntsmen after being called off a line?
(yes, grasping at straws)
I see you viewing the thread!! Come on!!! Please… I can’t stand the wait!!! 
Well, no, actually, that would be called hunting.
More precisely, when they have just gone into covert at the huntsman’s behest, it would be the part of hunting known as ‘drawing (a covert).’
If they are performing the activity after having been following an active line for a spell, they are ‘casting.’
Still need a correct guess on skirting!
Hounds "hunting’ would be giving voice.
“Feather” A hound feathers when it is uncertain of the line it is following. Usually it waves its stem and keeps its head down, but it does not give voice.
“Drawing” The huntsman sending hounds through a covert to look for a fox
"Casting" The hounds’ effort to recover a lost scent. A huntsman casts hounds when he tries to help them.
My guess!
Isn’t a hound a skirter when he goes around the perimeter or outside of a covert instead of going into it? He’s not staying with the pack well but kinda waiting for someone else to flush something out that he’ll be able to chase or take credit for? 
Skirting around a covert?
Yes, and I bet you know that because a certain Basset Hound who shall remain nameless has been known to do this when the huntsman isn’t looking.
Speaking of skirting, here is a good one.
Chop
Pardon me for splitting hairs… I am of the old fogey/Wadsworth school of terminology.
Whenever they are looking (really ‘smelling’) for their quarry, they are hunting. When they find their line and open, or speak, or give tongue (not voice), then they have found what they are hunting for, and are now pursuing it. Until they throw up, or overrun, or account for their quarry, in the first two of these cases they would then cast themselves to try to recover the line. That is, they have shifted back to hunting mode. In the third, they would be roundly congratulated by the huntsman and moved on to draw another covert.
A hound feathers not when he is uncertain, but rather, has indicated that he has affirmatively found some promising scents, and so actively waves that stern (known as a wagging a tail in mere house dogs). If he works to a good line, he will open (not strike, which is commonly used these days and is night hunter/performance trial/huntin’ dawg terminology, not necessarily incorrect, just terminology from a variation on traditional foxhunting).
Okay, I abbreviated the previous post not wanting to get into terminology that J Swan might be pulling out of the bat cave for quiz purposes.
So, while pondering ‘chop,’ here is another one. Name the three parts of a hunting whip ‘according to Wadwsorth.’
Ooooo - pick me!! Pick me!!!
As an aside, is it possible that in the South at least, that some of the hunting vernacular might be influenced by the night hunter/field trial/hunting dawg folks?
Like strike, for example. Do folks use that term up north? Out west? Or is it a southern thang?
Maybe on YOUR side of the pond! Jorrocks would have not of that Madam; you would be found at fault.
Are you referring to the relatively recent (1915) Wadsworth, who was the first Republican Party whip. If you are, then why would it matter what he calls the parts of a piece of equipment that predate him by several hundred years?
Um, well, I’ve whipped in to three different Brits and ‘your’ definitions do not match theirs!
I would have presumed that your ‘Deep South’ entry for location was on ‘this’ side of the pond.
The Wadsworth of which I speak ‘may’ have been a Republican, was not a poet to my knowledge, but definitely ‘was’ MFH of the Genessee Valley from 1932 to 1975, position still held by his descendents as far as I know. That is, William P. Wadsworth.
His little book 'Riding to Hounds in America: An Introduction to Foxhunting" is considered the bible on ‘this’ side of the pond. We’re entitled to do things ‘our’ way, well, because we won the Revolution!
Shame his translation skills were so poor!
I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
July 4th is celebrated heartily on the other side of the pond!
Well, you know, we ‘are’ famously divided by a common language! One of the three referenced huntsmen was realllly hard for me to understand, what with that funny accent and all. But 'bloody ‘ell’ doesn’t need much translating…
That’s a mite tame for a huntsman!
ahem… back to the subject at hand… showing plumage eh?
a chop…
a nice tasty cut of meat
perhaps what the hounds get after a good day of hunting?
Well, so go ahead!
Yes, I think the vernacular is influenced by ‘cross pollination’ with good ole American style huntin’. Have noticed more use of the word ‘strike’ since the performance trials got going.
