They have a three year old half brother of his named “Gus”. He’s been out hunting a couple of times.
Only three days to go
Bridlespur kicks it off Thursday March 20th. I’ll be there. I’m going to drive up for the party Wednesday night. Can’t wait, it will be lots of fun.
Who else is going?
I’ll be crossing fingers and toes for some decent hunting weather for y’all on Thursday- that pack can kick some serious *ss if it isn’t thundering and lightening-ing!
I’ll be in Wyoming and Colorado- see you at Arapahoe? 2 pm meet on the Wednesday, I believe.
We are having 2-4 inches of rain today but the weather for Thursday looks good. Keep your fingers crossed. We’ll be slogging through mud but at least we wont’ be dodging lightning bolts like last year.
Because of the recent heavy rains, and high probability of flash flooding, Buddy and I are slightly altering our turnout for the Western Challenge.
http://www.burleson-arabians.com/scuba_horse.htm
I think it would be more practical than traditional turnout. :lol:
change of fixture
from Mary Hensel BH MFH/pres. e-mail excerpt
Hello All,
Well, whoever upset Mother Nature should step forward and apologize!
We are changing the plans for Thursday’s hunt.
Western Challenge 2008 - Version 2
Wednesday, March 19th
“Meet the Judges” Party
No-host dinner at Fox & Hound in Chesterfield Bottoms
17416 Chesterfield Airport Road
Thursday, March 20th
Hunt at Busch Wildlife
At the end of the Wildlife Entrance, turn right. Take an immediate left
and then an immediate right to the parking lot near the dog runs.
10 AM start
Lunch following
WCT
So , did Red Rock win yet ?
Same stuff different year.
:lol::lol::lol: Give that thing a peppermint!
Oh, how quickly they forget…Waldingfield won last year.
Yes, and Red Rock was second
With Waldingfield not making the trip this year, Lynn Lloyd is a sure lock.
Western Challenge, Wyoming report
Just cutting and pasting here from my FOL posts:
A splendid day it was, too. Those of us staying at the Best Western in Lusk, WY all greeted each other at breakfast just off the lobby. Then, except for the judges, the rest of us drove the 40 seconds or so to the fairgrounds to groom and tack our horses. All involved met at the 3 Sisters Truck Stop in Manville, WY (pop 97), about 9 miles from Lusk, at the appointed hour, 9 am. From there, we headed north 6 miles in convoy to the meet. Stirrup cup was provided by Stephania Williams, jt-MFH of Grand Canyon Hounds, though I must confess I missed it, was off out of the way having my own little private rodeo. This was my 5 yo’s magical third meet, and yes he knew what we were up to all the way from the fairgrounds, and I suppose maybe I hadn’t ridden him in a week
or so, and so he was a bit exuberant. He got over it quickly, though, happy to say.
Hounds moved off at 9:45 am, I think- a dozen field members led by FOLer Beth Dixon (she and two other coaches from U of Montana-Western, and 4 members of their riding team, cut classes to come hunting). Knoxville is, well, a small hunt, this is the first time they’ve ever actually designated someone to take the field. Stephania and Amanda Wilson, wife of Grand Canyon huntsman Paul Wilson, made the trek (and I must remember to steal that nice little Welsh cob of Stephania’s that Amanda was hunting today). Betty Hollendorfer from Fort Carson was there, and Ann (haven’t gotten her last name yet!) from both Arapahoe and Knoxville, I think. And I made 12. Judges Grosvenor and Adrian, MFH and huntsman Joe Emily and whippers-in Jennifer and Dacota and Bob Knox (visiting from Arapahoe but also a member here) complete the attendance list, I think. (When I get around to posting pics, you will note Bob on a nice grulla horse, sporting an official Knoxville jacket w/colors. Knoxville’s livery is green, and they have decided, this being Wyoming, that colors, when awarded, should be attached to a Carrhart jacket, dyed green. Very chic.
Weather- well, it was fairly mild, moved up into the low 50s I think. Steady wind, I would say 30 mph. It’s Wyoming, after all. Country is terrific galloping country, wide open rangeland. I counted 15 and a half couple but don’t hold me to that. First couple of hours, not much action, a little silliness on a jackrabbit, and then a little more silliness on a jackalope- and Grosvenor and I agree on that. But on the whole, hounds worked earnestly, and well. At five minutes to noon, hounds opened with a roar that could be heard despite the howling wind, and away we went, galloping in a big loop with the pack in full sight the entire time, burnin’ that coyote’s ass to revive the phrase used hereabouts in the past. When they traversed a fenceline we had to boogie down to the nearest gate, but caught up in time to watch the pack close in on the hole Mr. Coyote had chosen. I would guess we went 4.5 miles or so, in about 15 minutes, 22 mph per Betty’s GPS, nice hound work and a lovely run all in all. Moving on from there, hounds found again about 15 minutes later- coyote could be seen running with a dozen or so white tail deer (there are both white tail and mulies in this part of the world). Hounds sounded great and were after the right thing, but were stopped before too long lest they head toward the pasture were cows are busy calving- no need to upset the
landowner! From there, we moseyed back to the trailers, a 3 hour and 45 minute day, 18.5 miles total per Betty’s GPS. After tending to horses and loading up, we headed back to the 3 Sisters Truck Stop for a nice lunch…where plans were made, what the hey, to hunt from Knoxville’s kennels tomorrow at 8 am before heading on down to Colorado. Fashion police, close your eyes now…we are planning on hunting in jeans.
Next stop for the Western Challenge is a bye day at Arapahoe, Wednesday, 2 pm.
Western Challenge, Wyoming and Colorado
(Originally posted on FOL yesterday) We indeed had a splendid bye day in Douglas, WY yesterday, hunting from Knoxville’s kennels. Joe Emily hunted hounds, Grosvenor, Adrian and Jennifer whipped in (the latter being the ‘regular’ whipper-in but she dropped back and decided to let the guys have some fun, this could be a different angle on bribing the judges, as opposed to wining and dining them…). Self and Ann rounded out the half-dozen. Unkenneled 17 and a half couple. The advertised ‘couple of hours’ turned into 4. No complaints here, though my hoss got a bit tuckered when hounds found in a stretch of creek bottom, went up and over the
top, and when we got up top (with a brief detour to knock a couple of hounds off deer), well, they were goin’ hard, away from kennels, so I putzed along in hilltopping mode and reached a point where I decided to let the hoss graze a bit and catch them coming back. So, we were out of touch for a half hour or so, during which time the pack split, and so at the end of the run huntsman was with 9 and a half couple. But other than that, it is still very cool to be able to watch hounds even a couple of miles away, when they are out of earshot. Back at the kennels, I cleaned up my horse and watered him, then loaded up and headed 260 miles or so to Castle Rock, CO. Tucked him in at a nice facility 5 minutes from my sister’s house, where I am presently tapping on my keyboard.
Arapahoe’s meet is at 2 pm today, and let me tell you, it is sunny and already shirt sleeve weather at 10 am! Soooo, I will be wearing the sleeveless ratcatcher and likely leaving the vest off. Arapahoe is always fun, and I’ll report back on the day later, or maybe tomorrow, when we have a day of rest. I know that Betty H will be there from Fort Carson, and Stephania W from Grand Canyon (Amanda flew home last night, I believe, hunt chores to do, and their day is next Monday). And I think Leslie from Bridlespur will be car following. (Edited to add, hey Leslie where were you?)
Western Challenge, Arapahoe and pics too
Alrighty then, it’s a day off, and before I even go clean tack and polish boots for tomorrow, I shall commence to writing while simultaneously uploading photos.
Okay, as I am multitasking, the Knoxville pics are up at the following site:
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/BevHeff/Knoxville/
And the Arapahoe pics are here:
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/BevHeff/Knoxville/Arapahoe/
In both cases pics are to some extent out of order but I’m not bothering to fix that, have added captions though.
Yesterday was indeed a relative scorcher here in the Denver area. By meet time, 2 pm, sunny and high 60s. Thus, as Dr. Beeman explained later, he elected to head east and hunt first along the creek bottom, abandoning his original plan to hunt the western part of the country first. After introductions at the meet by joint MFH Rob Deline, Dr. Beeman and staff unkenneled 19 and a half couple and away to the east we went, along the main drive toward the county road, then hanging a right and dropping down to the creek bottom. I would say there were 40 in the field.
Heading down toward the creek, whipper-in Tom Mallard viewed a coyote heading up a ridge, but Dr. Beeman elected to ignore that view. He explained at the breakfast that veterinary research shows that as hounds become dehydrated, their olfactory senses decline rapidly, and so in the heat he was keen to let them hydrate and work along the creek. As it was my young horse’s third day in a row, I elected to hilltop, taking the inside of the circle without sacrificing the view of all the action, though I couldn’t hear the hounds. They did push something along that bottom for a while, headed out the far side of the bottom, and lost in an open field. Then, Grosvenor viewed a coyote and 3 couple were quickly away on it, with the balance of the pack opening as well- but heading the other way. Dr. Beeman explained that in a perfect world, he’d have gone with the viewed coyote, but things move fast and that 3 couple was already a half mile away, so whipper-in Grant stayed with them while Dr. Beeman went with the rest (see photos). I didn’t look at my watch, but I would say the pack ran that coyote for 15 minutes or so before they got on an open ridge where predictably, scent was nonexistent. Happily, putzing along in
my hilltopper mode, I was able to take in both the split, and most of the
action of the main pack. Soon thereafter, Grant reunited ‘his’ 3 couple with their huntsman and canine colleagues, and they were off on another brief run in a matter of minutes, repeating the pattern of losing any hope of scent up high despite the best efforts of the hounds. By the way, as is typical at Arapahoe, if you didn’t view a coyote somewhere along the way, whether the hunted one or not, you just might be blind, they are numerous, though as Dr. Beeman explained, this time of year their behavior does change a bit owing to impending births. Had a couple of more little spurts before hitting a pretty good line heading, if memory serves, to the northeast, way off toward the county road (where Dr. Beeman had hounds stopped, they do have permission to hunt the other side of the road but as it is a pretty busy road, he didn’t want to continue on that line yesterday). From there, Dr. Beeman hunted back toward
the kennels, a quiet return, with hounds rekenneling at 5:40 pm. Thereafter, we enjoyed the usual delicious Arapahoe breakfast, with Dr. Beeman asking Adrian and Grosvenor to say a few words, and then recounting the day in some considerable detail, it is always great when a huntsman takes the trouble to share what happened, and why he did what he did.
And so, yet another great day with Arapahoe! They are always very welcoming to Western Challenge travelers, and announced at the meet that the caps collected on the day will be donated to the winning charity of the Western Challenge.
Today, day off! Fort Carson is hosting a dinner tonight, and we will be
hunting tomorrow at 9:30 am. Report and pics, maybe by Sunday, since I’ll be driving back to Utah Saturday! The weather has changed! Cloudy, misting a bit, high 30s, bodes well for hunting tomorrow.
Thanks Beverly !
Great to hear what all is happening. . . Keep up the good work !
Hi Beverly,
Thanks for the great reports. I had a really bad head cold with fever yesterday and didn’t feel like making the drive. I ended up just lounging around the condo. Good to hear your five year old is doing so well.
Love it!
Love the pics! Love the hunt descriptions! Love the hounds! And my oh my does that western land look dry! And open! And endless! Just how would we Virginians EVER cope!!! :winkgrin:
Fort Carson Hounds Report, Friday meet
As posted on FOL:
Here’s the link to the Fort Carson pictures:
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/BevHeff/Fort%20Carson/
So, okay, where was I? Ah yes, we had a nice hunt and breakfast at Arapahoe on Wednesday, March 26, and Thursday was a welcome day of rest, spent cleaning tack, polishing boots, and tending to my horse at a leisurely pace. Thursday night, the Fort Carson Hounds hosted cocktails and dinner at the Celtic Crossing Pub in Castle Rock, CO. Joint-MFH (and Major, I believe) Jared Norrell was our Master of Ceremonies. He was absent from last year’s Challenge as he was serving in Iraq at the time, and though he was able to dine with us this year, alas, he had to spend Friday briefing some brass at Fort Carson and would not be able to hunt with us. Arapahoe Joint MFH and Huntsman Marvin Beeman likewise
expressed his regret at having to miss hunting on Friday…having rearranged his schedule to take us hunting on Wednesday, he needed to practice some veterinary medicine on Friday! Dr. Beeman noted in his remarks something that hadn’t yet occurred to me- he is the first MFHA President to have never hunted fox, as coyote has been Arapahoe’s exclusive quarry over the decades. Oh, you’ll see some little bitty kit foxes in their country, but these are tiny creatures- 2-3 lbs adult weight- and in addition to being protected in many parts of the US as a sensitive species, they’re also not likely to run very far from a den.
After a lovely dinner and fairly reasonable bed time, I was awakened on Friday morning not by my alarm clock, but by the wind howling outside. This would definitely bode for the long johns, even if the temperature reaches the promised low 50s. After a quick cup of coffee, I headed to the nearby stable and groomed and tacked my horse. Then, I headed east 48 miles to Fort Carson’s Jumping Cow fixture, about 20 miles east of Kiowa, Colorado (yes, you can see Kansas from the meet!). As we shared a stirrup cup, the wind was in my opinion a steady 20-25 mph or so. From the south. You will see from the photos that there isn’t much in the way of windbreaks in this country. Off we went, 13 couple of hounds, staff, WC judges and four field members including Fort Carson member Allison (sorry, I’ve forgotten the last name!) acting as our Field Master and keeping us in the huntsman’s hip pocket all day.
Fort Carson is a new pack, this is their second (or at most third) season. The pack’s foundation was a draft of Walker hounds from Lynn Lloyd at Red Rock. I don’t know what Gary has added to that mix, but they have a spectacular voice, and are low scenting hounds as well. On this day, that might have been as much as hindrance as a help, as they often found very old lines that took them back through country we had already covered. Nevertheless, they worked tenaciously throughout the day, and we enjoyed numerous if brief gallops. About three hours and 15 minutes into the day, the pack made Their Big Find and went away screaming. Unfortunately, whippers-in failed to stop them before they traversed
the fence line into Forbidden Territory, so all we could do was stand at the fenceline and watch, and listen- you could still hear that pack in the wide open country when they were a couple of miles away! About 20 minutes later, we saw a big herd of antelope, I would say at least 30 of them, heading right to left in front of us…and a couple of puppies not too far behind. But it appeared that the rest of the pack had ignored that nonsense and were trickling back to Gary in dribs and drabs. Gary invited the field to retire as he was simply going to pick up hounds (blowing in what was by now a steady 35-40 mph wind doesn’t accomplish much when hounds are upwind!).
Back at the meet, after tending to horses as best one can in a howling wind, we gathered in the Worralls’ living quarters trailer for some libations and appetizers while awaiting staff and hounds, and while Jt MFH Sal
D’Alessandro was whipping up the breakfast in HIS living quarters trailer. No chance of setting up an outside tailgate in this wind! Staff returned down 3 couple, and I believe these were all in by the time we left the meet. The breakfast was delicious, we went to Sal’s trailer to serve ourselves and then wedged ourselves back into Gary and Jane’s trailer to eat, a system that worked pretty darned well. Breakfast was capped off by a chocolate cake that surely countered the effects of any calories burned off during the day.
I bade my goodbyes to all my huntin’ buddies and on Saturday morning, while they were all heading to Flagstaff, I was heading home, my Western Challenge jaunt being concluded for this year. Alas, work does get in the way, but it pays for the horses, so whatcha gonna do? The 608 mile drive from Castle Rock CO to Draper Utah (just adjacent to Sandy, and where the horses are stabled) took me 10 hours and 45 minutes, owing to a steady 30 to 40 mph headwind all day long. But, I only saw one camper shell and one Fed Ex semi trailer flipped over in the median as I came across Wyoming, so it appears that most heeded the frequent warning signals to not attempt to haul empty or light trailers in this wind.
Today, I believe the Kingsbury Harriers and Paradise Valley Beagles are hunting as one combined entry in the Challenge. That should be a lot of fun. It’s snowing at my house, and I have a fire crackling in the fireplace. Silly me, I had pencilled in working in the yard today. Never mind. In any event, I’ve told you all I can about this year’s WC, so I hope someone down the road will chime in on the remaining meets!
Wow. Great hunt report!
Those hounds look lovely - and in excellent flesh. The country is incredible - I’m used to soggy bottoms and brambles, with lots of foxgrape to clothesline me as I go galumping around.
I read about Lynn Lloyd in a recent issue of Covertside - she sounds like a neat lady. Glad to see she’s got some nice hounds she can draft out to a new hunt.
All in all - sounds like you had a great time and I’m glad you made it home in one piece. Enjoy your fire. Oh - I love those breeches. Good buy.
Moonscape!
sheeeesh! Looks like what hunting on the moon might look like! Amazing!
JSwan,
So…ya tempted to come out West & hunt with some of us high desert fools? 
Grand Canyon Hounds hunt today (3/31). Paradise Valley Beagles & Kingsbury Harriers combine tomorrow (4/1).
