Winter Wonderland Hunting

[Hotspur]

The town of Metamora, and the Metamora Hunt are located about 60 north of Detroit. We do our best to hunt through as much winter weather as we can and this past Christmas season was interesting.

Here are a series of photos by photographer Peter Gilles that I hope that you will enjoy and will give you a feeling for our hunt country:

December 22nd.: This meet was hosted by Mr. John Meldrum and we had a pretty slim field as Christmas was just a couple of days away. Weather: 6" of snow on the ground, 22 degrees with moderate wind, wind chill 15 degrees. Photos: http://www.metamoraphoto.com/gallery/thumbnails-126.html

December 26th: Our Boxing Day hunt was cancelled due to high winds and low temperatures. Wind chill was 11 degrees below zero.

December 29th. Snow still on the ground with very little wind and temperatures in the middle 20’s. A beautiful heavy frost coated the coverts this morning. Photos: http://www.metamoraphoto.com/gallery/thumbnails-127.html

January 1, 1011: This meet was hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Tom Schnur. We had 4 days of warm weather just after Christmas, with temperatures near 50 and some heavy rain that melted all of our snow. The footing was reasonable and the temperature for this hunt was in the low 40’s. It felt absoulutely balmy as we followed the hounds. Photos: http://www.metamoraphoto.com/gallery/thumbnails-128.html

January 2nd.: We hosted a “Meet the Hounds” day for our Pony Club. The weather had turned sharply colder over night and our Pony Clubbers were happy to put up with a little normal Michigan winter weather to learn more about hunting and our pack. Photos: http://www.metamoraphoto.com/gallery/thumbnails-129.html

What will this week bring? Who knows?

[SmartAlex]

I’m only half way through, and WoW! Scarlet looks stunning in snow. What a beautiful hunting country.

[Hinderella]

Wonderful pictures, thank you so much for posting. For a newbie like me who doesn’t actually belong to a hunt (yet!) and is stuck at a desk, it’s wonderful to be able to join you through pictures.

Is it difficult for the hounds to pick up a scent when it’s so cold?

[Hotspur]

I happy to see that you are enjoying the photos. Peter Gilles is a long time member of Metamora and his photos are just wonderful.

Scent is a mystery. I would venture a guess that you could ask 20 different Huntsmen about scent and hear 20 different and interesting dialogs. Does scent suffer in very cold temperatures, probably, but some of our best hunts are in December and January. I would guess that the fact that the fox and coyete are starting to enter their breeding cycles here during those months has much to do with the quality of our winter sport. The boys travel far and wide in search of females during our early winter.

[Nlevie]

Those are beautiful photos - so picturesque, but it does look cold !

Thanks for sharing !

[Beau_s_mom]

Thank you. I won’t complain about our cold weather now. Beautiful pics!

[Wellspotted]

What beautiful pics! Thanks so much for posting them. I want to go hunting now!

[strawberry_roan]

I’m with Beau’s Mom–going to stop complaining about our cold weather! But pics are just gorgeous–I am enjoying looking through them!

[Hounds]

These are beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing them!

[wateryglen]

beeyoooteeeful!!

Gorgeous! Christmas card pretty!
Who’s your huntsman? I LOVED some of those horses too! Makes me feel like a real sissy when I see ya’ll huntin’ in 6" of snow. We down here won’t leave our houses to drive in that!

[Hotspur]

Thank you for your kind words everyone! To answer Wateryglen, our Huntsman is Adrian Smith. Adrian has been with us for 10 months. He’s English and came to us from Virginia. He had been there as a Huntsman for 10 years with Deep Run and OCH. We love him!

Our previous Hunstman was Patrica Pearce. Pat was with us for 20 years and retired last spring. We miss her and we all feel good that she is doing well in her new life running her B&B in Kentucky.

Like many Hunts, Metamora has wonderful horses of several different breeds in our fields. There are now several draft crosses, and our Hilltoppers are sometimes known as the “Pony Posse”. Ours is a hilly and sometimes trappy country and a clever horse who always knows where his feet are is valued. Our staff is usually mounted on TBs, but many members have QHs or QH mix mounts.

We are bumming. Our hunt today was cancelled due to below zero wind chills. Maybe next week will be better.

[Doctracy]

Beautiful!
I’ve gotten to be such a wimp since moving to Phoenix. I wore my fleece lined breeches AND silk long underwear at high 40s, low 50s on Thursday.
But I do love hunting in snow.

[retreadeventer]

Wonderful to see such a great hunt!

[gothedistance]

Incredible photos! Christmas card worthy!! Thanks for sharing.

[Shinyfluff]

wow! Gorgeous photos…looks so pristine! Do you have any trouble with the dogs’ paws in that weather? Also, how do the hunt coats hold up as far as keeping you warm enough.
The colors are stunning in these pics!

[wateryglen]

AAaaaahhhh!!

I thought I recognized your huntsman and that explains it! Thanks!
But did you say zero wind chill!!? :eek:
Run for your lives!!!

[Hotspur]

To answer your question about the snow being hard on hounds feet:
Our Huntsman and Masters are very careful about putting our pack in danger of cutting their feet on crusty snow or in icy conditions. I don’t want to sound like an native Alaskan (I’m not) and try to explain the many different kinds of snow, but soft snow is just no problem for hounds or horses. When the snow gets an icy crust on it, we’re done until conditions change.
Think warm thoughts!

[CarrieK]

Thanks for posting these pics! I’m green with envy!

[Zugabe]

GORGEOUS pictures. Thank you for sharing them.

That’s exactly what hunting would look like here (if we had a hunt) with our 2 feet of snow on the ground.

[Wellspotted]

Thanks Again for Sharing the Pics

I shared the link with a friend of mine and we have been enjoying the bright new hunting pics and also the older black and white “historical” ones. Very nostalgic!

I told a friend in Michigan about them – he is not especially horsey but was really interested to learn that there is a hunt north of Detroit.