We had warm, humid, and foggy weather for Cubbing at Hill n Hound. This was my first hunt for this year.

There were 12 ½ Couple Hunted by Eleanor. Whips were Gene, Lee, Mary and Lil. In the First Field behind Werner were Sue, Maria, Debbie and myself. Hilltoppers had Harry, Leslie, and Tess following Gerda. It was Maria’s first hunt since winning the American Eventing Championship at Training Level and we all congratulated her on this great accomplishment.

Hounds were Caleb, Dreadnaught, Repair, Tanker, Tidings, Wanda, Kestrel, Things, Patton, Scooter, Beauty, Inky, Nabisco, Cheerful, Vice, Jargon, Jester, Sentry Symbol, Zorro, Daphne. Young entries: Morgan, Nailer, Nettle, Nike, and Racer. Chile, a retired hound from Bridlespur that now lives at Hill n Hound also joined us to bring the count to 13 couple.

It was warm and coats were waived. Only one diehard, Mrs. Lewis, our 80 yr old whipper-in kept her coat on. The temperature was 68 degrees with 94% humidity and no wind at the 8AM start. At 10:30 AM when we called it quits, it was 74 degrees with 83% humidity and mild southerly winds.

We started the hunt heading North down the farm road toward the Macoupin River. After we got down the hill Eleanor drew the hounds into the corn to the west of us. Shortly after that we saw a loose pony that had been in the corn go trotting off toward the river. The hounds searched in the corn and worked their way west. About 8:30 the hounds hit on something and started speaking wonderfully. Eleanor held her ground and listened thinking they would turn west at the river and come back toward us. Mary was posted on the highway to make sure they did not cross. The hounds were speaking consistently and it sounded like good game. With the thick air and we were upwind with what little wind we had, it was very hard to tell where they were. Soon we did not hear them anymore and could not tell which way they had gone. We headed North toward to the river with Eleanor blowing her horn and by the time we got to the river we had 6 couple of hounds with us again. Eleanor drew the hounds down the river but was blank. She lifted and brought the hounds up to the coverts in the horse trial cross country field. Maria and others larked over some of the cross country fences with Landowner and Huntsman permission. As we were coming back up the hill, there was some old hot wire laying on the ground, Eleanor got through ok but Werner’s horse hit it and lifted it and then Gerda’s horse got it hooked on his foot. He dragged it back and Tess jumped off her horse and handed him to me. Sue got the wire cutters from Eleanor. Tess was able to get Gerda’s horse to stand so that Gerda could dismount and then they were able to untangle him from the wire. They wound the wire up out of harms way on a fence post and remounted. Fortunately Gerda’s horse only had superficial scratches and everyone was fine. Shortly after that Eleanor called it quits and we headed back to the trailers. It was about 10:30 when we got back. Gene and Lee had brought sandwiches and sodas. We sat around the trailers for an informal brunch before heading home. 7.67 miles were covered by the field according to my GPS.