Hunting Friday February 29th, 2008 1:30PM
Shawnee Hounds Joint meet with Mells Hounds
Pyramid State Park (Denmark unit)

Huntsman: Joy McCormick

Whips:

First Field: Six people total led by Brian. This is the field I rode in.

Second Field: Three people led by Tom.

Third Field: Led by Michele, three people

10 couple hounds

GPS readings 10.4 miles 1 hour 58 minutes moving 45 minutes stopped. Total time 2 hrs 43 minutes. Max speed 16.1 mph
Moving average 5.2 mph

After Hunt Party – Richard Finke’s house

It rained Thursday night leaving an already soggy ground even muddier. The Pyramid State Park fixture has plentiful parking on a gravel lot so there was no worry about getting stuck. The day was beautifully sunny with a brisk breeze. The temperature was steady around 53-55 deg. F. The barometric pressure was rising and winds were from the North West. It did not take me nearly as long as I thought it would to get there. I arrived in just over two hours. I was the first one there which gave me time to put in a mud tail.

Joy McCormick of Mells Hounds of Tennessee had brought some of her hounds to hunt this day. Mark Smith, Shawnee’s usual huntsman rode with her to give her the lay of the land. The Mells hounds appeared stockier in type than our Bridlespur hounds and there were very few tricolors, most being red and white.

We headed west paralleling the road for a while as Joy drew the hounds along the creek. It was very muddy. She doubled back and we crossed the creek and headed south. The creek was a couple of feet deep. All the ditches were boggy at the bottom. At one ditch both Rebecca’s and Jean’s horse went in a bog over their hocks. I quickly turned Maurice and found a different spot to cross. The second field followed my lead. About an hour into the hunt, the hounds started speaking and a coyote was viewed across the lake from us. The coyote ran east with the hounds behind him. We quickly followed and had a great little run. We were pretty far south by this time and Joy gathered the hounds and turned back north toward the trailers.

There were some people that thought they viewed a coyote off on the other side of the field. Joy worked the hounds that direction to see if they could pick anything up. We saw Mark Smith galloping across the field. The third Field Master, Michele, had fallen and suffered a concussion. Mark (a doctor) was headed over there to see if he could help. We continued on our original path and crossed the creek. The hounds started speaking and crossed the road behind us. We had just come upon the third field with Mark and some other whips. Michele was still laying down but was talking. It looked like she would be ok. We continued back to the trailers.

I heard later that Michele was at the Hunt Ball Saturday night dancing up a storm. Good thing those foxhunters are tough.