Hunting Friday February 27th, 2009 1:00PM
Shawnee Hounds Joint meet with Longreen Foxhounds
Pyramid State Park (Denmark unit)

Huntsman: Susan Walker MFH with Mark Smith MFH

Whips: Richard Finke, Courtney Carson, Lee Carson, Casey Smith, Sue Brandt and others.

First Field: Led by Brian. This is the field Lei and I rode in.

Second Field: Led by Tom.

19 couple hounds 10 couple Penn-Marydel from Longreen and 9 couple crossbreds from Shawnee hunt.

GPS readings 14.2 miles 2 hour 39 minutes moving 51 minutes stopped. Total time 3 hrs 30 minutes. Max speed 23.6 mph
Moving average 5.4 mph

After Hunt Party – Mark Smith’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. This park was created from old strip mining country but is very beautiful with lots of lakes and a creek. Lei and I met at the farm and cleaned up the horses. We pulled out right at 9:30 AM for the 1:00 PM hunt. It took almost exactly two hours door to door. We pulled in and had plenty of time for pre hunt introductions. Sue Brandt was already there laying out a pre-hunt snack spread. The day was cold and overcast with a pretty good breeze. The temperature was steady around 37 deg. F. The barometric pressure was rising and winds were from the North at about 10mph.

This was Shawnee’s “hunt week”. They invite a visiting pack to come for a joint meet and then invite members of local hunts to participate. There were the two of us from Bridlespur and Jean Turnmire visiting from Wayne Dupage. Several from Longreen and some from Mississippi. I don’t know if there were any other hunts represented. Mark Smith introduced everyone but I’m terrible with names. Lei Ruckle rode Floyd while I rode Maurice.

Susan Walker of Longreen hounds of Tennessee had brought 10 couple full blooded Penn-Marydel and Mark Smith brought 9 couple from Shawnee. The Shawnee hounds are cross bred hounds that also have a mix of Penn-Marydel. They tend to be stockier in type than our Bridlespur cross bred hounds. Mark and Susan rode together most of the day and both carried their horns.

We headed west paralleling the road for a while as we hacked to the first covert. We had hardly been moving 5 minutes when the hounds struck and were off in a flash speaking. The circled around most coming back but some crossing the creek. We doubled back to the east to find the safe place to cross the creek. The creek is an old strip mining slough and the sides are very steep. We crossed the creek and headed south. We continued south quite some time and jumped a few coops and such along the way. Brian was a great fieldmaster knowing which jumps would be safe to take with the muddy ground. There were some problems at some of the coops, a few refusals and one fall. My horses were really good though and we had no problems. The Penn-Marydels have great noses and it seems they almost always had a line to follow and we were kept quite busy moving to keep up with them. Brian did a great job of determining where they would go and positioning us so that we could watch the hounds work. I don’t think anyone in the field viewed any coyotes but I know that some of the whips did.

We worked our way back to the trailers at the end of the day. The after hunt party was an hour further south so we decided to head back toward home. Still it was a great day of hunting and we were so happy to be invited and be able to participate.

Notes from Susan Walker on this hunt:

PMD follow a line closely and work out the colder, older scent until it gets close to the quarry and hot. Crossbred tend to make large casts forward to locate hotter scent since they generally can not smell the older lines which a PMD can smell. The broad forward casting of the crossbreds can be disconcerting for a PMD pack which perceives the other hounds as perhaps having an active line which they need to move forward to join; only to find no scent once they move forward, so they return to the line of scent which is active and continue to work it forward. The two packs have a totally different way of hunting because the PMD can smell what the crossbred cannot. Mark and I wanted to see what would happen by hunting the two packs together. Now we know.

This also showed that PMD pups raised and hunted with a crossbred pack learn to hunt the crossbred way and do not, in general, develop the more sensitive nose since this is a learned process requiring other hounds to teach the ability to detect those miniscule specks of scent.

Regards, Susan Walker, MFH-huntsman Longreen Foxhounds


Hi Leslie, Mark and I agree that the next Longreen trip to Shawnee country, we will hunt the packs separately. That way we will get great sport from each. By the way, on Friday, we both learned another lesson about hunting 2 packs together with the huntsmen working together: Check with each other before moving off with hounds about what horn calls are used for what . The notes from Mark for hounds to come to him are mine for calling the pack forward to a hot line. When deer were sighted in the first sage field, Mark blew to draw hounds
close and then he could move in a different direction rather than following the deer. This called the Longreen pack to a "hot line" and they hit the deer line in full cry. Young hounds had to be knocked off. Shortly thereafter, the whole pack hit coyote in full cry. Unfortunately, the coyote went between two lakes which allowed it to go out of country; so the pack had to be knocked off of that line. At this point, the Longreen hounds came to me and said "What gives ?".
It took them a little encouragement to settle back into hunting. They have never been knocked off of a coyote line and were very confused. Sure was glad to hit another good line which stayed within country. Hounds had a good romp. Two of the Longreen hounds were ahead of the pack when we picked up the pack near the trailers. They ran the coyote for two loops of an additional 5 miles each before coming in. We keep learning as we hunt. Happy hunting ! Susan