PrintHow do you end one of the most outstanding seasons of hunting in the 50-year history of your hunt club? Easy! Just invite the good folks from Tennessee Valley Hunt (Tenn.) to come up and join you for two days of hunting.
Goshen enjoyed nearly five months of the most exhilarating sort of hunting imaginable. With a pack of American hounds that are lovely to look at as they gather around huntsman Robert Taylor to start a day's hunting--all showing the results of years of careful breeding and months of training toward this objective--a foxhunter has to feel the same kind of anticipation of fun to come.
This is a young pack of hounds, with nearly half of the 20 entered couple in their first season, but by March they'd clearly learned their lessons well.
A field swelled by 16 riders from Tennessee Valley rode off on March 17 with a fitting tribute to St. Patrick and all the Irish descendants present. As we hacked for 15 minutes to the first planned covert so that we could make the draw away from the more developed areas, conversation and greetings flowed easily.
MFHs Carla Hawkinson and Maribel Koella rode with MFH Holly Hamilton, who was leading the field. TVH Huntsman Lugene Askins and whipper-in Dick Askins rode with Taylor and the Goshen staff.
We were pleased also to be joined by Huntsman George Harne from Middletown-New Market (Va.) with several of his whippers-in and ex-MFH Rick Jones out for a day with his old friends. This is a collection of some of the most fun-loving but dedicated foxhunters that could be assembled.
In Typical Goshen Fashion
Robert put hounds into the first covert, a briar-covered hillside facing east to be warmed by the morning sun and overlooking a small grass meadow. Often it's home for several foxes, and this season it has even produced a gray fox or two, a rare occurrence in our territory. Not on this day, though. Taylor kept his hounds in the covert and asked them to work it repeatedly, but to no avail.
He then moved hounds a short way to the much larger woods covering a small stream bed and separating two large grain field areas. This time success came quickly. Hounds spoke, and the chase was on.
We refer to this fixture as a "flat" or "non-jumping" fixture because there are no fences in the entire area. Of course, there are plenty of deadfall trees, and in typical Goshen fashion, this must be done at speed if one is going to stay with these hounds.
For the next hour and a half our pilot found his way up and down the sides of the stream valley, occasionally bursting across an open grain field before ducking back to the safety of the forest. We continued in hot pursuit.
Finally, recognizing that we were committed to hunt again on the next day, Taylor and the masters decided to give this fellow best and return to kennels.
Liz Lavine, one of our outstanding whippers-in, as well as an outstanding hostess, provided the perfect setting for a wonderful party where we could really regenerate the friendships that had begun with MFH Hawkinson several years ago, had grown with the Goshen contingent's trip to TVH last year, and had now become solid with the return visit.
An Additional Treat
Goshen enjoyed nearly five months of the most exhilarating sort of hunting imaginable. With a pack of American hounds that are lovely to look at as they gather around huntsman Robert Taylor to start a day's hunting--all showing the results of years of careful breeding and months of training toward this objective--a foxhunter has to feel the same kind of anticipation of fun to come.
This is a young pack of hounds, with nearly half of the 20 entered couple in their first season, but by March they'd clearly learned their lessons well.
A field swelled by 16 riders from Tennessee Valley rode off on March 17 with a fitting tribute to St. Patrick and all the Irish descendants present. As we hacked for 15 minutes to the first planned covert so that we could make the draw away from the more developed areas, conversation and greetings flowed easily.
MFHs Carla Hawkinson and Maribel Koella rode with MFH Holly Hamilton, who was leading the field. TVH Huntsman Lugene Askins and whipper-in Dick Askins rode with Taylor and the Goshen staff.
We were pleased also to be joined by Huntsman George Harne from Middletown-New Market (Va.) with several of his whippers-in and ex-MFH Rick Jones out for a day with his old friends. This is a collection of some of the most fun-loving but dedicated foxhunters that could be assembled.
In Typical Goshen Fashion
Robert put hounds into the first covert, a briar-covered hillside facing east to be warmed by the morning sun and overlooking a small grass meadow. Often it's home for several foxes, and this season it has even produced a gray fox or two, a rare occurrence in our territory. Not on this day, though. Taylor kept his hounds in the covert and asked them to work it repeatedly, but to no avail.
He then moved hounds a short way to the much larger woods covering a small stream bed and separating two large grain field areas. This time success came quickly. Hounds spoke, and the chase was on.
We refer to this fixture as a "flat" or "non-jumping" fixture because there are no fences in the entire area. Of course, there are plenty of deadfall trees, and in typical Goshen fashion, this must be done at speed if one is going to stay with these hounds.
For the next hour and a half our pilot found his way up and down the sides of the stream valley, occasionally bursting across an open grain field before ducking back to the safety of the forest. We continued in hot pursuit.
Finally, recognizing that we were committed to hunt again on the next day, Taylor and the masters decided to give this fellow best and return to kennels.
Liz Lavine, one of our outstanding whippers-in, as well as an outstanding hostess, provided the perfect setting for a wonderful party where we could really regenerate the friendships that had begun with MFH Hawkinson several years ago, had grown with the Goshen contingent's trip to TVH last year, and had now become solid with the return visit.
An Additional Treat
