Send in the Reserves
Submitted by Gordon Smith

Monday (February 27, 2006) about 20 of us met at Hawfield. Joe's first announcement was that Billy had broken his collar bone the day before and that he (Joe) was going to hunt the hounds. His second announcement was that "we are going to have fun." He was right on both counts.

Joe said we had 14 of our best hounds and since he wasn't able to blow the horn, he nominated Judy Berger to toot for him. Off they went towards Richard's barn. The hounds were confused for a few minutes as to who was the Huntsman and who was the horn blower. However, they soon got it straight--although there were some strange houndy looks and some unusual babbling among them.

The first fox was found near Richard's lake and as soon as he realized it was Joe and his hounds who were after him, he immediately went to ground in the stickers. Judy blew him in.

Within minutes, Joe found another fox. Probably it was the "orange fox" or his brother because he set off back across the road and ran toward Clark Mountain. Joe galloped up the road toward the Grange with Judy right behind him. The Field followed, led by Jerrie Wade and with Gordon in reserve.

Joe's horse showered sparks as he turned off the black top and galloped through the parked trailers. Judy wasn't so lucky. Her horse went down at the turn and she hit the ground next to the stone wall. She was a bit dazed and several members of the Field stopped to get her horse and help her. The rest galloped on after Joe who never looked back and so didn't know what had happened.

At the top of the field where Clyde was parked, Joe pulled up, hoping to view the fox as he ran toward the mountain. This fox also--seeing who was after him--went to ground, thereby saving his brush. Joe turned to have Judy blow him in, only to find no Judy. Time to call in the reserves! Rosie had a horn which she handed to Gordon who blew on Joe's command.

By this time the confused hounds didn't care who was blowing. They just wanted to find the next fox, which they did shortly. They chased that fox down the mountain on the Hawfield side, past Eastern View (tennis courts) and the chow kennels and almost to Bushy Mountain where he turned and went over the top. Rosie was there near the Quonset Hut and let Joe know what was happening. He told her to try to keep them out of Possum Hollow but of course that's just where the fox went.

Luckily, the pack lost him at the bottom of Possum Hollow and Joe and Gordon were able to call them back with horn and holler. Back over the Mountain we went to the Christmas Tree farm where hounds found yet another fox. By this time scenting was getting poor and they were not able to follow with their usual vigor.

At the last check, comment was heard from the Field that the Hunt could save at least $50,000 by just letting Joe hunt the hounds instead of hiring huntsmen. For a minute Joe looked like he thought this was a good idea but then he thought about cleaning the kennels every day. "I'm just the "reserve"," he said.

We got back to the trailers, where Spencer proudly announced "All on Sir," meaning that all the hounds were present. Rosie quickly counted and found that there were 15 hounds, one more then we started out with. Since there were no poodles (or boxers!) in the pack, we concluded that whoever counted seven couple in the beginning must have been mathematically challenged.

As it turned out, our "Reserve Huntsman," two "Reserve Hornblowers," and one "Reserve Fieldmaster" all did a great job and just as Joe had predicted, we all had fun.

Adrianna Waddy wrote: First, the hounds were confused....but within minutes they caught on and took off in search of a fox. Only minutes into the hunt we put one to ground in a thicket near the pond. After that, hounds launched across Everona Road up Bushy Mountain and found another fox! We ended up crossing back over the road to the Christmas Tree Farm and down around part of old Linden Farm and back to the trailers that way. It was great but bone-chilling cold. Mr. Harris had put a fire in the fireplace at "The Grange" and everyone brought food to share. It was a wonderful way to spend a February Monday!

Judy Berger suggests: I think this story would have been better titled "Send in the Clowns"!!!

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