The cold and snow flurries did not keep our wonderful field of beaglers from the outdoor fun today, so I was most grateful that our hardworking little pack thanked them for their support and participation by treating them to a view or two and a little hound music. We always like to “warm up” up at Chadwick Farm by drawing the little creek bed just north of the driveway... this section does not necessarily produce rabbits, but we do get to stretch our legs, get a feel for the energy of the day, and see how the beagles are working. The hounds were pretty fast and enthusiastic so we tried to collect them a little bit as we crossed the big grassy field and headed west to go behind the stables. As we went South, towards the bigger creek, their speed and enthusiasm paid off and they jumped a rabbit who was running east when whipper-in S. Totten caught the view. We had a nice eastbound run through the briars but they lost as we came parallel to the break in the pastures. It’s so thick with briars along the creek, it’s very difficult to be close enough to the pack to direct them with much deliberateness, but our dear Jenkins helped out by casting himself back and, honored by his pack mates, they turned around and had another little westbound run. We wondered if they could have been running heel, but whipper-in J. Roslan had a view of our rabbit running back in an elongated ellipse instead of crossing the deep creek. After this westbound run, we tracked back-and-forth along the creek trying to solve our loss but were not successful. In years past, the beagles have found at least a couple of holes that have provided great hiding spots for our quarry, so it’s quite possible that she dove in one of those hiding places to avoid all of the excitement. We were having so much fun sleuthing out that creekside rabbit that I hardly noticed that hours were passing and our field was feeling the chill in the air. Rather than freeze everyone solid, we retraced our steps behind the stables and headed back to the Hunt truck. Our beagle leaders today were Jenkins and Sizzle but even our less confident beagles tried to contribute to the action and most all of them listened well to the horn and voice commands. Only George gets a raspberry for naughtily gallivanting when I blew for home. As always, whips did a fantastic job of locating and collecting him. It was a really fun day! Many thanks to our generous landowner, our supportive field, tireless staff, and terrific master. Tally Ho!
- rcallister