THH, Mountain View, February 14,2023

 

Wally and I had a great morning out with THH. It was a beautiful day that warmed up quickly but not before the hounds were able to get on a red fox. They ran the fox for an hour or so. I'm pretty sure they ran a lot more than we did because we were well in their rear view mirror. Eventually they came back around and we got to watch them work pretty well and then run along with them. Eventually they got back around to about where they started. They were some pretty worn and tired hounds. I think by that time the temp was about 60, so the day was called.

Wally was excellent. He is very fit and ready to run down in Aiken next week. The sand footing will be different but running the mountains will certainly help his fitness overcome the sand.

For the day he covered 7.25 miles and topped out at 19.1 MPH. He is handling the speed over terrain very well. When we finally checked up on the run, we had a moving average of 6.6 MPH. That's pretty good considering most of the time we are around 4.6 or so.

FHC, Red Gate, February 9,2023

 

Today has become Munchkin's retirement day. We were out hunting with Farmington Hunt. We were on a run when he coughed a couple of times and then had bright red blood coming out of his nose and mouth. I got hi back to the trailer (thank god he is so independent) and got him over to the Blue Ridge Equine. By the time we got there the blood had slowed to a trickle. They examined him and scoped him and the vet called it Exercise Induced Cardio Pulmonary event. They didn't find the source of the bleed but it was probably way down the system. They also said he had an irregular heart beat.

So rather than taking the chance of this happening again and losing him in the middle of the hunt field, I retired him.

Munchkin is 20 years old and has been hunting almost exclusively first flight for 16 years. He is still really fast and could really jump. Just a week or so ago he did a hunt where he covered 10 miles, did 3500 feet of elevation and hit 26 MPH. So he was still in great condition and form.

Today he had two runs. The first came after we got to a funky bridge. Munchkin and another horse were across when the field decided to go around a different way. We were then tucked in behind the huntsman. The hounds hit and away we went. I had to really rate him back because I think he would have passed Mathew and just run with the hounds on his on. As far as Munch was concerned all was right in the world because he was first, in charge and on the run.

After that the hunt all got together again and it wasn't longer when the hounds hit again. We were running hard up a hill when the Munchkin and I took him in.

In a way, his retirement reminded me of Boomer's. Boomer had an arthritic knee we were treating and it was always on my mind that he could break down. So one day we had a great hunt and he had been spectacular. I was eating afterwards and someone asked about B. I just said he was retired.

So Like B, Munchkin got good runs in and retired.

He has done everything asked of him. He hunted for 16 years. He lead the fields and he whipped in. He hunted with the biggest and fastest hunts in VA. He hunted in NC, SC and GA.

I evented him. We crossed paths with Phillip Dutton a couple of times and Dutton always commented on what a nice horse he was. He had some great compliments from other 5* level riders. We won at 3' 6" jumpers. I did a trot puissance one time and he did 4'. Our miss at 4' 3" was my fault. He did dressage and was twice called by two different trainers "the most efficient moving horse".

He's still sound and we'll see how he does at retirement. He'll still do things like trail rides and keeping Wally or KC company when they need a buddy. My guess he will still jump the fence lines when he feels like it.

THH, Thornton Hay Field, February 8,2023

 

Wally and I had a fun morning with THH. It was a joint meet with Blue Ridge today and we were running their hounds.

We started off pretty strenuously by pretty much climbing Turkey Mountain straight to the top. I really mean straight to the top. No switchbacks or gently curving trailers. Just a straight climb. We looped around through The shade and then came up the backside of Turkey.

We came off the backside of Turkey and the hounds hit. I'm pretty sure it was a coyote. It headed a little back up the mountain and then turned east. It pretty much followed the line of Rock Mills Road and then made a left up Hunters Lane. It was a pretty good run.

Meanwhile, back in the second flight we headed down a trail only to come to a solid wall f fallen trees. We looped around and met up with the rest of the hunt and then were off and running again. It took us a long run to come around and we were back the Shade. we also heard at that point that the hounds had lost on Hunters Lane.

Wally was pretty good. He had a lot of climbing (2892 feet) and covered 11.1 miles. He topped out at about 20.6 MPH. I think that is the first time he has topped 20 MPH since he did a run away with me two years ago. He has learned that he doesn't have to go full throttle which is good since he was a racehorse. He is pretty fit and I think he is going to appreciate the flat terrain of Aiken in a couple of weeks.

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9Jenn Schuessler, Kelly Tower Yoder and 7 others

THH, Kennels, February 2,2023

 

Wally and I were out with THH. It was an interesting start to the day. When i went out to the barn first thing it was snowing. Later when getting wally going it had turned to freezing rain. So I had to scrape the truck. I kept going because the forecast called for it to clear out. About three miles from home the roads went from wet to dry and stayed that way. So that was a good sign.

When I went to bridle Wally realized his bit was in wrong. It ony took me four tries to get it right. Then I noticed that I had forgotten to attach his flash after I had cleaned the bridle. So we were off to a good start. Luckily the lack of the flash did really impact us until late in the hunt when he got a little tired.

Things started out a little slow but about 50 minutes in we got a run. Not a barn burner but a steady run and at the end the hunts put the fox to ground. About a fifteen minute run. Within minutes they were on a run again. Similar to the first the hounds were working hard to keep it going but they did and again after about twenty minutes the fox was put to ground.

About five minutes later, we were running again. This was a barn burner of a run. It was about 45 minutes and the hounds were loud and on the run the whole time. They covered about 3.5 miles on the run.

At one point n the run, it seemed like the fox had gone to ground. The hounds kept swirling about in a thicket. Then all of a sudden they took off loud and fast again. I'm wondering of the hole the fox went down had a back door. Eventually they did run him to ground.

Wally had some more of those really good moments as he continues to develop as a hunt horse. When the fox had seemingly gone to ground the first time on the third run, we were checked up on the trail near by. The hounds in full voice came surging right up to us with a couple under his nose. He never moved.

Later in the run, we were cantering along when the hounds crossed over a trail in front of the field and staff. We thought it was the whole pack but it turned out to be half. Suddenly, the other half was running on either side of Wally and the horse behind us. He was great, never flinched, never put a foot wrong. Just kept doing his job.

He also did some jumping. We definitely have to work on following others over jumps. He gets a little scrambly on those. When jumping by himself, he is a very quiet. His last step is always a big power step and I expect a big jump but he never over jumps. It does sometimes end up with me a bit ahead. Our last two I really stayed back and waited and it worked out well. The last was an uphill approach to about a 2' 6" or so with a downhill landing and it was good.

So a great day of hunting and more progress by Wally. We covered 9 miles, 2655 of vertical and he topped out at about 16.5 MPH.