Harry Stephenson
View a slideshow of the York and Ainsty (South) Puppy Show: York and Ainsty (South) Puppy Show 2009
Foxhound Column
Harry Stephenson
Please note: Some of this article refers to foxhunting before the Hunting Act 2004 came into effect.
It’s the end of August and the season is upon us: well most of us. Hound exercise will have been going on up and down the land for what will by now seem like forever. Horses will have been up for weeks and will be fit enough for some work now. Hunt horses need to be fit, just because we are autumn hunting doesn’t mean the whipper in will not have to move quickly occasionally.
The puppies will need to get used to seeing the huntsman on a horse, and to following the horse without getting under its feet. Puppies will perhaps be a little apprehensive at first but will want to follow their dad, and so they should be given the chance to do so without being pushed on by a whipper in. It’s better to go out on mounted exercise with only two horses out, the huntsman and the whipper in. I ‘chat up’ the hounds on the way round, and half way point I get off and the pups jump all over me.
The second time out we usually box hounds to the stables and have some of the grooms come out too. They are instructed to stay well back and not to speak to or interfere with hounds at all. If a pup gets itself behind the grooms horses it can be frightened to go past. If left alone it will eventually find a way past and come hurtling up to the rest very pleased with itself. It has learned a valuable lesson which will save a lot of hassle later on.
Some packs go mounted exercise for weeks, which must be a good thing. We go out four or five times with horses just before we start, and the rest is done on bikes. I suppose if kennels and stables were together we may do things differently, but if I suggested to my other half that I wanted horses at kennels at 6am every morning, I would probably be doing the horses myself!
In any case, the horses are not ready for going out with hounds until middle of August, whereas the hounds have been on the roads every day since hunting finished so are ahead of the horses in terms of fitness. By keeping hounds just ticking over all summer, their feet do not get soft and so the exercise can move up a gear or two in early August without any problem. By third week in August horses have caught up and so all is well.
Autumn hunting is a time for the huntsman to train his hounds. It is not a time when the huntsman has to show any sport, and if he so wishes he can stay in one wood all morning. Things are a bit different now of course because of the Hunting Act. Hounds are taught to hunt trails and these will be laid in varying strengths and lengths.
However in order to understand what the huntsman is trying to achieve, I must talk about how things were before the Act came into force, and indeed how things will be once it is repealed. NB: And the Act will be REPEALED if we all do our bit come election time working with vote ok, and I do mean everyone.
York and Ainsty South hounds and staff arriving at a lawn meet last season | Photo by Katie Pryor
Autumn hunting was not all about killing every fox that could be found. It was about teaching young hounds how to hunt together as a pack, and to hunt only fox and nothing else. I used to much prefer hounds to find and hunt a fox round and round for 40 minutes all together as a pack and it get away, than to go into a covert and chop one without a hound speaking.
Chopping foxes in beet or elsewhere taught hounds absolutely nothing, but made the tally look better. Hounds have to hunt, and when they lose it they must recover the line themselves if at all possible. And I liked it to be done as quietly as possible because excess noise from enthusiastic followers only distracts the young hounds. During autumn hunting the huntsman is teaching his hounds for tomorrow, and if by the time he goes home after a decent morning line hunting - he considers his hounds have learned something, or got better at something, then he is well on the way to a successful season.
It is about getting hounds handy: that is being able to move them around quickly and quietly without them really being aware they are being moved - and certainly without the whipper in herding them.
It is about getting hounds to fly to each others voice, and to fly to the huntsman when he doubles his horn or calls them to him. It is about being able to cast hounds left or right two fields ahead if he wants to with the touch of the horn. It is about getting hounds to leave covert together quickly on a line. It is about getting hounds to come out of the largest piece of woodland when the huntsman wants to move on or go home.
There are I suppose there different ways of achieving all these things, but the one thing that is absolute fact - is the huntsman must be absolutely consistent in everything he does. Otherwise it cannot possibly work.
Hounds have to ignore dogs, cats, sheep, cattle etc. All of these things have to be sorted before opening meet, because that is when the huntsman has to show sport. That is the day the curtain goes up, and no matter how large the mounted field is behind the huntsman, if he has done everything right during the summer and during autumn hunting, and he has the right team working with him - he will have nothing to fear.
That doesn’t mean mistakes won’t happen, or that things won’t go wrong, because they will, frequently. Some huntsmen get terribly stressed and shout and curse at anything and anybody, all day long. It may be entertaining for the foot people to watch, but a huntsman purple in the face waving his arms about with steam coming out of every orifice cannot be enjoying himself: and let’s not forget hunting is supposed to be fun.
On a good scenting day, in a good piece of country things can go right, but often don’t. However, on a bad scenting day the huntsman still has to show sport, and this is where a good relationship with the Field Master is vital, so between them they can keep the show rolling along.
So spare a thought for the huntsman, he puts in a tremendous amount of work to get his hounds working well as a team to show good sport. On a good day when things go right it’s the hounds that have done it without any input from the huntsman, and on a bad scenting day, its all the huntsman’s fault, as many an armchair huntsman - and every hunt has a few - will tell you.
Have a great season.
Hounds hacking to the next draw during autumn hunting last season | Photo by Katie Pryor
Harry Stephenson