Hunting Saturday September 27th, 2008 - 8:30AM
Valley Green Farm (Bridlespur Kennels)

Huntsman: Eleanor Hartwell (Max)

Whips: Jill Wagenknecht (Camo), Gene Deutsch (Waffles), Lee Deutsch (Belle), John Korenak (Rocky)

First Field: Mary Hensel (fieldmaster)(on Lark), Leslie Ayers (PT), Sarah Zenisek, Stephanie Mihlbaugh, Deborah Daugherty, Jean Mutrux (PeeWee), Abby Mutrux (Hoppy), Leslie Granger (Maurice), Ron Ausman (Toby)

Second Field: Anne Hoagland (fieldmaster), Armand Hoffstetter (Kaiser), Sue Marshall (Stretch), Janelle Allton, Gigi Harrow, Deb Hogan, Michael Murphy (Fred), Beverly Stevens (Courtney), Mackenzie Bussard (Bert), Joy Yates (Smoky)

Wheel Whip: Tess Fleishli

16 ˝ couple hounds including 3 puppies

GPS readings 4.2 miles 56 minutes moving, 1 hr 18 minutes stopped. Moving average 5.2 mph. Max speed 17.3 mph. Total time 2 hrs 14 minutes.

Lunch/Brunch – Provided by Michael Murphy with tomatoes home grown by Geri Washausen. BLT sandwiches and chips..

The forecast was for warm weather so coats were waived by the masters in favor of polo shirts. The temperature was 59 when we started and 71 when we finished. It felt warmer than that in the sun. The barometric pressure was rising and there was no wind. The grass is still green and all the leaves are still on the trees. There’s not much evidence that this is the fall season.

There were a couple of new horses in the field, Eleanor had one of her new OTTB, Max and Stephanie was also on a very attractive 3 yr old Tb that had just finished racing in early August.

We headed down the driveway toward the kennels, then turned up the hill while Eleanor drew along the woods. We weren’t even to the top of the hill when the hounds started speaking. We waited for a while listening to the music and then followed along the top of the bluff. We went into the woods and listened for a while, then doubled back and came out near the first driveway. We headed north along HH and it sounded like the hounds had crossed HH. This is an area that we cannot go so we watched while some staff went with Eleanor. John went South on HH and turned right at the end. We followed him south to the intersection and waited there and listed. We heard the hounds turn from going west to south and then heard them working their way back east. We doubled back and went toward the creek as it looked like staff was coming that way. We met Eleanor and the hounds at the creek and she let them have a little swim. While they were in the creek she found an arrow head. She has a great eye for spotting them. They had quite a run and she was very happy. Since we’d been out two hours we started working our way toward home.

Afterwards Jill modeled her top for the Hunt Ball so that Jean Mutrux could make some seamstress adjustments.