The Working FoxHound 411 to Non-Hunting Neighbors

The Working FoxHound 411 to Non-Hunting Neighbors

by Gretchen Pelham

Here in the high desert, at 5,000 feet elevation, it snows quite a bit in the winter (at least is seems like quite a lot to my Southern Self). The Walker Hounds used by the hunt club Red Rock Hounds still go hunting 3 to 4 times a week, even in the white stuff. Usually the only weather conditions that will cause the hunt to be canceled here is if the hills above the valley where the kennels are located have blizzard conditions. Blizzards mean that the huntsman for RRH, Angela Murray, MFH, can’t see her hounds. Or her own horse’s ears for that matter. In spite of this, Angela is still known to try to hunt in “almost” blizzard-like snow and wind while wearing ski goggles with her riding helmet. Angela, in my Southern opinion, is a bit touched to love the snow this much. But I digress…

Sometimes one of the neighbors in the valley in and around Red Rock’s hunt country will find a lone hound. Red Rock is hard to miss in this valley, so just about everyone knows where the hound’s home is located. Recently there have been a large influx of new neighbors in the valley who have never lived near a kennel of working dogs. Some have expressed concern upon finding a lone hound, shivering in the cold Nevada wind after a day’s hunting. I just wanted to give a bit of education on working hounds and the sport of Foxhunting.

Some of the concerns of the non-hunting public about finding or seeing a lone foxhound out and about after a day’s hunting are that the hound is too skinny, the hound must be neglected because it’s all by itself out in bad weather, or the hound must be mistreated because it is acting skittish or is hard to catch. Below I have addressed these concerns.

Hound is too skinny:

Since the hounds hunt several times a week, traveling several miles each hunt, these hounds are in excellent shape. Or they could never keep up. The average dog owner is not used to seeing a fit dog, as most house dogs are overfed couch potatoes. The average foxhound appears emaciated and under-nourished to the average dog owner. But that is because these hounds are basically marathon runners. Compare the winner of the local Iron Man competition to the average person, and that athlete will look skinny as well. One also needs to consider the short length of the hound’s fur when realizing that there isn’t much there to pad the outline of the dog. If the active-military German Shepard Dogs could be seen in short, hound-length fur, then those very fit, four-legged soldiers would also seem very skinny. Same goes for the working Border Collies on the local ranches.

Hound must be neglected to be out by themselves:

There are many reasons for a hound to be by itself on a hunt day. Not all are because the hound is doing what it’s supposed to be doing. It is a dog, after all. There may have been a squirrel! Okay, that’s a joke because foxhounds are trained not to “riot” after animals they aren’t trained to chase after, but again, they are still just dogs. During a day’s hunting, hounds are encouraged by the huntsman to spread out to look for a scent line of their quarry to follow, and, especially in the sage of the desert, a very focused hound could have just gotten himself separated by accident. Or the hound was older and couldn’t keep up with the pack as they raced across the country (hounds are incredibly fast – that’s why we have to ride horses in attempt to keep up with them). Or maybe the hound was so damned determined that the coyote was just out of reach that he refused to come back to the huntsman and kept on hunting (a type of foxhound, the PennMaryDel, is said to have the best trait of bone-headed determinedness on a hunt, and the worst thing about a PMD, as the joke goes, is their bone-headed determinedness to never stop). Or maybe it was a puppy that was by himself because he got confused or scared by loud noise or who knows. A typical hunting pack of hounds contains over 20 hounds, and even though the huntsman and her staff will endeavor to keep an eye on the entire pack, it’s inevitable that one or two may slip away from watchful eyes.

Hound must be abused due to its reluctance to come to strangers:

Hounds are like people – they have their own personalities. Most hounds are attention gluttons and love every person they met shamelessly. But some are shy and skittish. That doesn’t mean that they are beaten with a two-by-four every morning. So, if a hound is wary to come to a random person who spotted them trotting down the road and pulled over in their car, please don’t worry for their welfare if they don’t jump into your backseat easily. Most hounds never ride in cars - they travel all together in the back of a horse trailer. It’s understandable that some hounds will mistrust getting into a vehicle with a strange person. Also, some hounds are just going home to their kennels. They know their home with all their buddies and kibble is just over that rise, and now this strange person wants to interrupt their trek home! Most hounds will get themselves home just fine by just using their hound sense.

There are always exceptions to a hound finding their kennels by themselves, and that’s where the local hunt really appreciates the neighbors when they call about a found hound. All hunts use collars on their hounds with the phone number of the huntsman to call when a lone hound is found. Because WE REALLY DO WANT THEM HOME SAFE AND SOUND. And all hunts, Red Rock included, love to show off their kennels and hounds to the neighborhood and to anyone else who is curious or concerned about the hounds. All one has to do is ask. We are shameless in showing them off.

Foxhunting is the universal name for the international sport of mounted hunting with a pack of hounds (Canada, US, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand to name a few off the top of my head). There are over 100 foxhunts in North America alone. Even here in the West it is still call Foxhunting even though coyotes are the main game that is chased by the hounds. Foxhunting is the original extreme sport, and there is not much difference between the sport of today to what was practiced hundreds of years ago.

The US has a long history of foxhunting. George Washington was an avid foxhunter; he even imported his own pack of foxhounds from England to chase the also imported red fox. And there are tales of Congress adjourning session for the day after hearing the local huntsman’s horn blow from just outside, as the pack ran across the lawn. The keen Congressmen would be seen running outside to jump on their horses to join in the chase. Even the Congressional term of a Party’s “Whip” is a foxhunting term. The staff that ride to help the huntsman control the pack of hounds are all called Whipper-Ins, or Whips for short. And in Congress, the name basically means the same thing: “A Whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature.”

In this modern culture of getting all one’s food pre-packed from a grocery store, the sport of hunting can seem alien and unnecessary to many. I’m not going to tell anyone that is anti-hunting that they are wrong to feel that way, as it’s none of my business. I see that personal preference of not understanding someone who wants to hunt as the same as I will never understand the desire to dress up like a Klingon and go to every Comic-Con in the Northern Hemisphere. But hey, to each his own, as they say.

I do, however, want to explain WHY we foxhunters love the sport and the lifestyle. Until you are on a 1,200 pound horse; who has its own brain and agenda with the emotional maturity of a toddler that disturbingly also doesn’t speak English; galloping as fast as the horse can go weaving over country and terrain that is little more than a game trail, if that; with full knowledge that you have only 5% control over your horse (if that much) while trusting the orange-sized brain of said horse to make the majority of the decisions that literally mean the difference of an instant to being upright or both horse and rider flipping ass over tea kettle; living in the present – as in one second at a time – because the speed you are traveling is so damn fast that the physical reactions that are demanded from you to stay in the saddle are so important to life and limb (and literally neck) that you can’t think of anything else, especially that stupid work stress that plagues your brain day and night; all the while a group of your best riding friends are also travelling at break-neck speed (there is reason for this phrase) all around you and your near-flying horse that’s, for better or worse, on autopilot; chasing after a pack of hounds whose full cry raises every hair on the back of your neck that awakens that primal, pre-historic instinct that even a lifetime of Netflix, Facebook, and Starbucks can’t suppress; having no pre-determined knowledge of where the pack will turn from stride to stride, so you are always completely clueless as to your destination (which is glorious, I must say); THEN you will never experience the adrenaline and endorphins that are released when you ride hell-bent for leather on a foxhunt. Unless you like to jump out of airplanes without parachutes. Or you are Tom Cruise – really, that man can’t be human.

Foxhounds are working dogs, which are very different from household pets. The instinct for a hound is to hunt, and it’s just as strong as the instincts are for a Border Collie to herd, a Bloodhound to follow that scent, or a Belgian Malinois to protect and serve. These hounds have a job, and that job is to hunt in a pack and listen to the huntsman. Every hound knows its name and will come to their name, even in a pack of 60 hounds all begging for cookies from the huntsman. But even with the strong desire to hunt bred into every working foxhound, the hound can still choose NOT to be a hunting hound. Hounds that don’t like to hunt will leave the pack and go off on their own during a hunt. Resulting in the huntsman and staff to mount a search party following the GPS collar. It will only take a few of these searches, in the dark, in the rain or snow, for the huntsman to agree with the hound. Puppies that never quite get the job or older hounds who just can’t keep up anymore and want to nap more than chase, will be adopted out to become couch surfers. The average foxhound is naturally so gregarious and friendly, that once they see a couch and realize it’s theirs to use, then those hounds become shameless in their laziness. All hunts have stories of adopted-out hounds turning into the best house pets. Iroquois Hunt in Kentucky even has a non-profit organization devoted to just caring for its retired hounds.

Without the hounds we could not foxhunt, and we as a group spend A LOT of money to be able to do this sport. If I had never started foxhunting then I would have enough money to buy and maintain a villa in France, I swear. We love the hounds, and they are vital to our sport. I want to thank the local neighbors so much for your help in getting our lone hounds home. Anytime you have a question, please ask. And just maybe, after befriending the local hunt, you might find yourself living with an adopted foxhound whose new mission in life is to make sure that your couch never moves. It’s an important job, you see.