Rusty & Nervy

On May 5 we went to the Hunt Club for a Hound Walk and were fascinated by the sight of about 35 un-neutered hounds behaving themselves in an open field while Huntsman Anthony shared just a fraction of his knowledge.

I signed us up for a trio of Hunt Events: first the Hound Walk, then on May 26 Ludi and I were to have a group jumping lesson in the field with Hunt Master Grits McMullen.  We had to prepare by jumping some things first!

We started with the basic grid of jumps carefully spaced so that Ludi could take off and land in the right place, which would help improve his form.  This is called a 'gymnastic' line of fences, spaced 9, 18 and 21 feet apart.  Here is the result: 

Of course we practiced some more: I moved the jumps into a 3-jump line and played with our number of strides, then into an easy course, and then we jumped the logs we have placed in one of the paddocks.  I tried Ludi in the rubber Pelham bit, and found a much better connection with him.

On the morning of the 26th, we loaded Ludi up and headed to Sulpher's Farm.  Ludi was plenty full of himself, and pranced around the trailers with his head barely screwed on.  Grits knew just what to do with him, and told me so.  What a relief!  I gave myself up to her commands, and hung on tight!

I guess I was Rusty and Ludi was Nervy, but I'm so glad we put ourselves out there and broke the ice on our first outing.  

Our third event of the series will be an actual Fox hunt (drag only, of course).  Ehren is my guy for that, but the wet weather has kept the Club off the fields, so we're hoping to get out with the final spring outing on June 26.  First field!