I came home recently to find several AVH’ers sitting around the fireplace, clearly some form of meeting in progress, which I wasn’t invited to.   Masters Stephen and Joanne had got our Whips and staff together along with Mr. Farin to chat about things that well, Whips chat about.   But it did make me think how lucky we are at Amwell to have volunteers who do their best to make as many meets as possible, put their horses through quite a bit more than ours have to do in the field, and have to know not only the countryside inside out, the landowners, and what still seems impossible to me, the task of learning the names and characters of each of our hounds.

In the UK most hunts have territories that are larger, or more open with less roads so they only have the need for one or maybe two Whips, which are usually employed by their hunt.  Their horses, usually two, are donated and their hunt attire provided.  Of course when you have full membership of 150 or more and double that number with supporters, have up to 20 capers at a meet and ride out three times a week you can afford to do this.  On the down side the whips are not always treated the best, even the term “Hunt Servant” smacks of life downstairs in Downton Abbey to me.

So at Amwell, like most places here in the US we rely on our trusty band of volunteer Whips.  Are they less professional or knowledgeable? - God no!   But it does take some special skills to do this well, and of course no whips no Fox Hunting for any of us. 

One of the things the Whips have to learn is their own language to communicate with our hounds, and the hounds respect their command.  That’s why we in the field have to make less noise, and never try to help out with words of encouragement to the straggler in the pack.   So if you like me have listened to some of our seasoned pros and wondered what on earth they are saying, here is a brief guide that Lisa and her father put together.

GET ON TO HIM – Hustling tail hounds along.

GET OVER – Pushing hounds over that are drifting to one side.

GET BACK TO HIM – usually in the field when the huntsman is collecting hounds.

It must be remembered though that no member of the fields should ever talk to a hound when hunting, but it is nice to know what they are talking about, more sayings to follow.

So on behalf of everyone lets hear it for our Whips!  Well done Lisa, Ralph, Richard, Lauren and Charlie, and thank you to Brooke, Mary Pat and Wendy for being ready to jump in when needed.   Cheryl B.

I was surprised to see so many riders out on a windy and somewhat chilly Sunday in the middle of January, but Masters Joanne and Stephen, 20 riders and five whips plus Mr. Farin and his team of 13 1/2 couple of hounds left promptly at 11am from Hillsborough Country Club.

The sun shone and as we made our way down the driveway at a brisk trot I started to regret the thermals I had chosen to wear.  We crossed the road with our stalwarts, Laurie and Bruce on road patrol, and headed gingerly around the edge of the trails towards the Airpark.

Because my dear horse (whom I described as a Toyota without brakes last week) needed to behave and I needed to control him, I decided to stay at the very back of the field.  I had no idea what fun it could be.  We were far enough away from the action to be able to exchange pleasantries without disturbing anyone.

Now when I look around I’m always proud of how much effort everyone puts into arriving with groomed horses, clean tack and shinny boots.  However, it was pretty muddy out there in one or two spots, and gradually those with gray horses started to turn brown, thank goodness there wasn’t too much cantering! 

After about an hour of riding we stopped to check the hounds and came across some AVTA riders.  Even better we learned that they loved coming to our Hunter Paces and one couple said they had won The Triple Crown.  Photos were taken and introductions made to Steve Pripstein who has helped run the events last year.

This coincided with four of our hounds chasing a fox up a ravine into its den.  The only problem was the Den was in a landfill, and doing their job diligently meant they stayed the course and didn’t wish to come back down. 

So Whipper in Ralph tied his horse up, and hiked up the ravine to get their attention.  We were very impressed and clearly his fitness regime has paid off as he positively skipped up!

We continued on and found one small very deep stream, great way to wash our horse’s legs off.  But for Roz on a small pony it was a little tricky and when we arrived back at the meet, we all congratulated her for not having to swim, but then we noticed she was wet from hip to toe!  

So not a great fox spotting day, but a fun day with friends and an excellent pot luck breakfast.  So was the scrubbing of horses and tack worth it?  You bet!!

Cheryl B.