This page includes articles from our junior hunt members

There are three articles on this page:
1. From Ashley Reut
2. From Emma James
3. From Emma James

1. FROM ASHLEY REUT
My first walk with the hounds

My first walk with the hounds was at Hunt camp. I was going to use Limerick or Ricky because he is an experienced hunt horse and my horse is very “looky”. I arrived at Owl’s Nest Ranch, the place that I board my horse. It took me a while but finally I caught Ricky from his paddock with the help of three people. I got my things together and we loaded the horses and we were off. Things were great when I got there we met our hounds put our horses outside and everything was fine. The first thing we did after meeting our hounds was go and tack up our horses and get ready to play games on them. So I am tacking up Ricky and brushing him off he is nice and calm, I am the first one ready. I start to head for the mounting block and he is fine until he is right up next to it. I asked someone to hold him and they tried their best but Ricky was in a fit about standing still for his rider. Cindy {his real owner} comes over and of course Ricky stands perfectly still for her {every horse does} while I get on. He usually has a nice forward walk so I didn’t think anything was wrong. Mrs. James {Emma’s mom} explains what we are going to do and I continued walking on Ricky. There were four poles with ribbons taped on them, you have to ride to the first pole take off a ribbon, ride to the second pole take off a ribbon and tie the first two together. Then you ride to the third pole grab the ribbon and tie it to the other two ribbons and walk through a set of poles and hand your “creation” to the person waiting for you for them to check that it is tightly tied together. The tallest horses went first and I went next. We walked up to the first pole and he didn’t like it already. He jumped when he heard the tape holding the ribbon come off and I couldn’t get him to stop for me to tie the first two together. We barely made it to the third pole when the energy level started to rise. As Cindy told me before we started the games “This is not going to be the same pony you had at Owl’s Nest” “Whenever he leaves he thinks that it is a competition and he wants to be the best”. I was thinking to Ricky “If you want to show off and be the best, you will be the quietest and the calmest”. Well Cindy was sure right. We barely got them tied together and we were walking towards the person waiting for us and he freaked out. He was doing mini rears in place and he was taking all these quick uneven steps in place and he was all over. I was trying to keep my heels down and stay calm, but that pony wanted to get going. I fell off and the peacock broke and Ricky started to canter away through the mowed path towards highway 55. Cindy told me not to worry about it and that he would come back when he realized he was leaving but he didn’t look like he was going to come back. He had gotten pretty far away and he was glad to be gone. Emma took her hunt horse for the summer Jazz to try to cut him off the other way and Maryann took her horse Ritz the same way Ricky went to try to catch him. Cindy and another woman helping jumped into Cindy’s car and headed off to stop him. I got in the car with one of the girl’s mom and we went to catch him with a few carrots in our hands. By the time we got there Ricky had been caught and was heading back to the arena with Emma on his back the woman who rode with Cindy on Jazz’s back and Maryann on her horse. I was thinking the whole time “Great, my first public outing since I started to lease Ricky and this is how it goes!}. We drove back and Ricky tried to do the other games with me but it didn’t work out so I borrowed someone else’s horse. Emma got Ricky whipped back into shape and I rode him the next day and he was GREAT! We jumped logs and coops in the field and he loved it! But boy is he forward when you walk with the hounds! In the end I learned a few things. One is that I need to learn how to stop Ricky in the field and learn how to slow him down quicker, Two is that hunt camp is a BLAST, and Three is that the hunt looks like so much fun if you have the right horse{or pony}. I can’t wait to go on the junior hunt and hopefully my horse will be ready too! I am definitely going to go to another hunt camp! I just wish it was longer! It seems like one and a half days isn’t enough!!!!
By: Ashley Reut

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. FROM EMMA JAMES

Okay, so I am sure that many of you have read my previous article about getting to do what a whip would, without actually being a Whip. Now, I have a different story to tell.

I would say that I am not a person who looks particularly wonderful in red, true red. I look okay in the pinkish reds, the more maroon sort of colors, that sort of thing, but true red just isn’t my color. Even though it isn’t my color, sometimes red makes me feel special, and like I am having more fun than I have ever had before. That feeling rarely comes over me, yet, at the beginning of this hunting season, it did.

As I am galloping through woods, or through an open field, I am either smiling at how wonderful the hounds are, or, yelling with a determination of getting the hounds back. Either way, I feel a sense of importance. Many times, because I have only been whipping since the start of the season, I am not the first one to get to the hounds, or maybe I am not the one to actually bring them back. To me though, that doesn’t make a difference, what makes the difference is knowing that if something did go wrong, that someone trusts me enough to be one of the people to help fix it.

To you, a Whip may be an important part of the hunt, or of the staff, I mean, of course, what would happen if we didn’t have them? Hunting wouldn’t be much fun, can you imagine just the huntsmen trying to gather up seven couple of hounds! (No offense to our huntsmen, but it would be nearly impossible.) That was my feeling when I first started hunting, my thought was, “what an honor it would be,” or, “gosh that would be so much fun,” or even, “wow, they can really turn on the speed when they need it!” Now that I have had the honor, and the fun, and been able to turn on the speed when I needed it, my thought has maybe started to change. I think that being a Whip holds a certain responsibility, and that there is more to galloping after hounds than an adrenaline rush! I think that maybe galloping after hounds also gives you a sense of mental balance, like knowing when to do what, and how to do it, and how quickly you have to do it, it sharpens your instincts, and makes you feel trusted. I think that is what being a Whip is mostly about, mentally, then there is also the physical aspect of it, but I think you can all figure that one out, just by watching.

Like I said earlier, red isn’t my color, but when I am wearing it hunting, it feels like the most important color in the world, and like no other color can compare to it.

~Emma Rae James

3. ALSO FROM EMMA JAMES

Have you ever been a Whip before? I haven’t, but I did get to bring back the hounds from out in a field one day!

It was a hunt at Dean Lane, and it was a normal hunt except for the fact that there were a couple of junior guests hunting with us. We had the usual juniors, Emma James (me), Rachael Stene, and Sam Nelson, but there were also a couple of Pony Clubbers out that day too! We had Anna Pierro, Sarah Kate Pierro, and Marianne Kelley.

We started off by getting some great viewing off of the field, on the edge of Dean Lane. Then, as usual everyone took off, and we galloped through some fields and woods, overall having the time of our lives! About halfway through the hunt though, we started to road hack. That’s when Jr. Lehman called me up front with him and the rest of the whips. He decided (nice guy that he is) that he was going to let me help road hack! I was of course, ecstatic!

We walked down the road just a little bit, (though for me, on my 12.2 pony, I was trotting) and then we got back to the trail, and Jr. told me that I could go back to the field, so I did.

Once again, we galloped through some fields, some woods, and came out on a road again. Again Jr. called me up to help with the hounds on the road hack. This was the last part of the hunt (I thought) until we reached Dean Lane, and Jr. called the rest of the juniors up and told us to go and follow the hounds. You could just see the faces of everyone light up.

Jr. sent the hounds out into the field that we had, at the start of the hunt, gotten such great viewing from. All of the juniors including me, took off after the hounds, I was in the lead, but it wasn’t very long before the strides of the other horses took over Laney’s!

I don’t really know why I wasn’t expecting this, but the hounds didn’t just go where they needed to go. I didn’t really know what to do until I heard Jr. yelling, “Go get em’ Emma!” That is when I took off around the little bend that the hounds had gone around. I had no idea what to do, being that I have never done this before, so I just started rounding up the hounds, and sort of yelling at them to not go every which-way again. Eventually most of the hounds got back to Jr. There was just one left. Of course, it just had to be a puppy, normally I wouldn’t have cared, it is just that, I DON”T KNOW ANY OF THE PUPPY’S NAMES! So I must have sounded pretty ridiculous back there trying every single puppy name that I knew. Eventually Sam Nelson came back and got that one hound out! I thought that I would finish out my fun by galloping as fast as my little pony’s legs could move, out around the bend and back to Jr. and the hounds.

Have you ever been a Whip? If you are Sam, I know that you can say yes, but if you are me, Rachael Stene, Anna Pierro, Sarah Kate Pierro, or Marianne Kelley, you can say no, but I did get to bring the hounds back out of a field, just like a real whip would.

- Emma Rae James

"Juniors! If you would like to write an article for the babbler or the webpage, PLEASE contact Emma James at Pennylane@inlayinc.com.