Two GVH Hounds take Firsts at Belle Meade Hound Trials

Here are the results for the Belle Meade Performance Trial. I did not get them until Wednesday, 2/22, and there were some changes in the standings, I don't really understand why, but they are still working out the scoring system for next year.

It was a two-day performance trial. There were five categories:

Hunting - The hounds are judged on how well they spread out and actively try to find the line. Lots of energy, keeping their noses down, and looking in likely spots are scored.

Trailing - When a line is found, but it's still slow and the hound or hounds are speaking intermittently.

Full Cry - All hounds are on the hot line speaking and running. The first hound gets the most points etc.

Marking - The quarry is in the hole or dead. The hounds are scored for killing or digging and speaking at the earth.

Endurance - Hounds that stayed fast even at the end of the hunt. I'm not sure how they scored this.

The first day we started out really fast as a coyote was viewed before we left the kennels. This led to a lot of hounds being left behind and scattered around, and, therefore, finding two other coyotes and hunting them. These hounds got no scores because they were not on the hunted coyote. Our hounds were mostly in those non scored groups on the first run. The first run was 50 minutes and very fast but we went in small circles. Then we checked, got most of the hounds back and walked around for an hour or so. It was getting really hot and we were doing a lot of "trailing," when we found the second coyote which we killed pretty quickly. Jovial, Coco and Album were there at the kill, but did not get any scores. By the time the judges were there they were just wandering around and not interested anymore. Hopefully, though, they learned how to kill a coyote.

The second day started out with a gray fox that went to ground quickly. This got all the hounds together and when we started drawing they quickly found a coyote line which turned into a very fast 1 1/2 hour run on a big black coyote that the Master Epp Wilson had been trying to kill all season. This guy disappeared at the end, and Epp was reallly disappointed. We had all the hounds and were thinking about going in (I voted to quit and my horse was cooked), but we went on and found an even better coyote which ran a ten mile point in one hour. All this galloping took place in an endless Pine Forest with lots of trails and some roads to cross. You almost never came out of the woods. There were 8 road whips patrolling the roads and turning the coyote when necessary. Finally the coyote started making smaller and smaller circles until they killed him. Again, our hounds were there but we got no scores. Oh well.

It was an awesome two days of hunting. These are very serious hunting people. Eight great foxhound packs brought five of their best hounds each, and all these Masters and Huntsmen were hunting right on top of the Huntsman. There was incredible energy. I was very proud of our horses and our hounds. We had the best time and met incredible people, saw their hounds in action and chose a hound to breed Coco to this Spring.

Thanks to everyone who helped to send us. With your help we would love to do it again next Fall at London, Ontario. Next Season, a Centennial Pack will be chosen from the best scoring hounds. Each hound gets to use it's best score from any Performance Trial. We hope that a lot of you will join us for that hunt. The date is Oct. 24th, a Tuesday. There is another one the next day at Toronto and North York.

Marion Thorne, MFH

Genesee Valley Coco '03 - 2/23/06	Genesee Valley Jovial '02 - 2/23/06