Millbrook Hound Trials

We took 5 hounds to the Millbrook Centennial Hound Performance Trial. There are 13 of these trials this year and from them there were be 50 hounds selected to be in the Centennial Pack. They were judged by 6 mounted judges and one in a truck. These judges were guided by the staff of the Millbrook Hunt. The pack was hunted by Tony Leahy of Fox River Valley and the Cornwall hounds in Ill. He is the Huntsman for all the Centennial Trials in which he has not entered hounds.

This weekend there were 8 hunts entering 5 hounds each. Our hounds finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, 15th and 19th. It likely that are top 3 finishers are already qualified to the Centennial Pack which was our goal. Yay!

Also, with all the points accumulated over the two day trial, Genesee Valley won Best Pack. Belle Meade from GA was second, Essex (NJ) was third and Millbrook fourth.

I don't have the scores from the first day but I'll try to recap. It was a really difficult hunting day Sun with 20 to 40 MPH winds and snow flurries, rain and sun. We had one good little fox run in which Countess was a star. The hounds are scored on Hunting (finding the fox) Trailing (Working out the line), Full Cry (running) and Marking ( putting the fox to ground). The computer then tabulates an Endurance Score which is based on scores in all categories which increase over time. Countess got great scores here in Full Cry and Marking and endurance, finishing the day in second place. Our Nevada, Jumper and Coco (Countess' sister) also got scores and we won best pack that day. We were out 5-1/2 hours that day with one other sort of run in which the pack split and most hounds did not get scored. Neptune, one of our best hounds at home, was a little shy of the strange hounds, country and huntsman and never hunted like himself all weekend.

The second day was a beautiful day and we immediately found 2 coyotes with the pack splitting. The smaller group eventually rejoined, but Countess and Neptune were in it and missed a lot of scores because they were not on the main run. It was a fabulous fast 1-1/2 hour run through amazingly beautiful country. Really big wooded hills and open areas and really well maintained trails. We had a hard time keeping up with the hounds in this challenging country but we were treated to a great view of the Coyote and the hounds through a picturesque farm. Our hound Coco was on top coming out of the corn here and got top Full Cry Scores. When we finished up we were missing Nevada but found him pretty quickly still hunting. We had no idea how we did as we had hardly seen the hounds and had seen Countess and Nevada going the wrong way...

Overall Scores                  Complete Trial Results (PDF)

Countess 6th Hunting
6th Endurance
5th Overall

Coco 1st Full Cry
3rd Endurance
4th Overall

Nevada 5th Trailing
4th Endurance
6th Full Cry
3rd Overall

Jumper 19th Overall

Neptune 16th Overall

Marion Thorne, MFH