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Glad you enjoyed it, and welcome to the hound blog! We hope you'll check back in–there's more video to com from Iroquois, including a big coyote who ran by us.
I've never seen a coyote hunt . Are North American hunts as widely supported as those in the UK and Ireland ?
Some hunts are large, and others are smaller, as in England. There are 165 hunts in 37 states that currently registered with the MFHA here, if my numbers are up to date, and they have various membership numbers. In my experience, foot-following is less common here than in the UK and Ireland. Generally, hunts in the US emphasize the chase rather than hunting to kill; in the case of our hunt, the main goal is to try to move coyotes along and prevent them from forming settled packs that would become a serious menace to cattle and calves. I don't think we have any hunts on the scale of, say, the Duke of Beaufort's fields of several hundred, but at Iroquois we hunt three days a week and have an average field size of about 40. As for coyotes, they range somewhat in size but they're bigger than foxes (you can find out much more about them by searching this blog for Gehrt, which will lead you to a post about a leading coyote researcher, and which includes photos). They're also blazingly fast!
I don't know much about hounds , but I assume modern American hounds must be quite different to the various versions of UK ( English ) hounds if coyotes are so fast . The vastly different terrains in the UK and Ireland need very different hounds depending whether it's fox / hare / mink / stag hunting .
There's a few hunts like the Beaufort but the majority have mounted fields of 50 – 100 depending on whether it's midweek or weekend . There are also many foot packs .
I think the strength of hunting over here lies in the support from the hunt country's communities . At the beginning of the season it's not uncommon to have 500 at the opening meet and in England / Ireland , where the Boxing Day / St Stephens Day meet is in large villages or market towns , the attendance is in the thousands . I'm in Scotland where it's a very rural pastime , although the South Scotland hunts have above average levels of support .
There are many sheep farming areas in Scotland , North / West England , Wales and Ireland so fox control is important to farmers and the hunt .
As it happens, most of our pack are English hounds! We have a few crossbred (English-American crosses, including our beloved Paper), but most are English. We've imported quite a few directly from England, mostly from the Cottesmore and North Cotswold, and they and their descendants are plenty fast! They combine strength, speed, and tremendous biddability. Like hunts everywhere, we have to have hounds that suit our country, and these do.
Thanks, Charles! We hope you'll check in often–we never tire of talking hounds! I hunted with the Eryri–terrifically good hunting, but, man, Snowdonia just about killed me! And that was back when I was good and fit–not anything like fit enough for that now!
Come to Scotland and there's a nice combination of hill and grass or just mountain and hill !
We would love to take you up on that some day! Love Scotland.
We love the hound blog, fantastic. From North East And Border hounds, a private pack, Australia.
Hello, Buntings! So glad you like it! If you've got photos of your private pack and your country, we'd love to post them.
Hi, our small private pack is going well, we have accounted for five foxes so far this season, early days, and hunting them on foot, yes, hard on the feet, but our pack consists at present, of some very old hounds and very young ones, so we have gone this way at present to relly get the young ones settled and not too much stress on the oldies, we have a very good terrier man which is great for this type of hunting. Send some photos soon, cheers Ivan and Cheryl Bunting.
Hello again, Buntings! It's fun reading about hunt season in the southern hemisphere while we're on hiatus for summer hound training until the season starts again. We'll be delighted to see your pictures and hear more about your hounds!