Here's the article Kathe was whinning about. If you get into fox hunting, this article is interesting and positive for the sport. Even if your a non hunter, I believe it is fairly balanced.
THREE FORKS - A convoy of horse trailers and pickup trucks rolled into the Three Forks Rodeo Grounds during a relentless April downpour.
From Nevada, California, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho, the big rigs arrived, finally reaching their weekend destination in this rural Montana town.
The facility, which usually hosts cowboy events and stables rodeo horses during the summer months, had become a veritable mud wallow in the spring deluge.
Despite the nasty weather, the travelers stepped out of the trucks in good humor, dressed in rubber boots and coveralls, and went immediately to work unloading their haul of elegant foxhunting horses and tending their pack of tri-colored hounds.
Neither the horses nor their people seemed ruffled by the wet or the ankle-deep mud, and when asked if the next day's scheduled hunt would be canceled, the hearty horsemen smiled widely.
From one of the stock trailers, hounds bayed with excitement.
“Cancel a hunt?,” said Lynn Lloyd, master of the Three Forks hunt and the legendary owner of Red Rock Hounds in Nevada.
“Of course the hunt will go on,” she said cheerfully. “Rain, sleet, wind, snow, mud - we're like the mailman, we ride through it all.”
A day later, when Lloyd saddled up for the first ride of the three-day hunt, 55 riders joined her, eager to gallop cross-country on the heels of 73 American foxhounds in search of not fox, but coyote. By mid-weekend, the field would grow by another 10 stalwart riders.
“I wouldn't miss it for the world,” said Wyoming horse trainer Marcy Mongon. “This kind of riding just gets in your blood. It is such an adrenaline rush.”
As they climbed aboard their English saddles and eyed the varied hunt terrain of endless grassfields, coulees and hills, the riders sipped port wine, partaking in a tradition called the “stirrup cup” and toasted one another from horseback.
It would be, as usual, a long day in the saddle - some four to six hours moving at a 30-mph clip when the pack scented its quarry and set out in dead-run pursuit.
The gathering's sociable mood turned tense when the hounds sprung free of their kennel in a giant rowdy wave, barking and yipping.
Amidst the canine whirlwind, some horses began jiggling and pawing the ground - a few started bucking.
With a quick toot on her brass horn, the hounds swarmed around Lloyd and her horse, and waited obediently for the signal to hunt.
Lloyd officially welcomed the riders, and before setting out, shouted one final reminder:
“Just follow the hounds. It's every man and woman for themselves.”
Montana's first and only Old World-style hunt came to Three Forks in 2002.
It all began when two of Lloyd's friends, Pete and Cindy Lazetich, became part-owners of the historic Sacajawea Hotel in the heart of Three Forks, and invited Lloyd to scope out the territory and bring her Nevada-based sport north.
Knowing her club members love to travel, and with Montana's spectacular open spaces all around them, the Lazetiches' notion wasn't far-fetched.
The idea got legs when the nearby Green and Scoffield ranches offered their properties as a “fixture” - or hunt site - to run the hounds. Twenty-five riders attended the inaugural hunt four years ago, and word quickly spread about the unusual Western event's stunning vistas and Montana's famed hospitality.
When word spread that Montana Horses, a horse-leasing outfit in Three Forks, would provide horses to rent, the hunt took off. The unique opportunity allowed people from all over the world to board an airplane, arrive horseless, and join the three-day hunt.
“That kind of thing is unheard of, and it makes all of this possible,” Lloyd said. “Nowhere else can you fly in and rent a hunting horse.
“This is probably the first ‘destination' hunt anywhere. I don't think it's ever been done before.”
Ken Slyziuk, a foxhunter from Denver, waits while his rented horse is readied for saddle.
With a historic hotel eager to accommodate the horsemen, a vast hunt site of 10,000 acres, and local horses able to endure the hard and fast chase, the event has become an annual tradition on the second weekend in April.
This year, the hunt had its largest field - some 65 riders, including six from England, one from Brazil and 30 on rented steeds.
The “fly-ins” came from places like Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, where most of them are members of foxhunting clubs and hunt three days a week - or more - from October through March.
Riders who came without their English tack used Western saddles provided by Montana Horses.
Such a diversion from the tradition-steeped sport would not normally be allowed in a foxhunt, but given the alternative of not participating, Lloyd allowed the Western gear.
However, hunt decorum was followed in all other ways.
Riders wore close-fitting breeches, tall black boots, waistcoats, white shirts and ties, tapered dark wool jackets and black helmets.
Leaders of the hunt wore red-colored jackets, which are typically worn by the huntsman, field master, houndsman, and the whipper-ins - riders who carry long whips and patrol the leading flanks of the hounds to keep them from hazards, such as farms or car traffic.
“At first, I was pretty against wearing all of this stuff to tell you the truth,” said film producer Jerry Dugan, 39, who makes snowboarding movies and took up foxhunting four years ago. “But as you get into it, you realize all the tradition - including the clothes - comes from practicality.”
According to the Three Forks hunters, everything involved with the sport has a purpose.
The tall boots protect riders' legs as they crash through forests and brush, the close-fitting pants prevent chafing, the wool jackets provide warmth without bulk, the long wide ‘stock' tie every rider wears can serve as an emergency bandage, and the flat, hornless English saddles - a bit stouter than racing saddles - are lightweight and allow riders to get forward and up off their horse's back so it can move more freely and go longer distances without tiring over uneven footing.
Follow the hounds pell-mell across rough ground in unpredictable weather, and there's no need to explain why every rider, in keeping with foxhunters of long ago, strap a small flask of whiskey or schnapps to the saddle.
“When you have a chance to be part of something so steeped in tradition, something that goes back hundreds of years, that's pretty special,” Dugan said, “not to mention, the horses are so cool and it's really fun to go fast.
“My snowboarding friends look at me funny and say, ‘You dress up in what? You foxhunt?' I say, ‘Dude - it's like extreme sports on a horse.' ”
Lynn Lloyd, master of the Three Forks hunt, calls the hounds around her to begin the hunt. “She's so thoughtful to the hounds, she has a tremendous relationship with them,” says one rider.
Unlike the hunts of Europe and in the famed hunt country of Virginia and Maryland, the Three Forks hunt has no jumps, and the quarry is coyote.
“We do this for the chase,” Lloyd said. “Killing is not our intent, but it does happen.
“Nine times out of 10, the coyote wins, and if the hounds do catch one, it's usually because it's old or stupid.”
On the hunt's opening day this year, the hounds cornered and killed a coyote after a long chase. It was the first and only kill in the hunt's four-year history.
Riders who stayed with the wild chase, over unforgiving ground, up and down steep and rocky hillsides, through narrow stream bottoms and draws, were surprised by the outcome and stunned by the coyote's swift end.
“I couldn't look,” said Jennifer Tiscornia, a rider from California. “But it was over in seconds.”
A coyote killing is so rare, even the most seasoned and lifelong hunters at the scene participated in the foxhunting tradition of “blooding,” a practice by which hunters mark their cheek with the blood of their first fox kill - in this case, their first coyote kill.
“It's really an uncommon thing to get a coyote,” said Kevin Snow, who hunts in California. “They give a great chase, and usually the only time you see them is when they are miles away, barely a speck on the horizon watching the hounds after them.
“Sometimes they will stop and have a look to see if you are following, almost as if they can't believe their own eyes - that they are being chased.”
For certain, the hunt is not for the faint-hearted.
“When Lynn said every man and woman for herself, she meant it,” said Nicki Arcangeli, a Three Forks rider and resident who helps organize the event. “If someone falls or gets bucked off, she doesn't stop - her responsibility is the hounds. The field doesn't stop either.
“Someone in the field might stop to help a person - eventually - but it's understood that the hunt will go with or without you.”
“Everything you learned about riding? When the hunt is on, everything you learned goes out the window,” said Nikki Reed, a rider from Illinois. “It's survival riding.”
Aside from some bruises received in a few falls, there were no major injuries incurred during the 2006 hunt.
Two years ago, however, the stars were particularly ill-aligned for riders, Lloyd said. That year, a rugby player from Australia fell off and got a concussion, another rider's horse stumbled galloping downhill and the rider's knee was smashed in the fall, and another rider broke an ankle in a similar fall, but climbed back aboard and finished the hunt.
“Thankfully, all the horses were unharmed,” Lloyd said. “We move fast and hard, but we don't have too many problems.”
Keeping up with Lloyd is always the goal for the serious hunters, but as with most hunts, those whose skill level - or courage - wasn't in the same league quickly formed their own hunting party and followed at a slower pace.
Some riders chose to “hilltop” - to find higher elevation to watch the hunt from the fringes.
No matter where they ended up, no one lost face or was disappointed. Everyone was thrilled to be part of the hunt, to be among kindred spirits and Lloyd's charismatic orbit.
Part of the tradition is the “hunt breakfast” - a communal feast that is usually held late in the day, after the hounds and horses have been put to bed.
It's a time to swap stories, tell jokes, share riding tips and rehash the day's chase.
Richard Harding, left, helps Dan Tanner remove his boots on the porch of the historic Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks after a day of foxhunting. The two traveled from Dorset, England for the hunt.
“Foxhunters are really a nice group of people who make everyone feel welcome, even if you have never met most of them before,” said Dale Hoeffliger, a rider from California. “It's not a competitive sport - and when you risk your life with a group of people, you tend to like them a lot.
“And Lynn makes everyone feel included.”
On a Lloyd hunt, no one rides away feeling cheated, said Harry Rijke, master of the Waldingfield Beagles in Virginia, a tradition-rich pack that began in 1885.
“She provides first-class sport,” said the 72-year-old veteran rider. “She's very impressive.”
Hunting with Lloyd and her hounds is hunting with a legend, said Dan Tanner, a master of foxhounds from Dorset, England.
“I've been well aware of her for some time, and to know she was leading this hunt made it easy to decide to come across the ocean and follow her,” Tanner said. “She's so good. She's so thoughtful to the hounds, she has a tremendous relationship with them. That is obvious.
“She's terrific, and to ride Montana's unbelievable country is a treat.”
The combined acreage of the Scoffield and Green family ranches is well over 10,000 acres, providing a fixture unfathomable to East Coast and European riders.
“A good day in Virginia foxhunting is when the hounds pick up a fox scent for a three- to five-mile run, and here it's like 20 to 30 miles,” Rijke said. “It's a hard ride. In the East and in England, people complain about the encroachment of subdivisions, complain there isn't enough hunt country.
“But you could make a point here that the country is too big.”
“This is very, very big country,” chimed in Nick Wykes, a rider from North Yorkshire, England. “The runs are fantastic. People back home wouldn't believe it.”
