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Take a moment to become familiar with the true stars of our Hunt, the Hounds! Since 1969, RMH had been one of two Hunts in America that exclusively hunted English foxhounds. Although for many years they served our English huntsmen well, they were not well suited for our country, being less humid and less open than their breeding had prepared them. In 1999, our masters made a decision to introduce Crossbred hounds to our pack.
This began in earnest with the arrival of our new Huntsman, David Raley in 1999. Today our pack is predominately Crossbreed and American hounds with only a few English hounds. One particular type of American hound, the Penn Marydel is a favorite of David’s. With David’s training, our hounds are showing us some of the best sport in years.
Our Huntsman, David Raley at opening meet.Upon his rival David's first priority was to get a "steady" pack of hounds. Also called "honest," this refers to their ability to only hunt fox and not chase deer. Once they start, it is very hard to break a hound from running deer. Thus several of our hounds ended up being given to our fellow deer hunters. It made for some pretty slow hunts during Cubbing season, but as our recent success has shown, it has paid off.
The hounds are trained to only chase fox. Deer scent is strong and it takes a lot
of work to teach the hounds to not chase deer. Riders in the field can usually tell
whether we are chasing fox or deer. Deer tend to run straight and fast leading the field
on a wild and long gallop. The whips are usually able to pull the hounds off the deer
scent before they get to far away. A fox on the other hand, runs in circles and tends to
crisscross and backtrack across it's scent. It knows it's territory well and eventfully
out smarts the hounds and runs into it's den. But not before giving the field a wonderful
ride... galloping, jumping, reverse fields and "checking" to hear the
"cry"(bark) of the hounds.
Meet the 2008 Hunt Staff / Whipper-Ins
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