December 2002

One of the best  autumn hunt seasons in OVH history has just come to an end.  Early  winter  weather unkindly crushed any fond hopes of an extended season.   For  most of our fixture card, we had great  weather and good footing.  Huntsman Tony had the hounds in beautiful condition and they ran extremely well as a pack.  As mentioned  previously, the OVH received a great boost from the new Jasper lands and we hope to spend more time in that area next  season.

The season ended  with our Closing Hunt Greenbox and party, once again generously hosted by Sue and Jim Davies and past MFH, Bill Irving.  Bill’s son, David supplied live music and combined  with the nicely set up club house made for a   wonderful evening attended by just under 100 members and guests.  This is a big undertaking and a big thanks to Sue, Jim, and Bill.  The Davies have donated some much needed new cutlery to the club. 

One of our perennially popular functions is coming up very soon the  Christmas Party (featuring the children) is on Sunday, December 15th (4:00 o’clock).  Please let Mrs. Claus (a.k.a. Joan Howe) know the names, ages, and interests of any children who will be at the party.  Joan’s phone number is 838-5205; this is a huge undertaking for Joan and time is very short  so please call Joan a.s.a.p. 

 Once Christmas and New Years blow by, which they seem to do with unexpected velocity each year, we enter a fairly busy time of our year outside of active hunting.  So it’s time to think a bit ahead about out biggest functions.  (See upcoming events below).

The most important of these is our Hunt Ball and Silent Auction.  For the former, please get your tables planned this is a great opportunity to entertain your non hunt friends at a high value lots of fun evening.  We have a great deal for juniors once again, please get your tables planned.   The Silent Auction has become a very major fundraiser for the OVH and we will need to feed and nurture it.  Start by getting together items for the auction and contacting Sue Davies, who with the assistance of Janet Strome and Jill Levy will be the core team again this year.  Their job will be much easier if we all do our share so please focus on getting items to Sue a.s.a.p. Items can be dropped off at Sunset Farms where the McMullins’ are once again hosting a sleigh ride  chili party at the farm on Sunday, February 16th (1:00 pm).  We urge you to repeat past performances and contribute some high quality items for the auction to give this important function a boost.

I want to thank Don Reasin for his yeoman duties in assisting Nadine at the bar.  Don is taking a sabbatical from these duties and thanks to Don on behalf of President Nadine. 

We’re grateful to Clan Coghill once again for offering to do the Robbie Burns night  Burns Day falls on a Saturday this year so mark January 25th in your calendar.

Some added notes:

> Kevin Loiselle  (one of the Horse People clan) deservedly won the “best stunt” award not necessarily something you want to put on your riding CV Kevin  for one of his many hunt field tricks.

> Thanks to Michael Deverell for commandeering his Uncle Stuart Hammonds honey wagon to help in our downstream bioprocessed horse feed residue redistribution program (i.e. manure spreading)

> A major Thank You to the behind the scenes people who made all those wonderful Wednesdays and Saturdays such great hunting  the “dragsters” Chief Betty Sulpher, Avis Partridge,  Randy McDonald, Bob Sulpher, Peter Leach   for the hundreds of miles you collectively walked, crawled, stumbled and limped on our behalf; and to the Whips   Jill Bryant, Sue Hobin, Hilary Popiel, David on horse (Mattison), David in truck (Rees Potter), Gillian Kinson, Janine Melbourne; Thank you all for a very professional performance.

Upcoming Dates

Tortiere and Children’s Christmas Party, Sunday, December 15th 4:00 pm       Robbie Burns, Saturday, January 25, 2003 at 7:00 pm

Annual General Meeting, February 2, 2003 at 2:00 pm

Sunset Farm Chili Duel and Sleigh Ride, February 16, 2003 at 1:00 pm

Hunt Ball and Silent Auction, Saturday, February 22, 2003

May you all have a very Happy Holiday Season,

Until next time

Ted Thomas, MFH

Huntsman’s Corner

I would  just like to start by thanking the Whips and Draglayers for doing an

excellent job, Thank You.  It was a very good fall season, shame we had to finish early as the hound’s are doing really well, there voice stamina and most

of all they trust each other and run up as a pack.  They are now second to none. 

I think you all agree that they are a lot different than four years ago. 

 

What I have tried to do is breed a young, fit and hard running pack that we can all

be proud of, over the last few year’s I have been increasing females and not keeping so many of the boy’s.   I have been hunting a mainly bitch pack, which

is what I alway’s wanted but it takes time.

 

We have some outstanding girls who are all by Britain that I brought from England, Bracelet ‘99, Bramble ‘00, Bridal ‘00, Brilliant ‘00, Brier ‘00 and Brazen’00, the last five were out of Fortune ‘98 who is from theTNYH.  Bracelet was a present from TNYH because they used Britain.  Biro is very good, just has to be first on the front, but sometime’s I wish she just had 3 leg’s (no not really).  All these girl’s I have spoken of are future brood bitch’s, Biro is by Cotswold Bisley.  I have 4 very good stud dog’s in kennel’s, Dalesman ‘95, Maverick ‘98, Sander ‘97 and Billyo ‘99 all of these hound’s are very good at there work. 

It’s nice now to have some different lines in the kennels which makes continuity a lot easier.  There are other hound’s I could talk about and are equally as good but I don’t want to go on to much, these hounds I have spoken of are not favourite’s as I don’t have any, they are all equal to me.  The hound’s I have talked about are breeding stock for the future of OVH Pack.

Until next time have a great Christmas and New Year.

Your Huntsman