Hi, my name is Clara. This is about my first mounted fox hunt. I was in the third flight, riding my leased horse named Moon with Mary Lee McDavid and Masters Joe and Brenda. We stayed with the first and second flight for a little while and then we went off in another direction. After a while we came across a cornfield where the hounds were hunting, and Mary Lee said we needed to be very quiet to maybe see a fox come through the woods. So we went down a little path and stayed quiet. Then we told Master Brenda and Angelika that we were going to explore more of the woods Master Brenda found. We went into the woods, came to a little creek and we walked along it until we found a place where we could cross it. When we were going into it, I almost fell off of Moon, but I held on tight. Going up out of the creek was much easier.

Then we came out of the woods until we met Angelika and Brenda up on a little road. We saw Whipper’s In, Jacob Arbaugh next to a cow field. We went into the field, while Jake said he would go up the road. So he cantered up the road. When we were in the cow field, the cows trotted up to us, and Joe used his whip to scare them off. He kept doing that until we got past them into the next field, which was full of holes. Moon tripped a bit, but we got past it to the next gate. Then we got out of the cow field and saw a lost hound named Potomac. He followed us for a bit, and then we found first flight and Huntsman Julie Bullock, and followed them for the rest of the hunt.

We went along the cornfield and waiting while the hounds sniffed around in the corn. Then we heard something! The next thing we knew, something gray jumped out of the corn, and right back into it. Mary Lee and I said “What was that?” Joe said “It was a deer.” We left the cornfield, trotted into the woods, and came across another creek. I didn’t want to go in, but Mary Lee encouraged me to. We went through the water, it was steep, and I felt like I was going to fall into the water. Then Moon went into the deep part, and I steered her away, but my boots and pants got a little wet. We made it out though, and Moon took good care of me.

We came back out of the woods, to another cornfield. First and second flight and Julie started cantering. I said I wanted to canter too! We started cantering. While I was cantering, a hound jumped out of the corn, and spooked Moon. She jumped sideways, and did a little dance, because she wanted to buck. After we caught up to the other flights, the hound truck came up to us on the road. Julie had decided to finish the hunt. Julie and our Kennelman, VJ Thomas, helped get the hounds into the truck.

Then we walked and trotted up the road, back to the trailers. It was such an amazing experience and Moon was such a good girl. She took good care of me. I can’t wait to come out again!

— Clara Johnson, age 10, Daughter of Alan and Whipper-In Lindsey Johnson