My draft was of course edited for style and length,
as is perfectly correct in a magazine. For those who might prefer my
own, um, breezy style, here's the original. Links are to to
Sarah Farnsworth's better-than-reality pictures.
Where can you look around yourself and see carbon fiber bicycles,
tricorne hats, dogs with names like Aphrodite, trotting horses, gilded
swords, thoroughbreds, and huge cameras, all being used at the same
time?
Any Saturday out with a pack of staghounds in France!
Last fall your correspondent had the chance to introduce some American
friends to the chasse à courre - French mounted hunting. Experienced
hunters in the U. S. and in England, they found out that across la
manche it's the same- and different. We were lucky enough to have
magnificent sporting photographer Sarah Farnsworth along, so the
pictures are almost better than real life! A spectacle that has been
refined since medieval times, it's the ancestor of English hunting. And
like all our ancestors, the same, and different.
To start with,
French hunting is done in large forests, which have been carefully
maintained for centuries. The woods are organized- they are cut with
two-horse-wide pathways in a pattern that resembles a pattern of spider
webs. You always know where you are- every intersection has a name, and
in this forest, a signpost telling you which clearing is which way.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h64942c68…
Our meet, at the Croix Bacquet in the forest of Villiers Cotteret, was
with the Villiers Cotteret stag hounds. The red deer, which looks
somewhat like an American elk but slightly smaller is generally
considered the greatest game. But don't say that too loudly around the
followers of the scores of packs that chase the wily roebuck, tough
boar, boar, speedy hare, or clever fox- à chacun son goût.
Just
like a North American day with hounds, people show up in ones and twos
at the designated clearing. The first thing a hunter from the U. S.
notices is that mounted hunters are distinctly a minority, although the
etiquette is that they have the right of way. Although hunting started
as as an aristocratic pastime, these days all sorts of people come out.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6fd655f7…
On foot, in vehicles, on bicycles, it's an occasion for everybody who loves the chase.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h66213a25…
This man on his very well muffled scooter is a regular.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h684f5396…
Like hunters in the states, everyone is smiling. And the first thing
you do when you get there is to shake hands, or share a kiss on the
cheek, with everyone there! The meet-and greet goes on for a while,
snacks come out, and the tufters straggle up. Just a coincidence.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h68e533f1…
The tufters are hounds that went out with their handlers at dawn, looking for signs of big red deer stags.
Patrice, who's providing our livery for the day, always has wonderful
horses. Well turned out, mannerly, and hard as nails. Ex race horses are
a great source for hunter prospects everywhere. And since trotting
tracks are big business there, more than half the horses you'll see in
the woods had a first career pulling a sulky around. It works- as you'll
see, endurance matters more than sprinting.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h60871554…
And here come the hounds! They have their very own minivan-
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6cb2cf4d…
"We want to hunt!"
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h69b965cb…
Out they get, and everyone gathers up for the rapport.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6e996fb7…
The tufters line up, and each one tells the Master what he's found- or
not found- in the solitary misty dawn. It's an example of how French
hunting is more crowd sourced than ours is. Those volunteer tufters who
think they have a good stag try to "sell" what they've found to the
Master, and there's plenty of banter. Eventually he decides where he
will draw, and puts us all in the picture. He also warns us about
possible problems, where things are going on in the forest, and so
forth.
So, to horse/truck/bike/track shoes!
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h62013d0f…
This is where another French difference starts- the music!
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6e1c37ba…
The more experienced hunters and some of the professional staff carry
full sized, valveless French horns wrapped around themselves.
Everything that happens during a hunt has a specific tune to go with it,
and "Let's go" is first. All through the day, you'll hear those horns
telling you what's going on. Remember this is the woods, so unless
you're right there, you can't see the action. And once hounds get
rolling, they are tough to spot by ear as well. The cry echoes back and
fort among the trees, and sometimes it sounds as though you are right in
the middle of the action. You might be, too! But If you know the
tunes, the horns will let you know if they have found, what kind of
stag it is, when it crosses a road or goes along it, goes to water, or
gets away out of the forest.
The move off is part of the
pageantry. The hunt's fanfare- each one has one- is blown, along with
fanfares from packs who have visiting members, personal signature music,
and probably what seems like a brassy version of "Woo Hoo!"!
And
by the way, another difference (and one of my favorites) from
anglophone hunting- NO electronic communication. They'll send you home
if you use a cell telephone to hunt, and I think a radio might get you a
head shaving. If you can't keep up or you get lost, you miss out. Eyes
and ears were good enough for Charlemagne, they are good enough for us.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h61ca201f…
The dress, too, is different from ours. Gold braid, long coats,
and swords add panache and draw the eye in a way our somber livery
doesn't. And that's another part of the hunt as spectacle- each item of
clothing transmits information about who the wearer is in the scheme of
the day.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h69b965cb…
We're off! The huntsman heads for the designated section of forest
and casts his hounds out to search. Drawing for game is the same in
Virginia or the Vendee. But hounds may pursue only a mature stag. So
when hounds speak, all eyes are out to see the game- everyone is looking
along the allees to see it cross.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6c190791…
Even the horses know what's what.
And another difference appears- there's no organized, controlled field
as is typical west of Finisterre. You're on your own here- everyone
goes where he thinks he'll have the best chance to spot the quarry and
hounds. It would make most English and American huntsmen crazy. Thirty
horses, twenty cars, a hundred foot and bicycle people all over the
place. I love it myself, but it will look like seven train wrecks the
first time you see it.
And it works, I think, because of
something all the visitors remark on. Once things start, the hounds
seem to be the full focus of everyone out there. It's a truism that some
people ride to hunt and some hunt to ride, but here the first seem
almost absent. We found that everyone was listening, watching, trying to
figure out what was going on and what might happen next.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h68ba89a1…
And that continued all day. Just as anywhere, people had a snack and a
visit, but their eyes and ears were always cocked to the hounds and the
forest.
Once hounds found, the stag put on his skates and ran.
Like a coyote back home, they have superior speed and strength, intimate
territorial knowledge, and they evade for a living.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6e8fd174…
So there's going to be an hour or two of find him lose him, draw again.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h663a7781…
Sarah will do whatever it takes to get the shot, you can't see it but
she climbed a pretty good little bank to get this one, and took a pretty
good tumble coming down quickly! You don't have to be on a horse to get
hurt doing this.
And here we saw more of that crowdsourcing. The
Master and the Huntsman weren't shy about asking what we'd seen, or
what we hadn't seen. After a while, this whipper-in saw the hunted stag-
lucky us, we were right there- and we were off again!
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h667fb01b…
Injured hounds have priority, just like at home.
Horses were getting tired, and people too. Another French difference-
no alcohol out hunting! I know, it sounds crazy in the land of
champagne- and actually on the border of Champagne itself- but it's
true.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6c10ad91…
The Americans were still in it!
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h66ff1538…
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h60245491…
Cary McWhorter and Crispin Menefee weren't about to go home.
A tai-o, and we were off again! This find-lose-find took much longer on
this day than usual, there was speculation that the stag was a visitor
because he did not seem to run typical routes. We got to see lots of
forest! As you'd expect, to a visitor one wall of oak trees looks much
like another, but our experienced French hosts knew the place
intimately.
And then, away! I must confess that your humble
correspondent made the mistake of taking a chance on where he thought
the stag would go. I have got to quit that thinking stuff, it hurts my
head. I was wrong, and we were thrown well out.
It turns out that
the stag left the forest! They do that now and again, and once they do,
it's tough to catch them up again. Although I've seen this pack do it
they didn't today. Shadows were lengthening, there were only a few
people still up (including the Americans!), so they gave him best.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h609648c8…
I admit that I like this part of the hunting day a lot.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6ee0a054…
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6995d26d…
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h645acdf7…
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6840fdbf…
It's a pleasure to see piled up hounds, tired horses, making sure
everyone is accounted for, and loading that last one who's just too
tired to take another step.
http://www.sarahfarnsworth.co.uk/p831166707/h6ab9bf38…
The universal end of the hunting day.
One of us diaried it- "We saw the hunted stag six times, six hours in
the saddle, 45 Kilometers". By French standards, it wasn't a
particularly big day.
Early on, a large stag ran out of the forest right in front of us. Hounds were not hunting him, but he did not want to wait to see if they were. He was alone, which is odd.
The chase was in wide loops, covering a large area, but did not go far away from where we found. The hounds’ music was clear in the cold air. I think scent was not good, but the hounds worked hard. People were keen to get to the next viewing spot. Well I remember myself like this, "No, boss, he really needs to go out...
Eventually they ran him down.
