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.
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.
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