MAKING FAST FRIENDS… HOW FOX HUNTING MADE EVERYTHING BETTER

MAKING FAST FRIENDS… HOW FOX HUNTING MADE EVERYTHING BETTER

 

Bailey and I  LOVE hunting!(Thank you Daniela Anderson for catching this great shot!)

            About 2 years ago I got involved in an amazing research study which literally fell into my lap and led me to my love of Fox Hunting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been enamored with this sport since I was very tiny, though I didn’t realize that it was still practiced nor did I know that people in the US did it! My PhD work was on a tick-borne disease of dogs and was molecular and clinically oriented. When Matt and I went to Maryland for our postdoc’s I hoped to pick up some more solid molecular biology work in my post-doc which I was able to do in the lab I chose. I had no idea how much I would miss the animal work until this project landed in my lap. A local veterinarian who is a Master of Fox Hounds for the Howard County Iron Bridge Fox Hounds found out my specialty was tick-borne pathogens and told me his kennel had a lot of infections with the tick-borne bacteria, Anaplasma phagocytophilum. I was invited to the kennel to take a look at their hounds and help with some reproductive issues they were having. Through this endeavor I got so much more than I ever could have hoped. One I got to take home Miss Marble who has settled nicely into her role as an Ex-hunter and current Couch Queen. 

Marble the hunting hound. You can tell she's getting ready to go hunting from the helmet and the hunt whip .

Marble the happy couch potato. Don't EVER let anyone tell you that hounds are hard to housebreak. Give them a couch and they're house broken for life!

Second, I got to know a great houndsman, Dave Pickett, and he suggested I try “hunter paces” which are kind of like timed trail rides with jumps, or if you’re chicken like me you can do it all on the flat (no jumping). I also chose this way because Matt was just learning to ride and I was pretty sure I wanted to keep him in one piece still. So after doing a season of Hunter Pace which Matt thoroughly enjoyed (YEA!!!!) we found a hunt club that was doing free cubbing. 

 

Weeeeee!!!! And that look of panic on Matt's face is how he expresses joy... trust me that's as good as it's going to get unless there's tickling involved. (Another great one by Daniela! Some of the only photos I have of me riding are from her!)

Cubbing is like pre-season fox hunting, and when I say fox hunting what I mean is Fox chasing because that is what you do in the states. We chase, not hunt because the thrill is in the chase and fox are not enough of a nuisance in the US that we have to cull them. Cubbing is when you start taking the new hounds out and the new horses and everyone starts to get fit and ready for the hunt season. You wear different clothes (tweed!! Oh how I love tweed!) and it's lower key so that you can ease into the season. This usually occurs as early as mid-September but really takes off in October and was an amazing opportunity for us, we’d get to dip our toes into the waters of hunting with a bunch of new people and under the watchful eye of people who had been doing this for a while to ensure we were safe. After the first weekend we were hooked and so were our horses! 

 

Bailey and I cubbing. I'm wearing a Tweed jacket rather than the more formal black jacket that we wear during the actual hunting season.

Izzy dreaded the ride over to the fixture (location of the hunt) but once there she was like a new horse! Until Matt and I found the Goshen hounds we never felt like Maryland was much of a fit for us. They all made it so much better! Everyone was kind, helpful, and very friendly; even friendlier when I came with certain not-baked goods, aka the bourbon balls. 

 

Me hunting (Thank you to Hannah Pryor for catching this one with my camera!)

Matt and myself in 3rd field. See the young lady on the pony? We have riders as young as 7 hunting with us. It's a great sport for the family! (And this one too!Thanks Hannah!)

Most of the field wear black coats, but if you have done enough service for the club and gone above and beyond you get awarded your colors. This gives you the right to wear the red coat, and the hunt's colors on your lapels. This is how it was done with Goshen, not how it is done in Ireland.

So what does this have to do with Ireland? That’s what this blog is about, right?!?! 

Well, fox hunters are a very nice bunch, so when I found out I was moving to Ireland I posted up on a Fox hunters page on Facebook that we’re moving to Ireland and can anyone recommend a hunt in the Cork area. After a number of kind replies I found that South Union was closest to where we would be living and working and “friended” a couple of the members.  Within a month of us moving here I saw one of the members was “hound walking” in the evening and asked if I could join them. After getting an affirmative from the huntsman Matt and I began a number of Thursday evening walks with 4-7 other members and 20-40 hounds! What fun! 

Hound walking! Happy tails and happy faces!

Next thing I know we get invited to a hound show and then another, and next thing we know I feel right at home. 

Now, we haven’t been brave enough to hunt on horseback with these guys, but we do something called foot following. There are two types of foot followers. Some actually chase the horses and hounds on foot for the whole 3-4 hours+ that the hunt is out. We’re not fit enough for this so we drive around the roads and stick to the hills to get good viewings of the hounds working and the field going by. We still walk around a bit, we just let the car cover the greatest distances. Back in Maryland I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful tour guide for this sort of Hunting. Master Tom Pardoe who hunted with the Goshen hounds for many seasons would load us all up in his Suburban and keep in contact with the hunters via cell phone so we would always be one step ahead of the field. I got so much out of these excursions! He would teach me some of the intricacies of hunting while we traveled here and there across field and farrow. There were a few times I was worried the Suburban might get stuck or buck me out the back window,  but Tom always came home with the same number of passengers that he left with. 

 

Tom sharing a nip with another hill-toper

With this particular hunt if you fell off your horse during the hunt you owed the club a bottle of liquor which due to the nature of the sport meant we always had a very wells stocked bar. None the less, I was NOT going to owe the club a bottle for falling out of Tom’s Suburban! I was going to EARN my owed bottle the old fashion way, and I did… twice. My poor boy Bailey looked panicked and puzzled after each time I plopped off him. Both were pilot error, although one was husband error. Matt, dear man, got stuck on a branch and when he released it the branch swept me clean off my horse! It happens, I laughed. During this time I picked up a hobby that I’d set aside for a number of years, photography.  I’ve always loved photography and this gave me the best opportunity to work on my skills. So I began taking pictures of the hunts for myself and for friends I’d made in the hunt.  This has continued over in Ireland. It works out very well because people tag each other in the photos and it gives me a nice way to start learning names of people because that is one thing I have a really hard time with. I will recognize a face but names often allude me. This trend has continued at South Union. I am now reasonably good with names and have had a great time taking pictures. It has been so good that I’ll be going to another hunt this season to snap pictures for them as well. One can never have too many contacts and friends in a new country! 

Below are 3 of my favorite pictures from Goshen

And now a few from South Union over here in Ireland

One of my favorite things about hunting is the that the diversity of people who hunt is fantastic! In both hunts we had all range of people who enjoy the sport. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, public workers, farmers, kids, teens, all manner of ages, shapes, sizes, and colors of people and horses come out to hunt. All are equal in the field if you can ride, keep up with the hunt, and if you don’t interfere with the hounds when they’re doing their job.

In addition to hunting on foot, Matt and I chose to puppy walk this year. This means we welcomed 2 young fox hounds into our home and raised them as we would our own. When we (and when I say we I obviously mean me, no way would Matt go into something like this willingly, but it was close to my birthday so I played that card and got my way) were at a hound show I asked one of the Limerick hunters how you get to raise puppies and he directed me back to John our fantastic huntsman at South Union. This is where I made my first best friend, haha! After saying I wanted to walk a puppy, he told me they're much better in pairs. When I agreed to take two he jokingly said I was his new best friend, haha! So perhaps the quickest way to make friends is to get a couple puppies from your local club... This also means one month into living here we got TWO 10 week old puppies! Matt was delighted! And if you buy that I got a great deal on a bridge in San Francisco for you! I tried not to spoil them too much, but they often spent mornings and evenings in the kitchen with us sitting on the couch. A bit of a posh lifestyle for a future hunting hound but they really do give the best snuggles, so long as they're not sopping wet or covered in mud as puppies are apt to do.

Until LapDance could get on the couch herself, her brother made a nice soft seat

Yea! Big puppy!!!

 

Big baby LapDance

 Both grew large and round before they went back to the kennel. I’m pretty sure I was bound and determined to grow myself a pony, but before I could fulfill that desire it was time for them to start learning what they were bred to do. Back to the kennels with them, but I still get to see them whenever I want and get to watch them grow into full-fledged hunting hounds!

So the moral of this story is if you're going to move to a new country, find something you love and find others who love doing it too. That common link will make you feel more at home than anything you can bring with you. I love our adopted country, and all the wonderful people who have helped make it feel like a home.  The second moral of the story is although horse people tend to have a reputation for being bat shit crazy, fox hunters are the best kind of crazy you can get so toss your lot in with them when you can!

Skipping ahead... I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS…FIRST TRIP BACK TO THE USA

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS…FIRST TRIP BACK TO THE USA

            Matt and I decided to go back to the US for Christmas this year because for us Christmas is the one time of year where we have to see family and friends and it has been tradition to see both our families over this time. We had a bit of a mess before we left dropping the puppies off to be minded while we were out of the country. Lester decided to christen our most recent car (umm, yeah, been here 6 months and we've owned 4 different cars) with 4 vomits and a poo. This is not the first time I've had to stick my head out the window with him in the car. As much as I love that little guy, car trips are not for him. He gets upset, then things start falling out both ends and then we're all miserable. If he weren't so cute it would have never worked.

 

That's Lester trying to escape before we even got going. LapDance was much more stoic about the whole thing.

He REALLY wanted out.

SERIOUSLY! Let me out!!!!!

The trip over took us from Cork to Manchester England (need more than 1 hour between flights if you don’t want to feel like a chicken with its head cut off), to Chicago where we had a 6 hour layover and then finally to St. Louis where my mom met us at the airport. From the time we left the house in Ireland and the time we landed in St. Louis, it had been 20 very long hours. We had packed carry-on bags with all of our stuff and then 2 full sized suitcases full of presents and candy for friends and family.  One thing we’ve learned is shipping stuff to and from the US and Ireland is EXPENSIVE so we’ll be bringing all gifts with us whenever we come visit.

Immediately I was struck by how different it is in the US. After 6 months, Ireland really has begun to feel like home, in fact it felt like home within a month of living there, but it was not HOME. For me that will always be Missouri, and more specifically with my Mom in St. Louis or Curtis and Sarah’s farm in Columbia.

Curtis and Sarah's house in CoMo. My Noah's Ark of fun when we visit!

Gorgeous sunset along I-70 near Sedalia.

 For Matt it is probably Sedalia and Columbia. While in Ireland I constantly find myself comparing everything to the US and now that I’m here I do the same for Ireland. There are some massive differences between the two places, but for me neither one is “better” than the other because each have things than make them “better” in one category than other. Many of the things I have always disliked about Missouri, I find to not be in Ireland, and the things that I dislike in Ireland are not in Missouri, so it’s actually very nice to be able to spend time in both places. I miss rifle hunting and target shooting in Ireland, but I miss fox hunting in Missouri. Yes, we have a club here in MO, but there is 1 in the whole state so it isn’t as accessible as it is in Ireland (or Maryland for that matter). I miss the wide roads of the USA, but I also miss the landscape and constant feeling of being on Toad’s wild ride when we drive in Ireland. I miss the familiarity and cosmopolitan feel of St. Louis, but I miss the community and close ties of everyone in Ireland. Of course I miss family and friends from the US most of all, but luckily they can come to Ireland as well so, they're not strictly a USA only group. As I said before, I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to spend time in both places. The ideal situation I think would be if I could spend 6 moths in each place, but don’t see that happening any time in the future, maybe if we ever win the lottery… guess I better start buying tickets, huh?

So what were the must do things while we were in the US? See family (my mom, some cousins, & Matt’s family & the horses) and friends (Curtis & Sarah, Lydia & Pat, Ginger &  Kyle, Maggie & Dan, Tiffany & Elfin, and the Dryers of course!), mail everyone’s Christmas gifts,  go to Lion’s Choice for a roast beef sandwich and an orange freeze, eat as much Mexican food as I can, go to Panara Bread at least once, go shopping at a Mall and an Outlet Mall, visit a boot shop/farm store, go to Soulard Spice Shop to refill the necessities, milk a goat, collect some eggs, visit Target, and drive across the state 2-3 times to fulfill all these requirements. 
 

Tortillas and salsa!!! It was so good!!!!

Taco & Chile Rellanos!

Tamales & an enchaladas and Mexican rice, oh my!

And a trip would not be complete without a stop to Chipotle for a burrito bowl

The original idea was to leisurely drive from St. Louis to Sedalia, then back through Columbia on the way back to St. Louis and fly home. That is WAY to tame for us, and the planning Gods who in fact hate me. Instead the trip went like this, Day1-4 St. Louis, Day 4-6 Sedalia, Day 6-7 back in St. Louis, day 8-9 Columbia, Day 10 Kansas City and St. Louis, Day 11- back to Ireland. That means instead of driving 333 miles, we drove 831. To put this into perspective, Ireland is 170 miles wide at its widest point and 301 miles long from its longest points. So I pretty much so could have driven all the way up and down Ireland twice and still had enough mileage left to drive across it another 1.5 times in the 11 days we were in the States!

Ireland overlayed on a US map. It is nearly the same size and Indiana. Missouri is the state with Jefferson city and for some reason they stuck Topeka on there too. Ignore that, it's in Kansas, no Missouri.

I came with a list of things we needed to get while over here because some of the silliest things are the most expensive over in Ireland. Sheets. Plain old cotton sheets are REDICULOUSLY expensive in Ireland! Most of the sheets are 125 thread count and they don’t come in sets like they do in the US. So for me to get a flat sheet, fitted sheet, and 2 pillowcases in 250 thread count it tends to cost ~$103. Walmart was having a special on 600 thread count sheets, $25 for a set in Queen size (that’s King size in Ireland). I know 600 thread count is a bit over kill, and would have preferred 300, but who was I to argue with $25?! SOLD! That means I now have 4 sets of sheets for the price of one set in Ireland!  What else can’t I get over there… tart cherries and butterscotch chips. I need the cherries for cherry pie and the butterscotch chips for Oatmeal scotchie cookies. So 3 cans of cherries and 10 bags of chips later (plus 3 bags of Ande’s mint chocolate chips) I’m ready to leave the grocery store. 
Hmmm, what else on the list?? Random things like solid deodorant. Not something they carry in Ireland, you get spray or liquid roll on, that’s all I've found! Contact solution. I am allergic to a number of contact solutions so rather than feel like I’m bathing my eyes in acid I’d rather just stick with the kind I know doesn’t make me look like a pot head. For one bottle of this brand in Ireland it is $24. For 2 of those bottles in the US it’s $15. So as you can see, some things you can get in Ireland but they’re more expensive, others you can’t get at all. Spices from Soulard Spice shop definitely fall into the latter category. I highly recommend the Applewood smoke spice, Soulard Grill, Beef rub, Taco seasoning, Burgandy pepper, and their Hickory Salt to name just a few. Why do I need these things so badly??? Because they don’t have good smoky barbecue sauce in Ireland and as a Midwestern-American I NEED barbecue sauce! So far I’ve made nearly 5 gallons of the stuff and have used more than half of that to feed friends and co-workers. 
 

Soulard Spice Market! My mecca!!! This place has every spice you'd ever need, and the ladies are so helpful! If you are in St.Louis or live there, GO HERE! If you don't live near St.Louis, they ship! Look them up, download the "menu" and order some soulard grill and a few other lovely things!

This is just one case, they have 5 of these FULL of spices along with the racks along the walls. God help me I spend so much here, but if the spices were more available  in Ireland, I'd not spend as much!

 Now, that is not to say I don’t have things from Ireland I’m having trouble living without. Barry’s tea? Yep, I packed my own tea to visit here. There is not much I love more than a nice tea in the morning and afternoon.  Especially since it is SOOO much colder here in Missouri than it is in Ireland (think -11°C or less Irish friends!), so some nice hot tea after playing with the horses is a definite requirement!

Oh hello snow! Nice of you to show up just as we're leaving!

I was consistently struck with the enormity of everything in the US and how inexpensive things are over here compared to there. Six months in Ireland and I forgot that some of the towns we visit could fit in the Super Walmart down the road from my mom’s house. Yes, the WHOLE town could fit within the SuperWalmart. We currently live outside of Cork which has a population of 150, 000 people in the city and 330, 000 if you include all the outlying/suburb areas. St. Louis and its surrounding counties has a population of 2.9 million people, and it isn’t even close to the second largest city in our country!  Many of the Irish think we are nuts that we’ll drive up to Dublin for the day. It’s a 2.5 hour drive, which can be long and tedious, but most of it is on highway (motorway) and it is a very easy drive, so no big deal, but that is 5 hours of total driving in one day. One day we drove 6 hours to see friends and family. A 2 hour drive from Columbia, MO to Kansas City, and then a 4 hour drive from Kansas City to St. Louis because our plane was leaving the next day. When the option is to drive 6 hours in one day and see family or not see family for a year, you drive the 6 hours, especially if there are cute nephews involved that won’t be toddlers forever.

The McClure family with 2 toddlers that won't be that size forever!

In Ireland you can’t drive more than 20 km without driving through a town unless you’re on the motorway. In Missouri, there are large stretches of land for farming and there will not be a town for miles and miles. Hundreds of acres of farm land stretch out before you. Many of these used to hold corn or soybeans so they are tilled up and brown or only have stubble left in the field. The landscape is very brown with blue or grey skies. Ireland is green year-round; the skies may be grey more of the time, but the ground remains a beautiful green color. This surprised me greatly because I’ve never been to a place where there is green grass year-round. Last year Ireland was a bit browner out there, but that was from mud, not dead/dried grass and plants like it is in Missouri. 
 

Pictures taken along highway 70 on our way to Kansas City. This is pretty typical, it's brown and grey

Large, wide highways with outer roads and tons of space!

More of the brown and grey, but this time with cows in the picture too.

Heading into KC from Columbia. You can see the city buildings in the background!

This is probably why spring is such a big deal in Missouri. The whole landscape transforms from brown and barren to lush and green with big broad leaves on the trees and bright green grasses or crops on the ground…So long as there isn’t a drought. This summer we experienced a drought in Ireland. It went 16 whole days without rain! 16 days without rain in Missouri is normal and a blessing, but it also regularly gets into the upper 90’s (degrees Fahrenheit) and even hundreds during the summer. Ireland had a hot summer and temperatures topped out at 91°F which was very hard for them because they don’t have air conditioning and they are not used to the heat. I was thrilled because it was the closest to tropical island living I think I’ll ever get! Our co-workers kept telling us that it isn’t normally like this and to just wait, it gets worse; rain, cold, yucky weather. They were partially right. Yes, the weather got colder there, but not as cold as at home. Yes, there was rain and frost, but there wasn’t ice and a foot of snow, so I’d say Irish winters are not that bad. 

The US is a much more convenient place to live. You can get everything at so many stores (Target, Walmart, Sams Club, Costco) and if you can’t find it there you can get it on Amazon and for $70/year you get free shipping from Amazon prime. Not the case in Ireland. There isn’t the same amount of selection of items, there are not as many ethnic groups in Ireland so you don’t get the variety of foods or spices in normal grocery stores. Pretty much so in the US if you can describe something you can find it somewhere and it will probably be pretty cheap depending on the size of it. In Ireland you don’t get as much variety, and if you find it on Amazon.co.uk you have to pay an arm and a leg just to get it shipped to you. Well, that is unless you use something called Parcel Motel where you can also be an Amazon prime member, have your item shipped to Northern Ireland and then they drive it down to the republic and put it in a little locker for €3ish per item. So what the Irish lack in convenience they tend to make up in craftiness. 
 

One of the hardest parts about going back to Ireland, saying bye to my mom at the airport! But she'll be coming to visit sometime this summer, so it's only bye for now!

Eleven days and 2 suitcases definitely weren’t enough (yeah, ended up with 2 carry ons, 2 large suitcases, and 2 giant duffel bags from Bass Pro), but it was great to see everyone and spend some time.  I did some major shopping to fill my cupboards with little bits of home, took a ton of pictures, and made some memories to tide me over until our next visit back home. Below are some images of the things I saw and did while home.

Welcome to St.Louis! This is the Arch and a Budweiser truck, they go together along with Cardinals Baseball and inquiries into where you went to High School (secondary school for ya Irish!).

Soulard Market. Been around a LONG time and hopefully will be around for an even longer time! Here is where you can buy fresh fruit, veggies, meats and those great spices I was talking about!

This is what it looked like down my mom's street after the snow started.

Me and my sweet nephew Ben! Love that little face and great smile!

Even our trucks have nuts over here, LOL!

It wouldn't be a visit to Missouri without a trip to Curtis and Sarah's farm. The animals were not amused that I was distracting them from their lunch.

Playing Rummy Cube with Curtis, Sarah and Matt. There are fewer things I enjoy more than a good board/card game with friends!

The evil turkeys! These guys were chasing me all around the farm while I was trying to get pictures of the Clifford Tree. Later Sarah explained that they were not being mean, they were flirting because they thought I was hot. Hmmmm.

The Clifford Tree. This is where my dear sweet Weimeraner Clifford is buried.

If it was a bit warmer in Ireland you might want to think of installing one of these bars! Maybe if we get another Summer like last years (2012)!

What you get in those little white cups... That's quite a bit of liquor for one chilly drink!

Great night out with friends! Soup, salad, and smiles all around

Gorgeous sunset

Oh Chipotle how I LOVE you!

Hey look! Irish cheese in the US!

Maple bacon, Blueberry pancake, and glazed doughnut flavored schnapps. American where you really can get everything and anything!

Selfie with the pony!

Matt got to drive the tractor while we were there.

I got to target shoot my rifle and help rid the farm of a angry and mean bull.

All the best photos have horse ears in them. These were all taken around the farm.

The pond

Matt and I together on our respective horses. They were SOOO woolly! Their hair was about 2 inches thick, but they need it for as cold as it gets at my in-law's farm.

My favorite picture. This is what home feels like for me.

Matt on his Izzy Monster!

This is an American ditch my Irish friends, we call them culverts

Stuffed Tiger at Bass Pro Shop. You can see more wildlife in these stores than you can out in the woods

Only in Missouri where bathrooms do double duty as tornado shelters :-)

Persephone was not amused by this blog post.