fox hunting in carbondale - december 2001

whenever I talk to egon on the telephone I know that the first question he will ask me is "lori, when are you coming for a visit?" apparently all of the vacations that I have taken at his happy homestead have not scared him off and he keeps asking me back! lucky me!

this year I had quite a few things that I needed to speak with him about and called him in the last part of november. michael, my husband, was in the room (this was planned) so that when the question popped out, I could get it answered right then and there! I was shocked when michael said "how about in two weeks?"

I had just gotten my truck repaired and it was ready for hauling. so of course I wanted to bring dax. egon asked the question bluntly "do you still have that spotted horse?". did I? sure did! (beaming with pride, too bad you can't see that through the phone). dax had fox hunted in barrington hills only two weeks before and he performed stunningly. we had been doing a lot of jumping through the fall as the weather had been incredibly mild so he was in good shape.

we left for carbondale right after michael's work on saturday and arrived at egon's in time for dinner. dax immediately settled into a warm stall, providing needed company to a horse who had been kept in from the field with an abcess in his hoof. it was mid-december of 2001 and it was 55-65 degrees F!

sunday morning was the hunt and dax was to ride in the stock trailer with egon's horses to the hunt country. he was the first to be loaded. I had already placed all of my gear (saddle, bridles, girths, pads, grooming equipment, riding habit, etc.) in the trailer the night before so all I had to do was get dax into the trailer. mind you I had not ridden much during the summer or the past summer because of being pregnant then having a small baby to care for. so dax had not been loaded regularly in quite some time. I was hoping and expected that the many hours that my riding partner priscilla and I had put in training dax to load during the summer of 1999 would pay off.

so I pulled dax from the stall and walked him calmly to the trailer. of course, being dax, he had to stop and take a look. egon immediately starting pacing and gathering up his whip to give dax a smack. I ordered him to "STOP!". "just give him a minute", I said. sure enough, dax looked around for a minute then I pulled the rope slightly, gave him a release and in he went just as nice as you please. I was very happy and relieved to not have a big scene with the trailer and egon.

we caught the other three horses and loaded them in behind dax. we had to visit two or three other fields to collect them all, as egon keeps all horses out in the field full-time. he separates them by age and sex. the horses are very happy with this arrangement.

the ride to the hunt country can best be described as "death-ride in a horse rig". I was sitting the middle seat of the pickup sans shoulder belt staring mutely at the middle of the road while the truck followed its line for miles. I mean we were driving 60mph in a horse rig down the middle of the road, keening over hill and over dale. egon, at eighty-two, doing the driving. my hands clenched my coffee cup in a vise grip while I softly whispered prayers under my breath. after 45 minutes of sweating we finally arrived at the hunt.

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