Imagine you were to get up on one of these horses and go out with the Genesee Valley Hunt. You are just trying it out. This is called ‘capping’ where you pay per hunt instead of joining and becoming a member right away. A woman named Janice is your ‘sponsor’, she’s going to teach you the etiquette of the hunt; don’t cut off horses when they’re going over a jump, don’t hold up the line and other things like that.

After everyone has arrived at the hunting location, typically some back road in Avon or Genesee, and are mounted, Marion leads you off into the closest field. The hounds spread out in front of her, eagerly running forward and sniffing everything. She calls to them, directing them through the landscape as the rest of the hunt leisurely trails behind, talking to each other.

All of a sudden one dog ‘gives tongue’, and the rest of them start also picking up the scent and begin calling, chasing after the elusive scent of fox. You’ve been lulled into a false sense of calmness, casually riding for 30 minutes before this happened, so at first you are startled. Soon, however, you pick up the pace with the rest of the riders, following Marion and the hounds. The hounds are losing the hunt fairly quickly though as they run through a cornfield that the horses have to trot around. You catch a glimpse of a wagging tail and can hear them chasing the fox in the corn, baying joyfully. The rest of the hunt is following Marion as she pulls upon years of experience to predict where the fox will exit the corn. Luckily, they’re still in the cornfield when you make it to the corner of the field and a road, and you get to see a sleek red fox run across the pavements mere seconds before a cacophony of hounds follow.

Across this field there is a major road with too much traffic for the entire hunt to stop. Janice told you about this earlier, and in the distance you can hear the driver of the hound truck and a pair of road ‘whips’ - people in cars who follow the hunt - yelling to encourage the fox to run a different way. They stop the hounds from crossing and will encourage the traffic to slow down. There are also mounted whips, called ‘whippers-in’, on horses positioned at the edge of the territory you are hunting. They will also stop the hounds if the dogs are getting too far afield before Marion can reach them.

The road whips are successful in turning the fox and dogs aside into another field. Marion and the rest follow, but soon after the fox goes to ground in an old barn, and the hounds slowly stop giving cry, instead merely sniffing around, trying to discover where he went. The goal of the hunt is not to kill, but instead have a good chase, so Marion blows a little bugle attached to her jacket, calling the hounds back. After the majority of the hounds have returned, you head off into the next field, and hopefully another good chase. On a good day you may have three or four of these chases before it is time to go home.

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