McCune ? The mining dumps and strip pits that make so much of the southeast Kansas landscape unique also make it a challenging terrain for fox hunting.

That’s right, fox hunting. The sport of English lords and ladies has come to southeast Kansas with the inaugural hunt of the Coal Valley Hounds on Nov. 23.

The Coal Valley Hunt opened in traditional style with the hunt blessing, performed by the Rev. Robert McElwee of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Frontenac.

McElwee invoked God’s blessing on the horses, hounds and humans, and presented each rider with a medal of St. Hubert, the patron saint of fox hunting.

Joplin, Mo., bagpiper Bill Scruggs, in the full regalia of the Clan MacFie, welcomed the hounds to the blessing and piped the hunters into the field.

Steeped in tradition

Joint Masters of the hunt are Wes and Kathleen Sandness of McCune and Tommy Jackson, who lives in the Kansas City area. Jackson is also a master of foxhounds with the Mission Valley Hunt, which has been active since 1927. Like the Mission Valley Hunt, the Coal Valley Hunt is a registered member of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America.

For the first ever Coal Valley Hunt, riders came from Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas and even farther afield. Wes Sandness said he had invited hunters from coast to coast. He was gratified to see that the field was well-represented by Mission Valley hunters in their blue and gold colors.

Colors, worn on the collar to identify the hunt club, are part of the pageantry of the hunt, along with the scarlet jackets of the hunt masters, the elegant garb, the proud horses with their manes and tails braided and beribboned and the motion of the hounds.

Add to that a beautiful fall morning with a sky of azure blue, and it’s a nearly perfect day.

The field of hunters follows the prey during the inaugural fox hunt of the Coal Valley Hounds near McCune. The hunting club covered nearly 10,000 acres during the hunt Nov. 23.

Some spills

“There’s never a bad day,” explained Jim Brainard, a Mission Valley huntsman who had the honor of paying the first cropper’s fee for Coal Valley. A cropper’s fee is charged when a rider “comes a cropper,” or, for the uninitiated, falls off his horse.

Brainard lost his seat in a jump, but it didn’t slow him down, although he admitted, “Some days are just better than others.”

Ruth Fine, also of Mission Valley, got to pay the second cropper’s fee, and is expecting to sport a badge of bruises after taking a spectacular face plant in a soybean field. Her horse went down after stepping in a hole. “We were going at a stiff trot, and all of a sudden – we weren’t,” she said.

In fact, although some animal rights activists might disagree, fox hunters know the animal most in danger throughout the hunt is the human.

Liz O’Keefe, for example, didn’t ride in the inaugural fox hunt; she’s wearing a back brace from an earlier hunting accident that left her with hairline fractures in her back. But she’ll be back in the saddle as soon as the doctor allows.

Master of the hunt Wes Sandness, mounted, confers with an unidentified observer as hounds await the resumption of the hunt during the inaugural fox hunt of the Coal Valley Hounds near McCune.

“I have never seen horses have so much fun,” she explained. The horses do seem to love the hunt. Those riding with the Hilltoppers seemed sometimes impatient to get on with it, to run flat out as horses were meant to run. When the huntsman’s horn echoed over the strip pits, their ears pricked forward and they stamped restlessly.

An easier ride

The Hilltoppers are a second field that rides slower than the main field chasing the quarry. They avoid many of the jumps and more arduous terrain, but they still get a workout – Fine was a Hilltopper, as was a second rider who came a cropper when her horse got a little too enthusiastic.

The Hilltoppers usually provide a more sedate experience for hunters like Fran Baker, who has been hunting for the past 55 years, or for newbies who want to get a feel for the sport before riding hell-bent for leather through the ravines and hilltops of southeast Kansas.

“One of the best things is to watch the hounds work,” explained Fine. “When you’re up there and you see them sorting out a scent, and you see them hit and see them go away, it’s really special.”

“That first run was something to behold,” agreed Wes Sandness.

Fox hunting originated in England in the 15th century as a method of controlling vermin. Although in England fox hunting is still considered a blood sport, American hunt clubs do not kill their quarry. And that quarry is usually a good old American coyote, not a fox. Many hunters insist the coyotes enjoy the routine as much as the hounds, horses and humans.