Feirmeoir

Hello there, my family and I've recently relocated from the UK to Connecticut for work. When I was young, my dad, grandad and uncles would take my brothers, cousins and I on the traditional fox hunt — on horseback using a pack of Beagles. Unfortunately, the fox hunt was banned in the UK quite some time ago, so I haven't yet been able to engage in this tradition with my own boys, who are now 5 and 8. Now that we are in the United States, where the political environment is a bit more conducive to such activities, I would like to take my boys on a hunt, and perhaps bring my dad out. However, I'm having quite the hard time finding a fox hunting club or lodge with their own pack of dogs. We have two dogs, a Spaniel and a Retriever who are our pets and hunting companions, however we only use them for upland hunts and wildfowling, even if they were scenthounds with the capacity to do what a Beagle does to find a fox, the two of them cannot safely take on the fox, they can only retrieve it once dispatched. Traditionally, hunting lodges and gentleman's institutions would maintain a pack of 10-30 Beagles for this purpose, because it's impractical for any man to maintain that many dogs for his own personal use, and because the nature of their work doesn't necessitate a close bond with their handler in the same way that a Spaniel's work does. However, I'm having a problem finding a lodge or club that keeps a pack, and it seems that most fox hunting in the United States is treated like an upland bird hunt, with one or two dogs to flush and retrieve, and a gun to dispatch. I enjoy that sort of hunting with birds, but my boys and I have done that many times and what I'm looking for is to take them on a traditional fox hunt. So, can you recommend a lodge with a pack for my family and I go to and hunt with? Obviously we would prefer to stay in New England, but I'm willing to travel as far south as Maryland and as far west as Ohio. It would be splendid if they also had their own hunting horses, we have two horses currently but they're Welsh Ponies, not really of the hunter type, and having to transport them back and forth is a real pain, however I'm more than willing to do it if we can find a proper foxhunting pack that doesn't keep their own horses. Thank you so much, have a wonderful day.