THE CALL to the hunt is sounded on a crisp fall morning, and the hounds and riders of the Marlborough Hunt Club are off.

For the next several hours, a group of formally attired riders will jump fences, cross streams and circle fields, chasing the hounds that chase the fox.

Although their black coats and shining boots may appear fancy, the riders must be nimble enough to keep up with one of the three groups. This is not a sport for the faint-hearted.

"It is all a game. Here in America, we do not kill the fox, we are technically 'fox chasing,'" says Katherine Cawood of West River, one of three hunt masters for the 125-member club. "There are so many holes and little spaces for the fox to dive into that when he decides to call it quits, it's over."

The riders cover several miles as the fox circles in its territory. The hunts take place on the big farms - Essex, Mary's Mount, Larking Hill, Obligation, Dodon and others - that have been part of the South County landscape for hundreds of years. Ideally, the hunters would like a couple of thousand acres to roam, but that is becoming increasingly difficult.

At the beginning of the formal season, which runs from the end of October through March, the masters put together a list of hunts, with the permission of landowners, called a "fixture card."

Development in Prince George's County, where the club also rides, has been a challenge in planning a season. Cawood credits Anne Arundel County's agricultural easement program with preserving at least some of the large farms.

Christy Clagett of Larking Hill Farm in Harwood, a member of the Agricultural Preservation Board of Anne Arundel County, sees the importance of open space beyond the scope of the hunt.

"The more concrete we put down in South County, the greater the impact on the bay," she says, "not to mention the fact that if we don't preserve the land, our whole way of life will be gone."

Clagett operates Larking Hill Farm as a race-training, breeding and breaking operation for horses. She also raises cattle.

The Marlborough Hunt Club was established in 1936, and Katherine Cawood has been hunting almost that long. Her great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Brooke, brought the first foxhounds to Southern Maryland in 1634. Many families have been involved in the club for several generations. There is also a vibrant group of relative newcomers who keep the group energized, despite other demands on their time.

"In my 60 years of hunting, I guess the biggest changes I have seen are that more [members] are working full time, and women are more involved," says Cawood.

All three masters are women, as is most of the field. Cawood, an Annapolis attorney, says that rising before dawn to tend the horses before work and figuring out a schedule to ride the Wednesday morning hunt are challenges shared by many of today's club members.

"You get addicted," says Susie Olfson of Galesville, who rides with Clagett and Isabel Kurek of Lothian on the Hunt Club's team. This formidable threesome won the Fox Hunters Championship Series last year. They also won the opportunity to travel to Ireland and hunt.

While there, they fell in love with two horses and brought them home. Kurek admits to being nuts about horses.

"This is really the fun part," she chuckles while cleaning the hoof of her horse, Lady in Waiting. "Playing with the horses, and being at the barn, you end up arranging everything around it."

Kurek, who serves as vice president of the Washington International Horse Show, says that with so many events focused around horses in this area, it really comes down to choosing which ones to attend. The Marlborough Hunt Club has many events and opportunities for even nonriders to enjoy the hunting atmosphere.

Each spring the club sponsors the popular point-to-point races at Roedown Farm, where the uninitiated can watch the riders run steeplechase courses on the farm and enjoy the social component of the hunt: the tailgate.

After every hunt, the club unwinds with a tailgate party sometimes held by the landowners where the ride has taken place. The club also holds parties throughout the year and stages "just for fun" competitions and junior hunts.

The club is holding a yard sale Saturday to raise money for a new building. Call Olfson at 410-867-9825 for more information and directions.