April 5, 2012
Orange County Hounds Point-to-Point
Open Hurdle winner Old Timer and Chris Read (right) lead Robert Walsh on Better Than Ever.The Orange County Hounds Point-to-Point Races were held at Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, Virginia on Sunday, April 1, 2012. Trainer Neil Morris made the most of his home turf by saddling both the win and place horses in the Open Hurdle Race. Kinross Farm’s Old Timer ridden by Chris Read jumped to the lead at the last fence and beat second-place finisher Humdinger to the wire by two lengths.
On the Road: One Master’s Perspective
Foreground (l-r): Michael Brown, huntsman and Oliver Brown, MFH, Rappahannock Hunt with host Epp Wilson, MFH, Belle Meade Hunt / Karen Raiford photo
This article—about foxhunters on the road and the joys of visiting—is being published in several installments: 1. A Huntsman’s Perspective, 2. One Master’s Perspective, 3. Another Master’s Perspective, and 4. A Member’s Perspective. Here is our second installment.
I first met the Ambassador of Foxhunting, Ben Hardaway, MFH, of the Midland Foxhounds (GA) in 1973. It was Ben’s first trip to Virginia, and I was in awe of this traveling foxhunting circus. His members were so excited as were his hounds to show their adaptation to a different territory. Many more times did he come to hunt with us, and I also had the pleasure of being invited to hunt with him in his country. But I envied being able to take your own hounds to strange territories. So after hunting in Midland several times and becoming enthused, my son Michael and I made our first trek south with hounds in 1999.
