with Horse and Hound

August 20, 2015

foxintree.ciliberto

Peek-A-Boo!

Jody Ciliberto photo Mounted staff were exercising the Red Oak Foxhounds, as photographer Jody Ciliberto followed in her car. She saw a sudden commotion—fingers pointing, hounds jumping, sterns waving. Jody jumped out of the car with her Canon 60D fitted with a 35mm to 200mm lens, managed to get within ten feet, and took her shots. “I was happy for days,” Jody writes. “It’s not often I get a chance to photograph a fox that isn’t running away!” Click for a full screen version! Posted August 24, 2015
Read More
myhuntingengland.barclay

James Barclay’s Hunting England

myhuntingengland.barclayMy Hunting England, James Barclay, Ruddocks, Lincoln, UK, 2015, cloth, illustrated, large format, 143 pages, £45Foxhunters are often regarded by the uninitiated as a pack of wealthy horsemen in fancy clothes galloping gaily over the countryside. Truth be told, some foxhunters riding in their private and select world above the fray see it the same way.

James Barclay learned differently. In his just-published My Hunting England, he tells of his life in hunting, his love for England, and—for a man born high above the fray—tells his story with humanity, sympathy, and respect for all manner of hunting man and his quarry.

A frequent contributor to the pages of Foxhunting Life, James Barclay was born to a banking family well-represented in the world of hunting. He, his sister, two brothers, mother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all served as Masters of Foxhounds—a family way-of-life that began in 1896 when his great-grandfather became Master of the Puckeridge. James served as Master of five hunts from 1983 to 2012: the Essex and Suffolk, Fitzwilliam, Cottesmore, South Wold, and Grove and Rufford.

James’s new book is part memoir, part snapshot of hunting in the twenty-first century, and part tribute to those who left their mark on the sport of his life. He entered hunt service at the bottom and toiled alongside the other lads in the kennels. Nor, as he was to find, were all kennels equal.

Read More