Side saddle meet organizer Susan Oakes with her stallion, SIEC Atlas, at The Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim before the meet
The Ladies Side Saddle Hunt at Boyerstown, County Meath in Ireland was the brainchild of the Meath Foxhounds Masters and side saddle enthusiast Susan Oakes who is the current British side saddle high jump record holder at five-feet-nine-inches. (At Aintree last year Susan just rolled the top pole in her attempt at the world record of six-feet-six-inches.)
The meet, or was it a Ladies Gathering, was a world record turnout of lady side saddle riders seen in any hunt country. Up to fifty ladies from Ireland, USA, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Sweden, and Belgium descended on County Meath, and what an impact they made. It was like a scene from the last century when ladies still rode side saddle, with high standards of hunting dress, style, and elegance.
Side saddles of all ages and provenance were called into action, including Susan Oakes’ saddle that was used by Miss Doreen Archer-Hubian for schooling Queen Elizabeth II’s horses for events such as the Trooping of the Colour. What an array of top hats, riding habits, and even stirrup leathers that extended so that in an emergency ladies can climb back unaided!
People were generous in loaning their horses, and Susan Oakes spent a month personally schooling all fifty horses. This was not a fashion parade; the country was demanding, and the going was heavy; and hunt staff knew that there were some serious riders in the field. Riders like Susan Oakes who can be seen every week hunting her point-to-pointers side saddle with the Meaths, Wards, and Taras. Jonnie Wragg hunts side saddle with the Tipperary Foxhounds and has point-to-pointed. Then there was Rebecca Holland, from the Flying Foxes side saddle display team also in the pack, who crosses the famous hedges of the Puckeridge and the Fitzwilliam riding side saddle.
The USA was represented by Denise Lee Hamilton from the Aiken Hounds in South Carolina, Maggie Johnson from the Fairfax Hunt, Devon Zebrovious, and Caren Carter from the Middleburg Hunt in Virginia. Caren was a former student of Iris Kellett, the legendary Irish show jumper and trainer.
Before the meet, the banks, and the mud. Ladies (l-r): Maggie Johnston and Devon Zebrovious. Gentlemen (l-r): Travis Page, Jan Chrypinski, George Kuk (Devon’s husband), and Shawn Roberts.
Amongst the other visitors was Antoinette de la Bouillerie whose maiden name is Codd, a member of the Wexford racing family. She hunts her own pack, the Rally des Grands Loups in the north west of France. Travelling with her was Marie Noblet of the Equipage Pierres Cassees, Maud Berton of the Rally Epic Harloup, and Tiphanie le Bourdais from the oldest hunt in France the Champchevrier.
Representing the UK was Jo Hales and Lucy Burton from the Bicester, Anna Carter, Lucy Burton and El Raven from the Grafton, Lucinda Pennyton the Easton Harriers, Louise Allen the Essex & Suffolk, Clare Sinter the East Anglia Bloodhounds, Amy Bryan and Lorna Pearson from the North East Cheshire Drag, and socialite Lady Martha Sitwell, the former Face of Ascot Races. Others were Lucy and Philippa Holland who was on one of Susan’s hunters, and Emily-Rose Gibbs, Jacqueline Chappell and Jill Robinson from the Hurworth. They informed me that their motto is “the brave may not live forever, but the cautious never live at all!”
The oldest and the youngest were septuagenarian Val Rees from Wales, and nine-year-old Clare Madden from County Meath. Hunting also was Charlotta Agardh Orsmark from Sweden, and Oleksandra Damylevska from Italy, originally from the Ukraine.
Some of the home riders were Elizabeth Oakes, Kalindi Lawrence, Sarah Conway, Katie Wrest, Sarah Furney, Marita Dunne, Aine O’Reilly, and Gillian Hughes, a psychiatrist, but there was little help she could give the ladies at that stage! Amy McMahon and Maeve Carthy, whose horses’ only experience is crossing stone walls, were up from the Galway Blazers! Also out were Ashley Fitzpatrick of the Holestone Draghounds and Shirley Anderson from the North Down Hounds. Point-to-point rider Emily MacMahon, daughter of the late Lt Col Ronnie MacMahon of the Irish Army Equitation School, was home in County Meath from Britain for the occasion.
Amongst those that turned up to help were Clare Ryan, Nichola McDowell, and Tanya Halvorsen from Norway, and Will Grange from Australia. The sponsors for the day were Equipet Stores, Dubarry, and Sarah Parry’s Bit on the Side, manufacturers of side saddles.
The Meet
Before setting off for Boyerstown the ladies posed on the staircase of the Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim, joined by Susan Oakes on her Champions Tour and Athens Olympic white stallion SIEC Atlas in the hotel foyer! Despite the inclement weather—nearly one-and-a-half inches of rain in two days—hunting was never in doubt as they set off from Boyerstown. John Henry hunts the Meath bitch pack and his brother Kenny hunts the doghounds, and they share the Field Master duties. So as John was hunting the pack, Kenny was the envy of many male onlookers leading fifty lovely ladies across the plains of Meath. Of course Kenny was deemed more qualified as he has four daughters!
What a sight, seldom if ever seen, or to be seen again, of fifty side saddle riders being snapped and filmed by Irish broadsheets, The Irish Field, and equestrian publications from the UK, USA, and Europe, with images being sent to publications as far away as Latvia, the Ukraine, and Russia, capturing this rare occasion for posterity! All the photographers were facilitated by a team of quads ably managed by Mick Buchanan, Ken Reilly, and Derek Maher. It was more like the tank scene from the film Kelly’s Heroes, as the convoy of quads proceeded to the meet with occupants sporting cameras on every shoulder.
But the challenges were yet to come. Joint-Master Pat Dillon assisted by fellow Joint-Masters Richard Trimble and former National Hunt jockey Norman Williamson welcomed the riders and informed them of some ground rules for survival, especially for those not used to double banks and ditches! Despite the deep going, muck, and slippery yawning ditches, blind banks, you name it, every one of these ladies were up for it.
The first challenge was a yawning ditch in the stubble in Jim Buchanan’s. Field Master Kenny Henry led the way followed by Jonnie Wragg, who is probably one of the most experienced side saddle lady riders in Ireland. But the rest of the nationalities were not far behind. Amy McMahon and Maeve Carthy from the Blazers were some of the more stylish, as well as Jonnie Wragg, Devon Zebrovious, and Susan and Elizabeth Oakes.
As they left Pat Smith’s and got into Monica Buchanan’s, hounds found a fox and it was tighten your girth time, as what was to follow had the field extended for miles. The fox turned right-handed for McGlen’s and on to Jack Devine’s, before a big double bank faced them in Mick Buchanan’s. Those that had survived so far without their saddles slipping or girths breaking crossed into Wall’s and over the main Navan to Athboy road. A river in Buchanan’s saw more stranded, and some were still there when the hunt was over!
Jo Hales’ horse tried to jump a locked five-bar wire mesh gate and demolished it, giving Jo a nasty fall that resulted in her being rushed to Navan Hospital with rib and lung injuries. Hounds could be heard absolutely flying over Pat Smith’s and into Willie Smith’s to face one of his huge double banks which thinned out the field even further. Kalindi Lawrence went out the back door at the double, but smiled all the way. The fox by now was through the wood in Shambo, and over Dessie Brady’s. But he decided that he had entertained the ladies for long enough, and decided to go to ground in McKenna’s. Hunt staff and front runners were flat out from the start in bottomless ground, and many visitors were by now totally confused as to where Boyerstown Village was! The huntsman blew for home after a cracking five-and-a-half mile point in one hour and ten minutes.
The Hunt Ball later that evening was a lively event with the ladies still in the driving seat!
A real revival of ladies side saddle riding has taken off. A side saddle point-to-point race took place for the first time since 1930 in Melton Mowbray in the Quorn hunt country in the UK, appropriately named, The Diana’s of the Chase. The winner was Susan Oakes on her chaser O’Muircheartaigh in a bitless bridle. Her win is now referred to as sideways and bitless!
Katie Wrest from the Golden Vale over a double bank
Sidesaddles and the Meath
The side saddle has evolved in style over the centuries. One of the first functioning side saddles was used by Anne of Bohemia (1366–1394), followed by an improved version used by Catherine de Medici (1519–1589), before the two pommel saddle was developed by Jules Pellier in the 1830s. It was not until the early twentieth century with the progress of the Women’s Suffragette Movement that it became acceptable for women to ride astride.
Hunt historians will remember Sisi, The Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who hunted side saddle with the Meaths and the Ward Union from 1879 to 1882, and probably hunted across Boyerstown. She is reputed to have jumped a breach in the wall of Maynooth College. A beautiful painting of her can be seen in the Royal Dublin Society member’s dining room.
A foxhound pack was hunted by Mr. Nicholson of Balrath from 1723. But the Meath Foxhounds were formed by the amalgamation of two other Meath packs, Mr Pollock’s and Mr Hopkins’s packs in 1813.
Hunt Chairman: Graham O’Reilly
Joint-Masters: Andrew Boyd, Richard Trimble, Pat Dillon, Norman Williamson
Field Masters: Kenny Henry and John Henry alternate when not hunting hounds
Huntsman: John Henry (bitch pack) and Kenny Henry (dog hounds)
Whipper-In: Barry Finnegan
Posted February 11, 2013
Author/photographer/foxhunter Noel Mullins is a retired computer marketing executive in Ireland. Visit his website for more of his work and his books.