Douglas Lees photoTom Voss, MFH of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt died suddenly on January 21, 2014 at his home in Monkton, Maryland. He had served as Joint-Master of the hunt since 1993.
In the larger world of horses, Voss was best-known as a top trainer of racehorses both on the flat and over fences. Starting as an amateur timber rider, Voss began training professionally in 1973. He trained the 2010 Eclipse Award steeplechase champion Slip Away and was a five-time leading trainer on the National Steeplechase circuit, capturing that title in 1997, 2000–2002, and 2011.
Voss’s home, Atlanta Hall Farm, was memorialized in the painting by his great-uncle, Franklin Voss, one of the most prominent American equine artists of the twentieth century. The farm was acquired in 1936 by his grandfather, Edward Voss (Franklin Voss’s brother), who also served as MFH of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt, his term a record thirty-one years.
Elkridge-Harford Hunt Crossing Atlanta Hall Meadow by Franklin Voss, 1944, oil on canvas. Edward Voss is pictured on the gray.
Atlanta Hall Farm is the site of the annual Elkridge-Harford Point-to-Point Races, started there by Edward Voss in the 1940s. The Voss family has long been active in land conservation.
Posted January 23, 2014
Tom Voss on Gassendi at the third fence in the 1969 Maryland Hunt Cup / Douglas Lees photo