Masters, staff, and hounds at the 1926 New England Hound Trails in front of the Bowditch mansion. John Bowditch was MFH of the Millwood Hunt in Framingham, MA.
Yes, we’ve got the spelling right. Trails, not Trials. It’s a race to prove which hunt can field the fastest and most accurate hounds following a drag scent, and it’s been a fixture of the New England foxhunting scene since 1923.
Each hunt may enter up to 2 couple of hounds. Competing hounds may be cheered on and handled by their staff at the starting line, but at no other point in the race. Patrol judges are stationed at strategic places to penalize hounds that skirt or cheat (i.e., take shortcuts off the true line to get closer to the front runner).
Nearing the finish, 2013
Richard Danielson, MFH of the old Groton Hunt (in his Martha Doyle and Other Sporting Memories, The Derrydale Press, 1938) points out that the best hound sometimes loses when, after leading the pack on the true line for most of the race, he tires and falls behind one or more hounds that have been coasting along with their heads up enjoying the fruits of his labor. Why do I suspect that Danielson may have once lost the competition in that manner?
Hound Trails were, apparently, a long-standing major sport among the Cumbrian Fell Packs in the English Lake District. Danielson claims that he suggested the notion of such a hound race in 1922 by approaching Messrs. Vaughan and Appleton, MFHs of the Norfolk and Myopia Hunts respectively.
New England Hunts Challenge Cup bearing the names of winning hunts and hounds since 1926.“On account of the betting between the Fell packs there has been so much dirty work at the crossroads that I believe these Fell country trails are not now in favor with the better sportsmen of that region,” adds Danielson.
Two trophies are awarded at the New England Hound Trails each year—one to the first hound to finish, and a Challenge Plate for the winning pack. For a pack to win the Plate, all four hounds must cross the finish line within three minutes after the winning hound crosses.
Points are scored as follows: the first hound to cross the finish line gets the number of points equal to the number of hounds entered. Each succeeding hound that crosses the finish line gets that number of points minus one point for each hound that preceded it across the line. The pack that accumulates the most points wins the Challenge Trophy. The distance run is about five miles over fair hunting country.
Kerry Glass, ex-MFH, Norfolk Hunt (MA) contributed to this article. Interested parties may contact Foxhunting Life for the New England Hunts Hound Trails Rules and Conditions.
Posted Nov. 5, 2014