Mark McManus is the new huntsman at the Chagrin Valley Hunt (OH).
When a huntsman retires after a long and successful career hunting hounds for a respected hunting establishment, that vacuum creates a ripple effect throughout the hunting community. So it was when Larry Pitts retired after thirty-five seasons hunting hounds at the Potomac Hunt (MD). Pitts’s vacancy was filled by huntsman Brian Kiely from the Myopia Hunt (MA); the void at Myopia was filled by huntsman Philip Headdon from the Chagrin Valley Hunt (OH); and the Chagrin Valley opening will be filled this season by huntsman Mark McManus from the Ottawa Valley Hunt (ON).
During his time at Ottawa Valley, McManus definitely left his mark (pun intended). OVH Master Anne McKibbin lets sixteen-year-old whipper-in Carmen Powell-Sadik tell us how.
Mark is an enjoyable person to be around, with many a good story to tell depicting various scenes of humor and horror taken from an exciting and sometimes perilous life of foxhunting in his native Ireland. He remembers times of his childhood riding with his baby brother “sat in me lap” as he (much to his father’s chagrin) jumped the hedges!
At the Ottawa Valley Hunt, the country consists mostly of forest trails or cut corn or soybean fields. For this reason Mark prefers riding Thoroughbred horses or Thoroughbred crosses, as he needs horses agile enough to move through the trees and fast enough to cover the open ground quickly.
Mark is involved with all the hunt members, particularly the juniors. He insists on immaculate turnout for horses and riders alike. Here is one story that stands out in my memory, which I think might give an idea of Mark’s approach to his work.
Last year, the Lake of Two Mountains Hunt (ON) came to Ottawa Valley for a joint meet. About two hours into the day I was searching for the hunt, having struck off alone in pursuit of stray hounds. I came upon the lot of them gathered at the roadside in some disarray, trying to keep hounds from running back in the direction from which they had apparently just come.
The really worrying thing, however, was Mark’s absence. The three fields were there, including the visiting huntsman, but Mark was nowhere to be seen.
“What have you done with Mark?” I asked one of the visiting whippers-in.
“His horse pulled a shoe,” he replied.
“Is he back at kennels?” I asked, surprised they had gone on without our huntsman.
“No,” said the whipper-in, nodding back at the fifty-acre field they had hunted across. “He should be here any minute.”
I looked where he’d indicated, and, sure enough, there was a distinctly horseless Mark just cresting a small rise, striding across the grass huffing and puffing like…well…like he had just run across a fifty-acre field in tall boots and a heavy coat.
Mark McManus and Miss Shannon MacKenzie were married at the Ottawa Valley Clubhouse on March 14, 2015.We gave up on trying to hold hounds at this point and allowed them to run back to their precious huntsman, where they happily cavorted about his feet the rest of the way home.
Later that day at the Greenbox [site of OVH’s hunt breakfasts], the Lake of Two Mountain riders commented admiringly on our huntsman’s diehard attitude. This is a fitting title. Mark is never one to let a little thing like “horselessness” stop him from hunting.
Mark has been so helpful to me as a junior whipper-in—teaching and showing me the proper way to do things in the hunt world, from training hounds to using the right boot polish. Having all the hunting know-how and experience required to be a good huntsman is one thing, but being willing and able to pass some of that knowledge on to others in a meaningful way is another thing altogether. Mark has been able to do this with his whippers-in, his son, and, I think, all of the Ottawa Valley Hunt members.
Posted March 30, 2015