Dr. Steven Thomas, huntsman, Fort Leavenworth Hunt, on Romulus
His day job is demanding, and he’s never hunted hounds before, but Dr. Steven Thomas has been preparing for his new responsibility as huntsman of the Fort Leavenworth Hunt (KS) since childhood.
“Time management will be the biggest problem I’ll face,” Thomas acknowledged. “We’ll need a lot of volunteers,” he adds. But he has admiration for his fellow hunt members, the foxhounds in kennels, and the distinguished history of the Fort Leavenworth Hunt. He’s definitely looking forward to hunting hounds this season.
Thomas grew up riding Western, and, as a boy, coon hunted with his grandfather who ran his own hounds. He never rode without a pommel in front of him until he hooked up with the late Tommy Jackson, huntsman at the Mission Valley Hunt in Kansas.
He was soon whipping-in to Tommy and stuck with him through the next ten years, including Tommy’s departure from Mission Valley and his short-lived private pack, Mr. Jackson’s Oxford Hounds. Tommy was a passionate houndsman and a most passionate huntsman (as anyone who hunted behind him will attest), and if one needed a mentor it would be hard to find better.
Thomas has been hunting with the Fort Leavenworth Hunt for four years and has been whipping-in to Master and honorary huntsman Stephanie Wilcox through that time. Wilcox, however, has decided to join the professional ranks and has moved to the Old Dominion Hounds (VA) as professional whipper-in for the upcoming season.
Thomas has paid his dues in preparation for his new responsibilities. He’s hunted all around North America with many of the best packs, and for seven years was the show chairman at the Central States Hound Show.
The Fort Leavenworth pack goes out twice a week and consists of mostly Crossbred hounds with bloodlines going back to the great American hound Potomac Jefferson through Brazos Valley’s brilliant M-litter—Mystic, Marley, and Meadow—bred by Sandy Dixon.
Organized in 1926 by the U.S. Tenth Cavalry Regiment, the Fort Leavenworth Hunt kennels are still on the Fort. Members hunt the coyote mostly on Fort Leavenworth lands in the region where the Santa Fe Trail begins. Hunt subscribers are military personnel, their families, as well as civilians. Thomas, a civilian, served in the US Army Reserves in the 1980s, but never at the Fort.
Before World War II, nearly every major Army post had its own hunt. Today the Fort Leavenworth Hunt is the last remaining U.S. military-affiliated fox hunt. Because Kansas law limits foxhunting, hounds chase only coyotes now.
Throughout the hunt’s history, numerous military leaders participated in the hunt, including General Jonathan Wainwright, MFH in 1929, and General George Patton. The hounds, first cared for by the 10th Cavalry Regiment, or Buffalo Soldiers, chased foxes and coyotes on post.
Thomas has been in practice for thirty years, specializing in oral and maxillofacial surgery. He plans to serve as interim huntsman for the upcoming season and, assuming that precious commodity called time can be managed, may go forward sharing the huntsman’s duties with another whipper-in-come-huntsman at Fort Leavenworth and continue the legacy of hunting at that historic American institution.
Posted August 10, 2016