C. Thompson Pardoe, MFH
Maryland’s Un-Entered Hounds Have Annual Coming Out Party
Mount Carmel Onyx was Best Penn-Marydel foxhound. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
For once in the thirty-nine-year history of the Maryland Foxhound Club’s annual puppy show, the weather-gods cooperated. On a marvelously sunny day, supporters of twelve foxhound packs and seven foot hound packs met on the lawn of Tim and Vicki Shaw’s lovely home to show the products of their breeding programs. The show is restricted to unentered hounds as well as the stallion hounds and brood bitches that produced these hounds.
With one ring devoted to foxhounds and another devoted to foot hounds, Jeff Blue, MFH of Middleburg Hunt (VA) and Bob Dougherty, MB of Hidden Meadows beagles and ex-MFH and huntsman of the Plum Run Hunt (PA) had a full day of judging to do. A total of 141 foxhounds were entered and 73 foot hounds went through the rings. In the only combined class of the day, nineteen young fox and rabbit hunters paraded before both judges in a really tough junior handler class. No doubt Masters Blue and Dougherty worked their hardest to pin that class!
Goshen Hounds Take a New Year’s Swim
Robert Taylor, MFH and huntsman of the Goshen Hounds, had a memorable hunt with hounds on New Year's Day.
Some days you simply wonder what the gods are thinking. Today, New Year’s Day, was a day that I simply could not hunt because of social obligations unrelated to the hunting world. No amount of explaining and squirming would have been adequate to allow me to meet with the Goshen Hounds (MD) today. Consequently, it was with some delight when I was finally able to quietly announce at about 2:00 pm that I thought I would "visit the kennels" for a short while.
When I arrived it was apparent the hounds were still in the field, so I drove to the usual draw down Middleton Lane and was greeted with the distant view of a whipper-in and the cheering of huntsman and Joint-Master Robert Taylor. I knew exactly where they were, but getting to them in my trusty Tahoe was a different matter. Undaunted, I proceeded on (in four wheel drive), but still could not quite make contact.
Several riders were coming in with tales of, "Wow! What a run! My horse is cooked!" In desperation, I gave up and headed to the kennels. Soon I was greeted with the sight of Robert and hounds coming in, and, oh, what tales they had to tell.
Sad Times for Goshen Hounds
Nick Hartung and houndsThis has been a difficult year for Goshen Hounds (MD) and its members. We have lost four men closely associated with us: former huntsman Nicholas Hartung, board member Bruce Sieling, ex-MFH Hansen Watkins, and, most recently, Irving Victor Marken Abb.
How Maryland Prepares Hounds for the “Big Time”
Penn-Marydel Champion Mount Carmel Mandolin with (l-r) kennelman Nancy Morris and handler Allen Forney / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoFor thirty-seven years now on the “first Sunday after the first Saturday in May,” foxhunters from the Mid-Atlantic region have gathered to display and compare the results of their breeding programs for the past year. Initiated by Dr. Roger Scullin, MFH, Howard County-Iron Bridge Hounds (MD) in an effort to better prepare young hounds for the *big* shows in Virginia and Bryn Mawr, the Maryland Foxhound Club Puppy Show has grown to now having representatives from nearly all Maryland packs, both recognized and private, several Virginia packs, and many from Pennsylvania. This year the show even attracted hounds from as far away as New York state. In all, nearly two hundred hounds were entered.
Look, No Leashes! Goshen Hounds on Parade
Foot staff (l-r) are Tom Pardoe, MFH; honorary whippers-in Ande Kinder, Liz Lavine (front), MacKenzie Taylor (behind), and Dr. Frank Becker; and Robert Taylor, MFH and huntsman. / Frankie Pardoe photoPerhaps nothing is more important to the perpetuation of foxhunting than public relations. Consequently, when a prominent member of the local agriculture community contacted the Goshen Hounds and invited them to participate in the “First Annual Lisbon Ole Fashion Horse Parade,” the response was immediate. “Count us in!”
Harry Miliner, Former Field Master, Loudoun West
Liz Callar photo Harry Miliner of the Loudoun West Hunt (VA) has made his final point and now resides in perhaps a better place. Harry finally succumbed to cancer on July 21, 2011. Harry came to hunting a bit later than many, not born of a hunting family (much like myself), but when he took up the sport he did so with a passion and conviction that revealed his true sportsman’s heart. Moving from his Maryland home to Northern Virginia where he was convinced the hunting was the best in the world (one of the few points on which we disagreed, as gentlemen will), Harry and his wife Dixie soon found a second home. With mentoring hunting friends such as Dr. Joe Rogers and Donna Rogers, MFHs along with Sherman Haight, ex-MFH and Peggy Haight, they quickly settled in and became an integral part of the Loudoun West hunting fabric. Harry was ultimately recognized as a more than competent Field Master for Loudoun West. No one got more pure joy from foxhunting than Harry. He was a big man with a huge heart, and as a Field Master, he was warm and welcoming. He fully ascribed to John Jorrock’s old sentiment, “Tell me a man’s a foxhunter, and I loves him at once”! Suffice it to be said by a very old friend, “Harry, you will truly be missed.” Posted July 25, 2011
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The First Saturday in May
New Market-Middletown Valley Unity was Champion American Foxhound / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoFor most of the horse world, the first Saturday in May means the Kentucky Derby, but in Maryland and much of the Mid-Atlantic it has come to mean hunt races at the Howard County-Iron Bridge Hunt on Saturday and the Maryland Foxhound Club puppy show on Sunday. This year the dates fell on May 7 and 8.
Allen Forney Is Seventy; Maryland Foxhunters Throw a Party!
Jeanne & Allen Forney / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoHow often do we get the opportunity to celebrate the seventieth birthday of a foxhunting legend while he (or she) is still an active and constant contributor to the sport? A large group of friends---Masters, huntsmen, and foxhunters--- representing most of the foxhunting clubs in central Maryland did exactly that on Sunday, April 10 at the Potomac Hunt in Barnesville, Maryland.
