Raymond Carter: Complete Horseman
Ray Carter hunting the New Market-Middletown Valley hounds in 1981 / Janet Hitchen photoRaymond Allaeys Carter died peacefully at home in Middletown, Maryland on June 20, 2011 from complications related to prostate cancer. Ray was born in Yorkshire, England in 1930. Times were tough in those years and money was scarce. Ray, however, with a natural love of horses always found a way to beg rides on farmer’s draft horses returning from work in the fields.
He cleaned stalls at a local stable to be able to ride. He was a natural athlete and was soon riding some of the fancier ponies in local gymkhanas. When he finished school at age fourteen, his parents, loath to let him work in the local mines, arranged an apprenticeship for him with a racing stable in Newmarket. He was basically an indentured servant, receiving only a pound a month for learning a trade. At the end of five years he was earning twenty pounds a year.
Your Hunt’s Page: A New Feature on FHL!
I’m excited to announce a new feature on Foxhunting Life. If you go to the Horse and Hound drop-down menu (above) and click on Hunt Club Pages, you will land on a new page that lists all the North American hunts. (We plan to add English and Irish hunts as well.)
Each hunt name is a clickable link. Click on any one, and every article published on Foxhunting Life about or referring to that hunt will be retrieved in chronological order, most recent first.
2012 Foxhunting Calendar Has a New Face
The annual foxhunting calendar that we’ve been publishing for almost fifteen years has a new face for 2012. Redesigned for Foxhunting Life, the new cover design carries forward the black and scarlet look and feel of our website banner.
On the inside, while our foxhunting images continue to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art, another new feature has been added! We’ve gone international with a photo from an Irish hunt and an English hunt!
Dr. Scott Dove Is New Joint-Master at Old Dominion
Dr. Scott Dove, MFH / Karen L. Myers photoThe Old Dominion Hounds (VA) have a new Joint-Master—Dr. Scott Dove. If his name doesn’t ring a bell with you, his dog’s name probably will. Dove owns the most famous dog in America—Foxcliffe Hickory Wind, the Scottish Deerhound that won Best in Show at Westminster this year. But if you know Dove, you know he earned the Mastership through his own hard work at foxhunting.
Dove has served Old Dominion as honorary whipper-in for twenty-three seasons. One of his roles as Master will be mentoring new honorary whippers-in.
NSLM Announces Inaugural Exhibition
Catalog Cover: William Tylee Ranney, On the Wing, 1850, private collectionThe National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia has announced details of the inaugural exhibition to be hung in its new museum building. The structure has been built around the nucleus of the 1804 brick mansion, Vine Hill, that housed both The Chronicle of […]
Los Altos Nicassio Is Grand Champion at Western States
Los Altos huntsman Matthew Cook and Nicassio / Kimberly Kavish photoNicassio, an un-entered Crossbred dog hound from the Los Altos Hounds (CA), was judged Grand Champion at the Western States Hound Show. The show was held on May 21–22, 2011 at the Santa Ynez Valley Hounds kennels in Santa Barbara.
“It’s not often an un-entered hound can beat an entered hound—fully developed and muscled—but Nicassio moved really well,” recalled huntsman Matthew Cook, who is in his sixth season at Los Altos. “That’s what sold it!”
Nicassio is by Ninja 2006, an un-registered dog hound that Cook obtained from his friend Martyn Blackmore, huntsman at the Loudoun West Hunt (VA). Blackmore? Again? This is the second grand champion hound this season in whose story Martyn Blackmore played a prominent role!
Adopt-a-Kid
You’ve come a long way, kid! / Karen L. Myers photoThe average age of active foxhunters continues to rise. Where are the youngsters? we ask. Pointing to all the “usual suspects”—risk aversion, social media addiction (living vicariously rather than actively), animal rights activism—is…well…pointless. Social change continues to be part of mankind’s evolutionary process. What can we do pro-actively? is more to the point.
The MFHA has periodically urged hunts to reach out to nearby Pony Clubs, and many of these efforts have been successful. The Live Oak Challenge sponsored by MFHs Marty and Daphne Wood has introduced numerous young riders to foxhunting by offering financial incentives to the winning Pony Clubs. The Guide to Establishing a Foxhunting Camp written by Joyce Fendley, MFH provides a cookbook approach to running a summer day camp for any hunt wishing to reach out to children. (The booklet is available from the MFHA.)
Hunts can do these things, but there is something we as ordinary members of the field can do. We can adopt-a-kid.
GAO Says U.S. Congress Harmed Horse Welfare
In a blunt report to the U.S. Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO) says that horse welfare has been harmed by Congressional action. Prompted by animal rights groups, Congress, in 2006, passed a law which eliminated funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the inspection of horses in transit to slaughter and at […]
Derek O’Connor Is 2011 Point-to-Point Champion in Ireland
‘The 2011 Irish Point-to-Point season came down to the wire as jockeys Derek O’Connor and Jamie Codd created a spectacular finish to what has been recognised as one of the most exciting seasons on record. The final season’s tally is O’Connor with 110 winners and Codd, the runner-up, with 104 wins. This is the first time that […]
Tell Me a Story: My First Foxhunt
Karen Myers photoIn my last blog, “How I Came to Go Foxhunting,” I told my story, and readers gave us some good stories in return. (See the Comments section after the blog and our Facebook page.) The next logical step in this tell-me-a-story series is “My First Foxhunt.” What do we remember aside from that kaleidoscopic blur of new images and sensations? Once again, I’ll tell you my story, then you can tell us yours.
The things that stick in my mind from my first foxhunt forty-five years ago, surprisingly, have little to do with foxhunting. Hounds? I’m sure there was a pack of foxhounds involved, but they certainly don’t stand out in my mind. As I explained in my last blog, I came to hunting through a love of horses.
Like most first-time foxhunters, I suppose I was primarily concerned with complying with the bewildering rules of hunting etiquette and with keeping me and my horse out of trouble. There are, however, two things I do remember about that day with perfect clarity: (1) romance and (2) the late J. Quincy Adams, MFH.