Bay Cockburn, ex-MFH, Race Rider, Huntsman
Douglas Lees photoBay Cockburn, ex-MFH, hard-riding huntsman, and former winning steeplechase jockey and trainer, died of complications from melanoma on December 25, 2013.
Confined to a wheelchair for the last fifteen years of his life as the result of a riding accident, Bay was an aggressive race rider and had been referred to as the Evel Knievel of all huntsmen. He represented the epitome of invincibility in the saddle until one fateful day, while exercising a hunter over a straightforward coop that he had jumped countless times, he fell and was left paralyzed from the chest down.
He stayed in the game as best he could, training steeplechase horses, and despite the wheelchair, he continued to live the only way he knew how: full speed forward. I saw him at the races one day propelling his motorized chair, rocking perilously over the lumpy ground across a hillside until it finally toppled over. Friends rushed to right him and rearrange him in his chair, and he continued his hurried progress to get a glimpse of his horse at the next fence. Just another of many falls to ignore. Bay maintained his training license and remained active through 2013.
Bay rode in sanctioned races and point-to-points from 1991 to 1997 with twelve sanctioned wins to his credit. I saw him steal a race down the stretch at the Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point one year. He was lying second trying to overtake the leader. He anticipated just when the jock in first place would turn around to check on him. His body went quiet as if he had resigned himself to second place. The jock in front checked on Bay, was satisfied he had the race won, turned back to the wire and went to sleep. Bay got into his horse like a whirling dervish and passed his victim just before the wire.
Bay Cockburn, ex-MFH, Race Rider, Huntsman
Douglas Lees photoBay Cockburn, ex-MFH, hard-riding huntsman, and former winning steeplechase jockey and trainer, died of complications from melanoma on December 25, 2013.
Confined to a wheelchair for the last fifteen years of his life as the result of a riding accident, Bay was an aggressive race rider and had been referred to as the Evel Knievel of all huntsmen. He represented the epitome of invincibility in the saddle until one fateful day, while exercising a hunter over a straightforward coop that he had jumped countless times, he fell and was left paralyzed from the chest down.
He stayed in the game as best he could, training steeplechase horses, and despite the wheelchair, he continued to live the only way he knew how: full speed forward. I saw him at the races one day propelling his motorized chair, rocking perilously over the lumpy ground across a hillside until it finally toppled over. Friends rushed to right him and rearrange him in his chair, and he continued his hurried progress to get a glimpse of his horse at the next fence. Just another of many falls to ignore. Bay maintained his training license and remained active through 2013.
Bay rode in sanctioned races and point-to-points from 1991 to 1997 with twelve sanctioned wins to his credit. I saw him steal a race down the stretch at the Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point one year. He was lying second trying to overtake the leader. He anticipated just when the jock in first place would turn around to check on him. His body went quiet as if he had resigned himself to second place. The jock in front checked on Bay, was satisfied he had the race won, turned back to the wire and went to sleep. Bay got into his horse like a whirling dervish and passed his victim just before the wire.
Boxing Day Meets Revive Conflict in UK
Two-hundred-fifty-thousand foxhunting supporters—both mounted and on foot—were expected to turn out on Thursday, the day after Christmas, for the annual Boxing Day meets across the UK. About 250 hunts participated in foxhunting’s biggest day of the year there.
“The incredible support for hunts has not wavered since the Hunting Act and shows the demand for repeal of this unfair and unworkable act, which was not born of concern for animal welfare, but rather prejudice against those people standing in fields across Yorkshire today,” wrote Ted Bonner, director of campaigns for the Countryside Alliance in The Information Daily.
Despite Chairman Lord Burns’s 2003 pronouncement at the conclusion of the government Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs—that the committee did not find hunting to be cruel—a prohibition on hunting was inevitable. The Hunting Act was passed and became effective in 2004.
Heather Player to Carry the Horn at Norfolk
Heather Player carried the horn and Norfolk huntsman John Elliott whipped-in to her at the All New England Hunt hosted by Myopia in 2010. / Mary Marks photo
Myopia Hunt whipper-in Heather Player will move inland from Boston’s North Shore to become huntsman for the nearby Norfolk Hunt next season. Founded in the late 1800s, both hunts are among North America’s most venerable hunting institutions, and both have been hunting the drag since that time.
Heather grew up hunting with Myopia under the tutelage of well-known North Shore trainers Patrick and Barbara Keough.
“When I was around seven years old I started riding with Patrick and Barbara at the Myopia Hunt Club Stables,” said Heather. “Patrick started me hunting at eleven, and from
then on that’s all I wanted to do. I would do the local horse shows but never enjoyed it as much as hunting. I earned my Junior Colors at fourteen. My first paying job was at the Myopia Hunt Club at sixteen, riding and hunting horses.
Not Stupid; Just Misled
A recent poll by the Opinion Research Corporation revealed that seventy-one percent of Americans believe that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an umbrella organization for local humane societies across the country. They’re wrong.
Further, sixty-eight percent believe that donations made to HSUS help to fund these humane shelters. They’re ninety-nine percent wrong.
HSUS, according to IRS filings, gives one percent of their budget to animal shelters, according to JoAnn Alumbaugh’s article in Dairy Herd Network.
Are all these people wrong because they are stupid, or are they being misled?
Horse Slaughter Plants “Expected” to Open in NM, MO
Horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri expect to resume processing again in the U.S. in a matter of days. “Expect” is the operating word in this ongoing battle between the opposing views. Horse slaughter plants expected to open back in July of this year after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cleared the […]
Hark! Old Horse
Carla Hawkinson, MFH with her soulmate, Forty-One, her inspiration for the poem / Joy Bragg photoThis wonderful poem recently appeared on This poem recently appeared on FaceBook under the credit line, Author Unknown. We must correct that! The author is Carla Hawkinson, MFH of the Tennessee Valley Hunt.
“Hark! Old Horse” was published in the Summer, 2008 issue of Covertside when I was editor of that magazine. It surely deserves to be re-published, and Foxhunting Life is proud to do it…with appropriate credit. -Ed.
Hark! Old horse.
Please meet me at the gate.
Hounds are leaving kennels soon,
And we will not be late.
Step up. Old horse.
Carry me to the meet.
Our years together count for much,
Though you’re no longer fleet.
Trot on. Old horse.
I know you hear the horn.
The hounds are in the valley now,
The fox is in the corn!
How Old Dominion’s Huntsman Hooks the Kids
Colby Poe huffs and puffs on huntsman Ross Salter’s hunting horn. Honorary whipper-in Denya Dee Leake tells the story. / Michele Arnold photo
Ross Salter, first-season huntsman at Old Dominion Hounds (VA), and I came to the hunt three seasons ago. There were a few juniors in the field on a regular basis and always a good number on Junior Day. This year, however, the number of juniors on ordinary hunting days has increased dramatically, and Junior Day was a complete surprise to everyone.
We met at Copperfield Farm, between the village of Hume and the village of Orlean. The staff walked to the top of the hill with hounds and waited for the juniors to join us. They started coming up the hill, and they just kept coming and coming. We had juniors that were nearly adults, juniors that were just old enough to ride away from their parents, and some that were being led by their parents! In total we had fifty-two juniors surrounding the hounds.
Including the juniors we had a field of one hundred and nineteen riders. In all of Old Dominion’s history I do not believe that they have seen so many juniors in one place on perfectly behaved horses and ponies. The Masters, Gus Forbush, Dr. Scott Dove, and Douglas Wise-Stuart, each assigned certain kids to each staff member and to become Field Master. Each of us staff members had two kids with us at the beginning, and we slowly brought more kids up as the day went on.
So Why All the Juniors?
Hunt Reports: How Old Dominion’s Huntsman Hooks the Kids
Colby Poe huffs and puffs on huntsman Ross Salter’s hunting horn. Honorary whipper-in Denya Dee Leake tells the story. / Michele Arnold photo
Ross Salter, first-season huntsman at Old Dominion Hounds (VA), and I came to the hunt three seasons ago. There were a few juniors in the field on a regular basis and always a good number on Junior Day. This year, however, the number of juniors on ordinary hunting days has increased dramatically, and Junior Day was a complete surprise to everyone.
We met at Copperfield Farm, between the village of Hume and the village of Orlean. The staff walked to the top of the hill with hounds and waited for the juniors to join us. They started coming up the hill, and they just kept coming and coming. We had juniors that were nearly adults, juniors that were just old enough to ride away from their parents, and some that were being led by their parents! In total we had fifty-two juniors surrounding the hounds.
Including the juniors we had a field of one hundred and nineteen riders. In all of Old Dominion’s history I do not believe that they have seen so many juniors in one place on perfectly behaved horses and ponies. The Masters, Gus Forbush, Dr. Scott Dove, and Douglas Wise-Stuart, each assigned certain kids to each staff member and to become Field Master. Each of us staff members had two kids with us at the beginning, and we slowly brought more kids up as the day went on.
So Why All the Juniors?
How We Match the Foxhunter to the Hireling
Midnight, a 16-hh black Irish cob at Coopers Hill is everyone’s favorite, young and old.
How do I match riders I have never met with horses that will take care of them out hunting? The answer to that question starts with how the animal was gentled into riding and jumping to begin with. That’s the key.
It takes a number of years to get a horse hunting right. Anyone who hunts knows that you can get pullers, stoppers, and downright cranky horses. And then there are the ones that kick, bite, and buck. An odd buck of joy is fine, but the buck that is directed toward the rider’s dismount is coming from a horse that wasn’t respected and won’t give respect.
Down through the years the locals have brought very difficult animals to our yard for breaking. But we like to turn that word—breaking—on its head. We prefer to say we gentle and respect the animal and allow them the time to come to the conclusion that it is okay to accept the bit, okay to be brushed, okay to have their feet lifted up, to be saddled and eventually mounted. Some animals accept sooner than others simply because some trust sooner than others. The manner in which this is done determines the product—the horse—you are going to mount for your day’s hunting.