The Chronicle of the Horse Is Sold
The Chronicle of the Horse in Middleburg, Virginia and Mark Bellissimo of Wellington, Florida jointly announced today the sale of the magazine to Bellissimo. The purchase also includes The Chronicle‘s enormous vintage black and white photo library that has recorded most major equestrian sporting events since the late 1930s, as well as the digital publication, […]
Beatrix Potter: From Peter Rabbit to Foxhunting
The Troutbeck Valley runs into the fells to the North East out of Windermere, through the seventeenth century village of Troutbeck. The road which runs through the valley rises dramatically toward the Kirkstone Pass and its famous Inn, rebuilt in the 1830s by Sewell the local priest.
As you climb the pass there is a superb view to the right of the head of the valley and the piece of land known as the Tongue (old Norse tunga or table land between two valleys) that joins Hird Ghyll on one side and Hag Ghyll on the other.
At the base of the tongue are the picturesque white farmhouse and outbuildings of Troutbeck Park Farm. In 1923 Beatrix Potter purchased the farm, the deeds containing twenty five separately described parcels of land running to 1875 acres for which she paid £8000. The farm was conveyed to her on 28th August 1923 making her one of the largest landowners in the English Lake District.
Hamilton Lily-belle Is Canadian Grand Champion
Hamilton Lily-belle caught judge Captain Ian Farquhar’s eye each time huntsman Andrew
Marren brought her into the ring.
An un-entered English foxhound who attracted the judge’s eye every time she entered the ring gave cause for great celebration at her home kennels where the Hamilton Hunt (ON) hosted the Canadian Hound Show on Saturday, June 8, 2013. Hamilton Lily-belle started her sweep by winning the class for Un-entered Bitches. She then proceeded to win the English Bitch Championship, the Un-Entered Foxhound Championship, the English Foxhound Championship, and the Grand Championship of Show.
“[Judge] Captain Farquhar told me it was rare for an un-entered hound to win a grand championship,” said Hamilton huntsman Andrew Marren, “but she screamed out quality to him in every class.”
Horse Slaughter to Resume in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finally given the go-ahead for resumption of the regulated slaughter of horses once again in this country as predicted in our report of March 9, 2013. This turn-around on the part of the government is in response to a reputable study showing that the welfare of horses was harmed by Congressional legislation that closed slaughter plants here.
Animal rights groups will now pressure Congress and the White House for more misguided legislation. Your opinions need to be expressed. Click here to learn how.
Most media news articles reporting the recent USDA action have approached the story from the horsemeat angle. The sensitivity of many in this country to the use of horses for human consumption is a powerfully emotional issue, and such headlines sell newspapers. However, what the media mostly ignore in this story is that the Government Accounting Office (GAO), Congress’s independent investigative arm, bluntly reported to Congress in 2011, that horse welfare had been harmed by their legislation that resulted in the closing of all horse processing plants in this country.
Is Irish Hunting Really That Crazy?
With the East Galway / Noel Mullins photo
Denya Clarke, who hunted from childhood in Virginia, was an A-Pony-Clubber, and now lives and hunts in Ontario, posed a question about foxhunting in Ireland. She writes:
“Several of us are interested in hunting in Ireland, but it seems a matter of pride to the Irish to boast about the speed, dreadful weather, jumps onto roads, formidable ditches, intimidating banks, wire, rain, steep hills, rivers, and rocks that one will face hunting in Ireland. We’re not chickens, but do the experts have any suggestions as to where or how to hunt in Ireland that doesn’t require doubling (tripling) your life insurance and leaving your up-dated will in the lorry?”
We asked Hugh Robards and Noel Mullins to respond—Hugh, because he showed world-class sport as huntsman for the County Limerick foxhounds for twenty-seven seasons, and Noel, because he is a lifelong foxhunter and one of those guilty Irish journalists that Denya refers to in her question.
Is Irish Hunting Really That Crazy?
With the East Galway / Noel Mullins photo
Denya Clarke, who hunted from childhood in Virginia, was an A-Pony-Clubber, and now lives and hunts in Ontario, posed a question about foxhunting in Ireland. She writes:
“Several of us are interested in hunting in Ireland, but it seems a matter of pride to the Irish to boast about the speed, dreadful weather, jumps onto roads, formidable ditches, intimidating banks, wire, rain, steep hills, rivers, and rocks that one will face hunting in Ireland. We’re not chickens, but do the experts have any suggestions as to where or how to hunt in Ireland that doesn’t require doubling (tripling) your life insurance and leaving your up-dated will in the lorry?”
We asked Hugh Robards and Noel Mullins to respond—Hugh, because he showed world-class sport as huntsman for the County Limerick foxhounds for twenty-seven seasons, and Noel, because he is a lifelong foxhunter and one of those guilty Irish journalists that Denya refers to in her question.
Immigration Reform Is a Horse Industry Priority
The U.S. Senate has passed its Border Security, Economic opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S.744), but the bill is expected to face opposition in the House of Representatives. The American Horse Council has strongly supported the bill, saying that immigration reform has been a horse industry priority for many years. Despite substantial efforts to recruit […]
Hunt Merger: When Two-Plus-Two Equals Eight
“We now have twice the country and twice the membership at one-half the cost,” said Donna Rogers, MFH of the newly merged Loudoun Fairfax Hunt. “It was a no-brainer!” Good sense notwithstanding, the courtship that finally resulted in an official union of the two hunts—Loudoun West and Fairfax—lasted two years.
“We had a long engagement,” agrees Rogers. “We hunted together, we socialized together, and we became happier and happier with each other.”
Compromises were required for the resolution of many questions. Who will hunt the hounds? What will be the name of the hunt? What will be the new hunt’s colors? What days will we hunt?
“The hardest issue was that of the huntsman,” said Rogers. “If we retained either of the existing huntsmen and let the other one go, there would have been great unhappiness on the other side. We decided that the fairest to both memberships would be to start with a clean slate.”
As a result of that difficult decision, British-born Andy Bozdan becomes the first huntsman of the Loudoun Fairfax Hunt. (Click to read an amusing anecdote from Andy’s days as a whipper-in.) Foxhunting Life has already reported on the round-robin of huntsmen changes set off in part by the Loudoun West-Fairfax merger. (Click to read Huntsmen on the Move and New Huntsman at Loudoun.)
Jim Atkins…Huntsman…Virginian
Douglas Lees photoJim Atkins, the well-known and greatly admired native Virginian huntsman, died on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, after suffering a heart attack. Although Jim had retired from hunting hounds, he was highly respected as a judge of foxhounds, most recently judging the Crossbred Ring at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show earlier this month.
Jim served as professional huntsman for the Old Dominion Hounds (1978–1987), the Piedmont Fox Hounds (1987–1989), and finally the Warrenton Hunt (1993–2005).
“Jim has to be recognized as one member of that exceptional group of natural huntsmen from Rappahannock and upper Fauquier Counties,” said Dr. Will Allison, ex-MFH of Warrenton. “As boys, they grew up hunting to put food on the table. They developed an innate feeling for game.”
The Voice of Bugle Ann: An Excerpt
This 1935 foxhound classic, reprinted by
The Derrydale Press in 2001, is cloth bound,
128 pages, $18.95, in the Foxhunting Life Shop.Although we can’t hunt in the summer, we can read about hunting! Here’s an excerpt from a foxhunting classic, the first of two slim novels, the second of which, Daughter of Bugle Ann, we featured six months ago.
Her voice was something to dream about, on any night when she was running through the hills. The first moment she was old enough to boast an individual voice, Springfield Davis swore that she would be a great dog, and within another month he had give her the name she carried so proudly.
One of her great-grandfathers, many generations removed, had followed Spring Davis away from home when he went off to join General Claiborne Jackson and his homespun army among the prickly-orange hedges, so there was logic in the inheritance which put that trumpet in her throat.