Guilt by Association
We recently ran an article by Anne Hambleton titled “Thoroughbreds: Kings of the Hunting Field.” The article received many enthusiastic Comments and was posted by readers through the social media. Yet despite all the enthusiasm and warm feelings the article generated for this majestic breed, one Thoroughbred retirement organization may have lost the support of an important donor.
Anne wrote about some famous race horses—Steppenwolfer, McDynamo, Lonesome Glory, Private Attack, Buck Jakes—who found second homes in the hunting field. Those horses loved foxhunting, and their riders, sitting atop a fleet, supremely athletic, and bottomless horse that moves like a cloud would have it no other way. Anne made a case for the breed, and she also encouraged foxhunters to look at some of the wonderful candidates available at the many Thoroughbred rescue organizations.
One major retirement organization mentioned the Foxhunting Life article on their Facebook page and proudly told of some of the racetrack retirees they have successfully re-homed for second careers as field hunters. They received several positive responses, then heard from a long-time major donor who left a negative comment about foxhunting being a cruel sport and threatened to stop donating to the organization. Guilt by association.
University Students Promote Foxhunting
A group of students—foxhunting enthusiasts—at Greater Exeter University in the UK decided to introduce their non-hunting friends to the sport. They elected an MFH, appointed one of their members to be the fox, and fixed the time and place of the meet at one side of the campus. Any student with a bicycle was encouraged […]
American Foxhound Highly Regarded at Westminster
The smart money had the American foxhound and the affenpinscher dueling for top dog at Westminster last week. Jewel, the foxhound, won best of breed in the hound category, but, as everyone knows by now, it was the affenpinscher that was judged Best in Show. It’s often scary to see what AKC shows have done […]
I’m Outta Here
Jane Ramsey from the Lewisville Hunt sent us this photo of a flying fox in a beautiful Pennsylvania landscape. It was snapped by her friend David Amos who hunts on foot with his camera.
The Hunt Button Mystery
It began with a subscriber’s question. Vicki Reeves wrote, “A friend inherited some hunt buttons which have a hunting horn on them and “M.B.H. 1881.” How can I find out what hunt they represent or any additional information about the buttons?”
Foxhunting Life was able to identify the buttons as those of the Meadow Brook Hunt (NY). Once that was established, the owner of the buttons, Connie Rhodes West from Tampa, Florida was able to surmise the likely provenance of the buttons back through family history. Her story was so interesting, and the chronicle of the fabled Meadow Brook Hunt is so extravagant, we thought our readers would enjoy a trip back to those bygone days.
Riding Shotgun; Armed with a Camera
Whipper-in Neil Amatt races to get between hounds and coyote, turns to stop hounds.
Nancy Kleck is a sporting artist who follows the hunt with her camera to record action images of hounds, horses, riders, and foxes for later use in her paintings. She rides with former Blue Ridge huntsman Chris Howells, now a wheel whipper-in, and has discovered that her photos are of use not only to her in her art, and not only to the field members for their enjoyment, but sometimes even to the staff. Nancy writes:
I’ve been following the hunt nearly every meet since huntsman Guy Allman and first whipper-in Neil Ammatt came on board. I’ve gotten some fun photos as a hilltopper, and it’s been a really interesting perspective, listening for the horn, trying to interpret it, and keeping an eye out for anything that moves with a brush!
Meath Foxhounds Host International Ladies’ Side Saddle Hunt
Side saddle meet organizer Susan Oakes with her stallion, SIEC Atlas, at The Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim before the meet
The Ladies Side Saddle Hunt at Boyerstown, County Meath in Ireland was the brainchild of the Meath Foxhounds Masters and side saddle enthusiast Susan Oakes who is the current British side saddle high jump record holder at five-feet-nine-inches. (At Aintree last year Susan just rolled the top pole in her attempt at the world record of six-feet-six-inches.)
The meet, or was it a Ladies Gathering, was a world record turnout of lady side saddle riders seen in any hunt country. Up to fifty ladies from Ireland, USA, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Sweden, and Belgium descended on County Meath, and what an impact they made. It was like a scene from the last century when ladies still rode side saddle, with high standards of hunting dress, style, and elegance.
The Hoofs of Horses
The hoofs of horses, Oh! witching and sweet
Is the music earth steals from iron shod feet;
No whisper of lover, no trilling of bird
Can stir me as hoofs of the horses have stirred.
They spurn disappointment and trample despair
And drown with the drumbeats the challenge of care.
With scarlet and silk for their banners above
They are swifter than fortune and sweeter than love.
Virginia Senate Passes Ban on Competition in Fox Pens
Yetserday the Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 1280 which prohibits competitions in fox or coyote pens. This will affect foxhound field trials that use such enclosures for their sport. The bill also limits the number of dogs allowed in an enclosure to no more than five per acre. The bill does not curtail the use […]
Two New Jersey Farms Under Quarantine for EHV-1
Two farms in New Jersey—one in Gladstone, the other in Pompton Plains—are under quarantine for exposure to the neurologic form of equine herpes virus-1. A horse from the Gladstone farm that had attended a horse show in Newburgh, New York tested positive to the virus. After tracing the movements of the infected horse, the New […]