Maryland Foxhunter Is 2012 International Mounted Games Champion
Mackenzie Taylor, who hunts with the Goshen Hounds (MD), is the new Champion (under seventeen) of the International Mounted Games Association. Mackenzie and her pony Ink Spot (Inky) teamed up in Wales to compete for the championship against a field of nearly sixty competitors from around the world. The riding and required precision are nothing […]
Feed/Tack Store Owners Honored for Conservation Initiative
Bill Jackson, president of Tri-County Feeds, Etc. accepts the 2012 Golden Goose AwardBill and Jeri Jackson, owners of Tri-County Feeds, Etc. in Marshall, Virginia, were honored recently by the Goose Creek Association for their efforts in protecting the environment. Chairman Katherine Strother presented the couple with the 2012 Golden Goose Award. Tri-County Feeds, Etc. (TCFE) […]
Irish Foxhunter Will Attempt Side Saddle High Jump Record
Susan Oakes and saddle, the provenance of which includes the training of ceremonial horses for Queen Elizabeth IILongtime foxhunter Susan Oakes will attempt to set a new world record for the side saddle high jump at Aintree’s Annual National Show on July 28, 2012. The record of six feet, six inches was set by Mrs. Esther M. Stace at the Royal Sydney Easter Show, Australia, in 1915.
Susan Oakes hails from County Meath, where her parents Clare and Oliver and her sister Elizabeth are all involved in horses. Since childhood she has pony clubbed and hunted with the Meath Foxhounds, Tara Harriers and the Ward Union Staghounds, often riding side saddle. She also campaigns her point-to-point horses Parson’s Pistol and O’Muircheartaigh. She is also a show judge of hunters and side saddle, and an accomplished show rider winning the first ever coloured horse class at the RDS with Cisco Kid, and the coloured cob class with Crowboy JJ.
2013 Unveiled!
Here’s our Foxhunting Life 2013 Calendar, featuring all new photos and ready to ship on September 1. We’ve been publishing this appointments calendar since 1998—first for the MFHA and now for Foxhunting Life—and our annual collection of foxhunting images continues to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art. It’s a joyful task each […]
North Country Luna Is Grand Champion at New England
Grand Champion North Country Luna and (l-r) Jim Faber, judge; North Country huntsman Sandy Studer; Kendall Woodward; Owen Hughes, MFH, Norfolk Hunt; Vernon Studer, MFH, North Country Hounds / Sue Greenall photo
A Crossbred bitch rolled down to Massachusetts from the hills of Vermont and snatched the Grand Championship trophy from its habitual resting place at the venerable Myopia Hunt kennels. North Country Luna 2008 was judged Grand Champion of the New England Hound Show, hosted this year at the Berlin, Massachusetts home of Virginia Zukatynski, MFH, Old North Bridge Hounds on June 10, 2012.
Turning the Tables: Aiken Foxhunters Travel North
Loudoun West huntsman Martyn Blackmore blows his fox to ground.Aiken Hounds huntsman Katherine Gunter and I had been planning this trip for months. South Carolina summers are tough, and no sooner had we returned to Aiken after the 2011 Virginia Foxhound Show and found ourselves enveloped in ninety-plus temperatures that we began to think about September and a possible hunting vacation.
Everything came together well. We don’t begin our own cubhunting until October, which left September free and clear for adventure. Where shall we go? We had a wonderful invitation from friends in Millbrook, NY, so we decided to make the big push north, out of the heat first, and work our way back south.
Cornwall Woodman Is Grand Champion at Canadian Hound Show
Canadian Hound Show Grand Champion Cornwall Woodman 2010 / Paul Wilson photoCornwall Woodman 2010 (Fox River Valley Keystone 2005 ex Mooreland Wedlock 2008) was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Hound Show held this year at the kennels of the Hamilton Hunt (ON) on June 9, 2012.
Woodman is a Crossbred dog hound entered by Tony Leahy, MFH and huntsman of the Cornwall Hounds and the Fox River Valley Hunt, both in Illinois. Woodman was entered into the MFHA registry as a Cornwall hound, but the Cornwall and Fox River Valley packs are basically one in the same. Woodman is primarily the result of Fox River Valley breeding, but the tail female line—one of Leahy’s best—took a short detour through the Mooreland and the Whiskey Road kennels!
Is Britain’s House of Lords Doomed?
Prime Minister David Cameron wants to replace Britain’s House of Lord’s with a smaller, elected body of legislators, according to an Associated Press report. Cameron’s plan calls for the gradual introduction of elected members to a new chamber which would replace the House of Lords—that body of hereditary peers—that has been a branch of government […]
Now…Turn Round and Round Really Fast, Mum
We had some good captions submitted on our Facebook Caption Contest, but Candy Love’s caption produced such an immediate and stunning graphic image to our mind’s eye, that we declared her the winner. Candy, please email your postal address to me. Foxhunting Life would like to send you a gift for playing the game! Posted […]
The Griffon Vendeen: Another Basset Altogether
James Scharnberg, Master and huntsman of the Skycastle French Hounds (PA), walks out his Griffon Vendeen bassets. / Noel Mullins photo
The day following the 112th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, which I traveled from my native Ireland to witness, I accompanied advertising executive/sportsman Eli Silberman to visit the Skycastle French Hounds—a pack of Griffon Vendeen Bassets—at their kennels on White Acres Farm in Downingown, Pennsylvania.