Billy Vance at Eighty and the Fermanagh Harriers
How many huntsmen are hunting hounds at eighty years of age? Or to add a twist to that question, how many huntsmen having achieved that age have already hunted hounds for the previous fifty seasons?
Billy Vance, Joint-Master and huntsman of the Fermanagh Harriers, has achieved this milestone. To see him hunting hounds is inspiring, humbling, and brings home just how lucky we all are to be able to follow great horsemen like him across the countryside.
The Mardale Hunt: Chapters 5 and 6
The Mardale Dam under constructionHere are Chapters 5 and 6 of The Mardale Hunt by Ron Black. Through the courtesy of the author, Foxhunting Life is bringing you the entire book in installments every two weeks. You are free to download the book to your computer. We hope you have enjoyed the previous installments. Chapter […]
EHV-1 Case Confirmed in North Carolina
The neurologic form of equine herpes-virus, EHV-1, has been confirmed in a horse that was stabled in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The horse is presently under quarantine at the College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University. This is thought to be the first case of the neurologic form of the disease in North Carolina. […]
A Boxing Day Meet with the Carrollton Hounds
Accompanying Joe Bills’s story are Karen Kandra Wenzel’s photographs, including a sequence of one of the foxes viewed away.
“I love to shoot there whenever possible,” says Karen. “Carrollton has gorgeous territory—all rolling farmland and not a housing development in sight!”
New Public Land Rules Affect Horseback Riders in Virginia
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) owns more than 200,000 acres of land on 39 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in the Commonwealth. Most of the land was purchased and has been maintained with proceeds from hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses. For years, bird watchers, nature enthusiasts, and horseback riders have accessed and […]
Huntsman and Whipper-In to Wed at Tennessee Valley
Huntsman Andy Bozdan and whipper-in Erin Doyle, both at the Tennessee Valley Hunt, have announced their engagement. The couple plan to marry in May. London-born Bozdan is in his first season hunting hounds in the U.S. Prior to his arrival at the Tennessee Valley, he was huntsman of the Barwon foxhounds in southern Australia. Andy […]
Red Letter Day with the Stoke Hill Beagles
Stoke Hill Beagles, 1983. (front) Huntsman C.W. Allen, MH and first whipper-in/kennel huntsman Suzy L. Allen, (rear) second whipper-in Richard K. Hill, Esq.
As reported in an earlier News item, Boxing Day—the day after Christmas—traditionally draws large numbers of riders and spectators at foxhunting meets in England. According to The Daily Mail, a quarter of a million hunt supporters turned out for Boxing Day meets last month.
It’s a banner day traditionally for all forms of hunting with hounds, including beagling. Here’s a report of a Boxing Day meet of the Stoke Hill Beagles that took place on December 26, 1983 in Devon, England. It was a red letter day according to C.W. Allen, MH.
Orange County Hounds After Their Fox
Click the photo above to view the whole sequence in the Photo Gallery.
Blue Ridge Hunt Signs On New Huntsman
Huntsman Robert Howarth has been working his way south. He will carry the horn at the Blue Ridge Hunt in Virginia this year, arriving after a season hunting hounds at the Myopia Hunt in Massachusetts and before that the Hamilton Hunt in Ontario. Howarth will succeed Dennis Downing, now completing his eleventh season at Blue […]
Lynn Carlisle Breathed Life into her Animal Portraits
Lynn Carlisle was a gifted sporting artist and, though gone, shouldn’t be forgotten. I certainly won’t forget her. Besides my admiration for her artistic talent, I heard coyotes singing for the first time from her back steps in Lexington, Kentucky. (Coyotes hadn’t yet colonized Virginia.) This piece from the Foxhunting Life archives, written by Lynn about her art, was published in January 2012. She was then living in Aiken, SC. Five months later, she was shot dead. Her children maintain a website in her memory and make available prints and stationery bearing reproductions of her animal portraits. -Ed.
For me, drawing animals is an innate gift. My family always had horses, dogs, cats, and all the creatures that we five children could easily collect. At three, my favorite toys were easel and chalk. Recognizing my passion, my parents allowed me to start art lessons at the age of five. By age nine, I was attending all-day class every Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago, with live models and the entire museum in which to work. It was a young artist’s heaven.