De La Brooke Tops Hunts in 2020 USPC Foxhunting Challenge
De La Brooke Pony Club topped seven North American Pony Clubs in the annual United States Pony Club Foxhunting Challenge Award. Marty and Daphne Wood, Joint-Masters of the Live Oak Hounds (FL), established and funded the annual Challenge Award to reward those Pony Clubs and hunts across North America that work together proactively in giving Pony Clubbers the opportunity to foxhunt.
Last season seven Pony Clubs and their local hunts accepted the Challenge, accounting for more than 420 days in the hunting fields for the young riders. In order of the Award placings, the Pony Clubs are: De La Brooke Pony Club, hunting with the De La Brooke Foxhounds (MD); St. Margaret’s, hunting with the Marlborough Hunt (MD); Ochlockonee, hunting with the Live Oak Hunt (FL); Blue Mountain, hunting with the Rose Tree-Blue Mountain Hunt (PA); Old Dominion, hunting with the Old Dominion Hounds (VA); Cedar Knob, hunting with the Cedar Knob Hounds (TN); and Portneuf Valley, hunting with the Red Rock Hounds (NV). The top participating Pony Clubs receive cash awards donated by the Woods.
Four of Fifty-Five American Dog Breeds Hunt the Fox
American Foxhound
Dogs, wolf-like canids believed to be related to an extinct species of wolf, are known to have been with us for 15,000 to 35,000 years. Humans from Siberia who crossed the Bering Strait when still a land bridge more than 10,000 years ago are believed to have had dogs in their company. Those dogs perhaps even made the human migration possible by pulling sleds. These are thought to be the common primogenitors to all American dog breeds.
Another huge influence on American breeds, and substantially more recent, were those pets and working dogs brought to America by early explorers and colonists. Many of these immigrant dogs most likely bred with native American dogs, creating still more new types to be ultimately bred for special purposes and domesticated further.
In the Path of a Wildfire
The wildfire tops the final ridge before descending into the valley toward the Red Rock Hounds kennels, stables, and homes, from where this photo was shot. / Joy Smith photo
“A huge scare. That’s for sure,” said Angela Murray, MFH and huntsman, Red Rock Hounds (NV).
After many hot and blistering weeks the sagebrush had turned to dry tinder for miles around, just waiting for a spark. On August 2, 2020 the wait was over. A car blew a tire on the north-south freeway 395 about ten miles west of the ranch that is home to the Red Rock Hounds. The spinning rim of the wheel hit the pavement and sparks flew. The sagebrush caught fire, spread, and with windy conditions for encouragement headed east from the freeway and over the first mountain range.
The Fox that Collects Shoes
We’ve all heard of certain ladies who collect more shoes than they could possibly wear, but foxes? In a Berlin suburb in Germany recently, according to the BBC and Deutsche Welle, footwear was disappearing from homeowners’ yards—sometimes a single shoe, sometimes the pair. Residents were on alert to determine the culprit. It was a fox, […]
The Hunt-Inspired Fine Art of Miniatures
Interchangeable cufflinks, dime size 17.91mm
When Beth de Loiselle—a painter and instructor of fine arts—met up with the work of Susan Smith Burnett and Paul Eaton—both designers and makers of fine bespoke jewelry—the result was art for wearing, not hanging.
Dog and Horse Fine Art Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina was representing these fine artists individually, but gallery owner Jaynie Spector also saw advantages to be derived by connecting the painter, de Loiselle, with the jewelers, Burnett and Eaton. She scheduled a sporting art event at the gallery and prompted Beth to furnish miniature horse portraits for cufflinks.
AI: A Boost to Foxhound Breeders
Julian Barnfield, MFH and huntsman, “at the end of a cracking Autumn hunting morning…the hounds had been amazing.”Julian Barnfield, former huntsman of the Cotswold, Heythrop, and North Shropshire Foxhounds (UK), has retired from the field but plans to use his breeding experience to assist foxhound breeders worldwide. Barnfield has associated with a leading European equine reproduction company to form Elite Kennel Fertility. Barnfield is a director of Elite, as is Tullis Matson, whose multi-award winning Stallion AI Services Ltd is one of the leading equine reproduction services in Europe.
Barnfield and Matson were Joint-Masters at the North Shropshire. American foxhound breeders—whether hunting a Crossbred pack or simply seeking an outcross to revitalize close bloodlines, should benefit from the services, facilities, and knowhow of the new company.
Virtual Hound Show Delayed by Success
In a press release dated July 10, 2020, the organizers of the international Virtual Hound Show (iVHS) announce that the start of the (iVHS) has been delayed until July 31, 2020 due to the “unprecedented support from the International Hunting community.” Entries have been received from more than 250 hunts from seven countries, and the uploading of images and entries—a vast amount of data—has been the cause of the two-week delay.
A New Huntsman for Aiken
Performance Trial huntsman Chad Wilkes in North Carolina / Lucy Kelsey photo
The Aiken Hounds (SC) needed a huntsman, and Chad Wilkes was available. Sounds simple enough, but it really wasn’t. The story is in the hows and whys of it: the perfect timing, the perfect match, and how it all meshes so perfectly.
In 1914 many of the most adventurous men and women of American sporting legend organized the Aiken Drag—wealthy northerners Louise Eustis Hitchcock, MFH and huntsman; her husband Thomas Hitchcock, known today as the father of steeplechase racing in America; son Tommy Hitchcock Jr., who ranks with his father as one of the greatest American polo players of all time; plus the Belmonts, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys.
Which Is the Real John Peel Horn?
John Peel’s hunting horn for auction
Mitchell’s, a Cockermouth auction house near Carlisle in Cumbria will hold its Country Sporting Sale from July 22 to July 24, 2020. Cumbria, of course, is where John Peel (1776-1854) hunted hounds. Peel, subject of the well known hunting song, “D’ye ken John Peel?” remains, arguably, the world’s most famous huntsman.
One highlight of the sale includes a hunting horn believed to have belonged to John Peel. The horn is described in the catalog as:
Hunt Mergers Bring Stability, Benefits
Sean Cully, MFH and huntsman (center), with hounds of the Rose Tree-Blue Mountain Hunt (PA). To the left is Brady Cully, whipper-in; to the right is Dr. Edward Franco, Joint-MFH and whipper-in.
When hunts merge, the resulting whole can often become greater than the sum of its parts. Take the case of a once-small hunt in Pennsylvania—the Blue Mountain Hunt. It was established by Sean Cully, MFH, in 1999 as a farmer’s foot pack. It became a mounted pack in 2009, was Registered with the MFHA in 2011, and became a Recognized pack in 2014.
Through unanticipated but judicious mergers, Cully’s little foot pack has stabilized a historic foxhunting country in Pennsylvania, rejuvenated the oldest subscription pack of foxhounds in the United States, and become a national influence and model for the sport.