Sporting Art Exhibit at the Willcox Hotel
Heather St. Clair-Davis, On Scent, oil on canvas, 18” x 24”A selection of sporting and other contemporary equine art from the renowned Cross Gate Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky is now on exhibit at the Willcox Hotel in Aiken, South Carolina until the end of April.
This year’s exhibition features works by the late Heather St. Clair-Davis, Michael Lyne, Henry Koehler, as well as contemporaries Andre Pater, Larry Wheeler, Sandra Oppegard, Russian-born Valeriy Gridnev, and other highly regarded artists. Painting in several sporting disciplines—foxhunting, Thoroughbred racing, hunter/jumpers, coaching, and shooting—the exhibit provides a broad presentation of equine and field sport this year.
Casanova Hunt and Tommy Lee Jones Honored by Virginia House of Delegates
Photos by WLS Photography
Casanova Master Joyce Fendley and huntsman Tommy Lee Jones were honored by the Virginia House of Delegates in Richmond. On February 1, 2019, Representatives of The Virginia State Legislature approved a Resolution commending the Casanova Hunt in Fauquier County on its 110th anniversary. Casanova’s history and contributions to the land and the community were noted.
A second Resolution recognized Casanova’s professional huntsman of forty-nine years, Tommy Lee Jones, for his contributions to hunting and showing in his Fauquier County community as well. Tommy Lee is the show manager for both the Upperville Colt and Horse Show and the Warrenton Horse Show.
Sporting Gallery, Leading Artists Benefit MFHA
Heading Home by Beth Carlson
Dog and Horse Fine Art gallery in Charleston, South Carolina, is currently hosting an exhibit of new sporting art created for the occasion by leading contemporary artists. The exhibit will be on display until March 16, 2019, and a percentage of sales will benefit the Masters of Foxhounds Foundation.
Beth Carlson, Joseph Sulkowski, and Larry Wheeler will be among the sporting painters featured in the exhibit. Jewelers Paul Eaton and Beth and Burnett de Loiselle will also be exhibiting their sporting miniatures in both jewelry, oil paintings, and sculpture.
Is the Ex-Member Entitled to Wear Colors?
Members of Foxhunting Life’s Panel of Experts respond to a reader’s question. (Clockwise from the top: Masters and huntsmen Marion Thorne, Hugh Robards, Jerry Miller, and Marty Wood.)
A reader asks, “If a member who has quit the club returns to cap, is it appropriate for he or she to wear the colors of that club?”
A good question—simple and practical—yet I couldn’t think of any published rule of attire that addressed the subject.
Ghost Dog
Ghost Dog. That’s how this foxhound is referred to in Fairfax County, Virginia. For nearly a year now, Ghost Dog has been seen hunting through suburban properties by homeowners in Fairfax and Annandale, just west of the Washington D.C. Beltway, between Routes 236 and 50. These are busy high-speed roadways, and local residents fear he […]
A Foxhunter’s Childhood Memories of WWII England
Book Review by Norman Fine
Spirit: The Lighter Side of Life In Wartime Britain, Derek French, with watercolor illustrations by Shelagh Armstrong, paperback, 309 pages, $19.95, available at AmazonDerek French, ex-MFH of the Eglinton and Caledon Hounds (ON), was raised during World War II on his family farm just twenty miles south of London in Kent. He emigrated to Canada in the 1950s with his wife, Bobbie, and began foxhunting with Eglinton and Caledon in 1988. He was appointed Master in 2000, and, after a seven-year term, continued to serve the hunt as a road whip and still writes articles for the hunt’s Stirrup Cup magazine, several of which have been republished in Foxhunting Life.
In his recently published, highly readable, and often amusing account of his war years—Spirit: The Lighter Side of Life In Wartime Britain—Derek recounts his boyhood memories as the war unfolded in the skies above the farm and upon the village below. What follows is a brief introduction to Derek, then our review of this wartime memoir as experienced by a normal, active young boy. We recommend this book enthusiastically.
Captain Ian Farquhar Closes a Distinguished Career
The Master and huntsman of arguably the most exclusive and storied foxhunting pack in the world—the Duke of Beaufort’s—looks ahead after a forty-five-year career carrying the horn. Captain Ian Farquhar is not encouraged by what he sees.
From his comfortable farmhouse on the Highgrove estate of the Prince of Wales, filled with photos, paintings, and artifacts that could be said to mock his earlier years of untrammelled post-war sport, Farquhar and his beautiful wife, Pammie-Jane—herself a noted horsewoman—contemplate their upcoming move to retirement in the West Country. Just fifteen years ago, like a knife in the heart, a despised piece of legislation, the Hunting Act, was passed by his nation.
Dr. Eric Myer Is Still Foxhunting at 82
Eric Myer wears the colors of the Genesee Valley Hunt (NY) early in the season. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
Eric Myer, DVM, is currently in his sixty-sixth season of foxhunting. And not just with one hunt. No, no. If that were the case, the hunting season would be far too short to suit him.
At eighty-two, Eric begins his season in mid-July up north near Rochester, New York with the Genesee Valley Hunt. His wife Martha has roots in Geneseo, and the couple has a summer farm there. Then, in mid-October, when the Piedmont Fox Hounds are well into their cubhunting season down south in Virginia, Eric and Martha return to their Boyce farm in the Shenandoah Valley.
Learning to Say ‘Tally Ho’ in Chinese
You are forgiven for assuming that The County Down Club is in Northern Ireland. Actually, it’s in Shanghai, China, and is described as the first exclusive club for horsemanship and foxhunting there. The County Down Club takes advantage of the country’s growing economy—now the second largest in the world. Established three years ago by Steven […]
Horse Slaughter: 2019 Update
The last of Foxhunting Life’s many articles on the emotional subject of horse slaughter was published in May of 2014. It’s time for an update.
In 2014, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill which, in effect, assured that the ban on the humane slaughter of horses, instituted seven years earlier in the U.S., would continue.
This, despite a report by the highly respected General Accounting Office (GAO)—Congress’s own watchdog agency—that, because of Congress’s ban, and the subsequent closure of all horse processing plants in the U.S., unwanted horses had to travel further (to Mexico and Canada) and, in many cases, were slaughtered under worse conditions than before. As a result, the GAO emphatically told Congress that their ban on horse processing had actually harmed horse welfare.