Lampton’s Alternate Sporting Life
Mason Lampton, MFHMason Lampton, a long-serving leader of the sport of foxhunting in North America and MFH of the Midland Fox Hounds (GA), has another sporting life. His alternate Field of Dreams to the hunting field is a polo field. The phrase, “If you build it they will come,” must have rattled around in his head for a while before he decided to transform a fallow potato field in Northern Michigan into a first-rate polo field.
This year, having completed its eighth season, Bliss Polo is bringing players and spectators to matches all the way to the northernmost shores of Lake Michigan. Near the Straits of Mackinac. Who would have thought?
Equine Art Exhibit to Benefit Connecticut Cancer Foundation
Sculpture by Marcela Ganly
The Connecticut Cancer Foundation (CCF) of Old Saybrook, Connecticut will celebrate their Inaugural Gallery Exhibition, Horses: In Harmony, with a Reception and Gallery Discussion open to the public. The exhibit will be curated by Marsha Malinowski of Malinowski & Associates, Fine Art Advisory. The celebration will take place on Friday, September 28, 2018 from six to eight pm.
The exhibition will remain on display from Friday, September 28 until October 26, 2018. It is the first such exhibit to be presented in the new CCF Gallery in Old Saybrook, and it will introduce three acclaimed Argentinian artists to the American art world—sculptor Marcela Ganly, artist Esteban Diaz Mathé, and photographer Aldo Sessa.
The Goodwin Hounds: New Hunt, Familiar Figure
“Tot” Goodwin and his Midland Crossbreds / Mary Kalergis photo
Jefferson “Tot” Goodwin and his wife Colleen have established a new hunt, the Goodwin Hounds, to hunt country in Inman, Statesville, and Union, North Carolina. The country was previously hunted by the Stonebroke Hounds which disbanded in the late 1990s. Landowners seem to be prepared to welcome the return of foxhunting to the area.
Not long ago there were there were four hunts in the Foothills area in the northwestern part of the state: Green Creek Hounds, Tryon Hounds, Greenville County Hounds hunting the Gowensville area, and Stonebroke Hounds hunting in Inman. The Greenville country has been assigned to Tryon by the MFHA, and Goodwin has permission to hunt from landowners in the old Stonebroke country. He plans to start small and has applied to the MFHA for Registration.
Statistics Suggest England’s Hunting Act “Lies In Tatters”
Falconers and huntsmen at British hunts attempt to hew to an unsatisfactory act of Parliament. / Nico Morgan photo
Statistics show that the Hunting Act of 2004 “lies in tatters” and should be re-examined by Government for being “too complex,” according to hunting advocates.
Less than half the cases prosecuted under the Hunting Act resulted in convictions in 2017, while the overall national conviction rate for all other matters in both magistrate’s court and Crown Court averaged between eighty and eighty-five percent. For prosecutions in 2018, the average conviction rate under the Hunting Act so far stands at forty percent. These conviction rates are the lowest since the Act came into force in 2005, falling from a high of just fifty-four percent in 2016.
Can My Foxhound’s Aggression Be Curbed?
Cathy’s seven-year-old pet “mostly-foxhound”
Five-and-a-half years ago, Cathy Eising asked our experts how she could steady her two-year-old pet “mostly-foxhound” on deer and other riot, so she could walk him in the woods off lead. She evidently achieved some success, since she has contacted us with another challenging question. The foxhound is now a seven-year-old.
Cathy asks, “How can I prevent his aggression towards other dogs who are invited into our house by me with their owners? I would like to be able to have friends bring their dogs when visiting and not have fights.”
The Dublin Horse Show: Pictures of my Memories
Noel Mullins, lifelong foxhunter and sporting photo/journalist in Ireland, and a frequent contributor to Foxhunting Life, launches his new book at the Dublin Horse Show this week.
The Dublin Horse Show: Pictures of My Memories is packed with eight hundred images of the world-famous show, selected from more than ten years-worth of thousands of Mullins’ show photographs as well as other historical images. Matthew Dempsey, past-president of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) has written the Foreword.
First held in 1864, the Dublin Horse Show featured a “Leaping Competition” (as it was then known) in 1868. The first winner was Richard Flynn, a sheep farmer from County Roscommon, on his hunter Shaun Rhue. He shared a prize fund of £55 but sold the horse to Squire Conolly of Castletown House, the founder of the Kildare Foxhounds for £1,000. He jumped six feet one-and-one-half inches over the Stone Wall.
Metamora’s Annual Stable Tour Raises Funds, Makes Friends
People leave with, ‘I never knew that!’ or, ‘So, you don’t shoot the fox!’
What a fine way to raise funds for the hunt and at the same time make friends for foxhunting!
“We keep the atmosphere relaxed and pleasant,” said Joe Maday, MFH, “and we try to offer visitors a variety, whether it’s a show stable, a driving stable, or a woman who raises Arabs and has foals and yearlings to show the children. We gain new hunt supporters for sure. People leave with, ‘I never knew that!’ or, ‘So, you don’t shoot the fox!’ There’s something for everybody, even if it’s just a pretty drive in the country.”
Will Goodall and the Belvoir
Surely, one of the great foxhunting packs of Old English (or traditionally bred) foxhounds—as distinguished from the Modern English foxhound—is the Belvoir (pronounced “Beaver”) in the UK. The kennels are at Belvoir Castle and have always been the property of the Dukes of Rutland. The hunt dates from 1750, and, except for a twenty-seven year period in the 1800s, the Mastership has always been held by the reigning Duke of Rutland. The Belvoir kennels are still considered by many breeders to be their primary source of Old English bloodlines.
Will Goodall served as the Belvoir huntsman from 1842 to 1859. Goodall’s hunting methods greatly impressed Lord Henry Bentinck, one of the leading MFHs of the day. Captain Simon Clarke, MFH of the New Forest foxhounds (UK) tells us that Lord Henry hunted three horses a day, kept copious notes, compared the best of England’s huntsmen, and believed Will Goodall to be the premier huntsman in England.
When in 1864 Lord Henry sold his famous hound pack, he wrote a letter to the purchaser, Mr. Henry Chaplin, describing Will Goodall’s hunting methods. The information in the letter so impressed Mr. Chaplin that, some years after Lord Henry’s death, he had it published under the title, The Late Lord Henry Bentinck on Foxhounds: Goodall’s Practice.
“Goodall’s Practice,” says Captain Clarke, “is the best treatise on hunting hounds ever written.” The revered Master and hound breeder Isaac “Ikey” Bell, the single individual most responsible for the modern English foxhound, is said to have had Goodall’s Practice painted on the ceiling over his bathtub! If you watch while hunting this season, you may see and recognize some of these same practices being used by your own huntsman. Here’s an extract:
Wearing Spurs Safely
For safety, spur strap buckle is centered on the ankle with the free end of strap pointed to the outside.When you are wearing spurs, where does the buckle of your spur strap fall? As the result of the concerned suggestion of James Wofford, Olympic veteran and articulate three-day coach, Foxhunting Life has changed its recommendation for the proper way to wear spurs. (Hunting Attire, Tack, and Appointments under the Resources drop-down menu on our website).
Wofford writes: “I (and others, George Morris, for one) want the buckle exactly centered on the rider’s ankle, thus the least likely to catch the branch of the stirrup in the event of a fall. For your consideration, I enclose photos of what I refer to as THE Lower Leg Position, meaning, in my opinion, correct in absolutely every aspect.”
Six Fox Pens Ordered Closed in Virginia
The Associated Press has reported the closure of six fox pens in the aftermath of an investigation by the Animal Law Unit of the Attorney General’s office in Virginia. Twenty-three fox pens in the Commonwealth remain open. Nine people pleaded guilty for stocking the pens with illegally purchased wildlife and face fines and suspended sentences. […]