California’s Island Fox Rebounds From Near Extinction
The diminutive Island fox is found only on the Channel Islands off the California coast. / National Park Service photo The island fox, a small cousin to the gray fox, is found on the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California, and nowhere else. They weigh in at three to five pounds and are […]
Oral Surgeon To Carry the Horn at Fort Leavenworth
Dr. Steven Thomas, huntsman, Fort Leavenworth Hunt, on Romulus
His day job is demanding, and he’s never hunted hounds before, but Dr. Steven Thomas has been preparing for his new responsibility as huntsman of the Fort Leavenworth Hunt (KS) since childhood.
“Time management will be the biggest problem I’ll face,” Thomas acknowledged. “We’ll need a lot of volunteers,” he adds. But he has admiration for his fellow hunt members, the foxhounds in kennels, and the distinguished history of the Fort Leavenworth Hunt. He’s definitely looking forward to hunting hounds this season.
Thomas grew up riding Western, and, as a boy, coon hunted with his grandfather who ran his own hounds. He never rode without a pommel in front of him until he hooked up with the late Tommy Jackson, huntsman at the Mission Valley Hunt in Kansas.
Fabled American Foxhound, Potomac Jefferson, Dies
Potomac Jefferson 2005, the toast of North American Foxhounds, winning the Grand Championship at the 2007 Bryn Mawr Hound Show one week after capturing the same honor at Virginia. (L-R): George Hundt; Vicki Crawford, MFH; Larry Pitts, huntsman; Lance Taylor; Jake Carle, judge. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
The fabled American foxhound who, along with his get, cornered the silver market in North America has passed on. Potomac Jefferson 2005 was the MFHA Centennial Grand Champion Foxhound at both the 2007 Virginia Foxhound Show and the Bryn Mawr Hound Show one week later.
That year, 2007, marked the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Masters of Foxhounds Association. The entire year was filled with special exhibits, competitions, and events all across the country, attracting large and enthusiastic crowds of foxhunters, horses, and hounds. The classes of all the hound shows were swelled with the best examples of foxhounds that could be mustered, along with their supporters. The year 2007 was a big deal.
A Horse Called Guitar
Guitar, oil on canvas, by Nancy KleckI want to talk about a horse. After nearly fifty years of hunting—around North America, Canada, Ireland, and England—on my own horses and on countless strange horses for the first time, I speak from some experience. Most of the horses have been darn good, even many of the strangers. A memorable few of the strangers have been especially good! Very few, thankfully, have been rank or dangerous. But I have to talk about one horse in particular—one of my own.
His name is Guitar. Yes, that simple. He’s registered with the Jockey Club just that way. Plain dark brown, sixteen-hand high, he was bred by the late Bill Backer of Smitten Farm in The Plains, Virginia. He’s by Our Native out of Royal Pastime by Tudor Grey. Sixty-four percent of Our Native foals were winners, and fifty-three percent of Tudor Grey grand-foals were winners. Guitar was bred to race, but he was never even put in training—no tattoo. My good luck.*
Jim Meads, 86, Honored at Peterborough
Jim Meads, eighty-six, was honored upon his seventy years of photographing the Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show (UK). It is surely a stunning achievement, considering that Jim first photographed the show in 1946, the year it was resumed after the end of World War II. Jim was presented with a bronze fox in the Peterborough ring […]
Essex Offers Basic Course In Foxhunting
Foxhunting 101 starts with a skull session in the Essex kennels tackroom. / Tiffany Evitts photo
Some hunts seeking to attract new members are pro-actively educating prospects. The venerable (1912) Essex Fox Hounds (NJ) offered a presentation this summer at their kennels in Peapack called “Foxhunting 101.”
Huntsman Bart Poole and whipper-in Sam Andrews gave a presentation in the afternoon at the hunt stables in Peapack, after which questions were invited. After the presentation, participants mounted up, introduced their horses to hounds, and rode practice turns around the field. Fifteen participants then joined the Essex subscribers and local landowners for a roading exercise. The course which ended with refreshments was priced at $50.00 a person.
Accusations Against UK Hunt Devastating
Karen L. Meyers photoIf the accusations are proven in court, the South Herefordshire Foxhounds, established in 1869, could be forced to dissolve—their hunting country redistributed to neighboring hunts. If the accusations are proven, a few misguided outlaws may have killed any chance of reversing Britain’s Hunting Act, certainly for the near future. If the accusations are proven, all foxhunting is tarnished.
Video footage taken secretly by anti-hunting activists purports to show two live fox cubs placed into the kennels with foxhounds, later removed lifeless, the carcasses placed in a dumpster from which they were later recovered and photographed by the activists.
If true, this wouldn’t even contravene the Hunting Act of 2004. It would be a breach of Britain’s Animal Welfare Act. It would also breach accepted hunting practices for the past century or more. All as a new Conservative-led government and the Countryside Alliance would like to convince the British populace that foxhunters can police themselves!
2018 Unveiled!
Here’s our 2018 Foxhunting Life Calendar, featuring all new photos for the New Year. Doug Gehlsen of Middleburg Photo shot our cover image of huntsman Hugh Robards with the hounds of the Middleburg Hunt. The photo memorializes the last hunt of Hugh’s brilliant forty-seven-year career as a professional huntsman. The first twenty-seven seasons of Hugh’s career were spent showing world class sport for Master Lord Daresbury, members of the County Limerick Foxhounds (IR), and a constant flow of visiting sportsmen and women from all over England, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and America. Our 2018 calendar is dedicated to Hugh Robards.
The calendar includes the work of many of the best-known sporting photgraphers in the world, with images from England, Ireland, and North America. We’ve been publishing our appointments calendar since 1998, and our annual collection of foxhunting images continues to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art. Represented in this year’s photo collection are hunts in England, Ireland, and North America. Images include horses, hounds, foxes, and coyotes in action, seductive scenes shot in the most beautiful hunting landscapes imaginable, and photographs that simply tell a story to foxhunters about foxhunting.
2017 Unveiled!
Here’s our 2017 Foxhunting Life Calendar, ready to ship on September 1 and featuring all new photos. We’ve been publishing our appointments calendar since 1998, and our annual collection of foxhunting images continues to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art. Douglas Lees shot the cover photograph of huntsman Reg Spreadborough flying a […]
Virginia Reports Second Case of EEE
For horses kept in the Tidewater area of Virginia, veterinarians recommend vaccination against mosquito-borne disease every six months. Anyone keeping horses in mosquito-infested areas of North America should heed this recommendation. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) today announced the second case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) in a Virginia horse this […]