Gold Medal Cyclist Switches Mounts; Rides at Cheltenham
Then: Pendleton, winning World ChampionshipScarcely one year after sitting on a horse for the first time, Olympic cycling gold medalist Victoria Pendleton raced over fences in the highly competitive Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival (UK) on March 18, 2016. She rode Pacha Du Polder to a respectable fifth place finish, despite the misgivings of […]
The Ledbury Foxhounds at Manor Farm
Here’s eventer Alice Pearson’s helmet-cam video of her return to the hunting field for the first time since her hard tumble several weeks earlier. Her video captures the Manor Farm meet on the day that journalist Leslie Wylie joined the Lady Martha Sitwell for their day with the Ledbury Foxhounds. See Wylie’s story below, “Part […]
Jimmy Day Saddles Two Hurdle Winners at Blue Ridge
Maiden Hurdle winner Prima Facie and rider Jeff Murphy (center) keep in touch with the field the first time around. / Douglas Lees photo
March 12, 2016 saw the sixty-seventh running of the Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point Races going off on the hunt’s normally scheduled weekend for the first time in four years, the three previous race meetings having been postponed because of winter weather conditions. With the weather and the footing close to ideal for horses and spectators alike, the meet, usually the third in the series, also served as the kick-off for the 2016 Virginia point-to-point season.
Jimmy Day-trained entries won two of the three hurdle races: Amateur/Novice Rider with Bruce Smart’s Dai Bando and the Open Hurdle with Daybreak Stables’ Manacor. In the Maiden Hurdle Race, Day’s horse, Zol Zayne had to settle for second place, as he did last year in the same race. The Maiden Hurdle was won by Celtic Venture Stable’s Prima Facie, trained by Eve Smithwick, MFH and huntsman of the Snickersville Hounds (VA). Jeff Murphy held Prima Facie to the pace he wanted and patiently stalked the leader much as he rode the same race last year on winner Bedizen. Murphy took the lead from Hardly Patient on the final turn, accelerated to the last fence, and flew it cleanly for a convincing win.
Foxhunters Will Benefit From NFL-Financed Research
National Football League/industry/government consortium funds research by riding helmet manufacturer to reduce sport-related head injuries. / Nico Morgan photo
Charles Owen, a leading developer and manufacturer of protective equestrian head wear, has been selected as one of five finalists to receive funds for the further development of new materials for protection from head injuries. Funding for the research has been made available by Head Health Challenge III, a partnership of the National Football League (NFL), Under Armour, General Electric, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Helmet design expert, Roy Burek, President and CEO of Charles Owen Inc., in collaboration with Cardiff University (Wales), Cambridge University (UK), and the High Performance Computing Center (Wales), has been working on the development of new energy absorbing materials based on the ancient Japanese art of origami. By using super-computers to analyze new material structures that fold, hinge, and compress, Burek aims to create new multi-reaction materials capable of protecting against soft falls differently than harder falls, oblique impacts differently than direct impacts. Their revolutionary material is called C3.
The Oldest Foxhunting Photograph?
Ambrotype, 1855, John Fred Garper / Collection of Jason WrightJason Wright may possess the oldest foxhunting photograph in existence.
A long time collector and researcher of early photography, Wright’s collection consists mainly of daguerreotypes covering the five-year period from 1839 (when the process was first introduced) to 1843. Wright discovered this photograph, an ambrotype, in a lot of early daguerreotypes that he purchased from a Scottish country house sale.
On the back of the framed photo appears the date 1855 and the name of the subject. The surname is somewhat difficult to make out, but the proud young man, booted and spurred, whip and cap in hand, would be John Fred Garper as best it can be deciphered. Wright claims to know all the major sources for daguerreotype and ambrotype (a later process) images and says he has never before come across an image of either process with English-style foxhunting subject matter.
Fire Erupts at Essex Fox Hounds Kennels; All Safely Evacuated
Forty-eight foxhounds in the kennels of the Essex Fox Hounds (NJ) were all safely evacuated by early responders from the local police departments as a fire that broke out in the feed room filled the building with smoke and flames soon seen shooting through the roof. The fire was reported at 4:51 am on March […]
James Edward Covington, Jr., MFH (1935–2016)
Senior Master James E. Covington of the Deep Run Hunt (VA) died at home, surrounded by family, on January 21, 2016. He was born February 23, 1935 in Richmond, Virginia, but spent most of the first four years of his life in Shanghai, China, where his father bought tobacco for Universal Leaf. After the Japanese […]
Foxhunter/Lawyer/Archaeologist Channels Ogden Nash
A Norfolk Hunt meet at the Noel Morss estate, Needham, Massachusetts, circa mid-twentieth century
The roster of members who in 1898 organized the Norfolk Hunt (MA) near Boston, and rode as members through the early years of the twentieth century, boasts well-known family names synonymous with American commerce, finance, and government. One member, active through the middle of the twentieth century, perhaps lesser known but every bit as interesting, was Noel Morss. (His grandfather founded the Simplex Wire and Cable Company.)
Morss served as treasurer then president of the Norfolk Hunt from 1951 to 1964. He’d graduated from Harvard Law School, practiced law in Boston, and was also highly regarded as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. His discoveries made while leading Peabody Museum archaeological expeditions to Arizona and Utah and his scholarship that followed were of such caliber that he was appointed to a committee chairmanship at both Harvard and the Peabody.
Less recognized perhaps was his remarkable talent for writing humorous and whimsical verse. Here’s one that should resonate with anyone who’s ever taken riding lessons. Without attribution, one would readily assume it to be from the pen of Ogden Nash.
British Hunts: Damned If They Do and Damned If They Don’t
British hunts are damned and accused by hunt protesters whether the evidence is valid or not. A dead fox was found in a hedge in the vicinity where the Ledbury foxhounds were hunting. A member of the hunt staff, who had a chance to handle the carcass before it was hustled off by hunt protesters, […]
Fox Tales: Beth Carlson’s Art
Fox Tales: Beth Carlson’s Art, Dog & Horse Fine Art, LLC, 2015, hard bound, color, 32 pages, $39.00, available from the publisher
Book Review by Martha Woodham
It’s not often that art lovers get to spend time with an artist to learn about the background of a painting, to discover insights into the thinking behind the work. But a lovely new book by artist Beth Carlson is like a walk through a gallery of her paintings with the Maine artist as your guide.
In Fox Tales: Beth Carlson’s Art, the artist has used her paintbrush to capture her encounters with foxes over the years. Each full-page painting—many in private collections and reproduced in full color on substantial, coated paper stock—is accompanied by a short essay by the artist explaining the history of each artwork.