Blue Ridge Huntsman Guy Allman Returns to England
Once again the time of year has arrived when hunts and huntsmen contemplating change make their decisions known—one to the other. Foxhunting Life will feature at least some of these huntsmen’s personal transitions through the coming months.
Nancy Kleck photo
Guy Allman, popular huntsman for the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA) for the past three seasons, received an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’ll return to England—home for him and his wife, Fran—to carry the horn for the Bicester with Waddon Chase Foxhounds. Guy will succeed huntsman Patrick Martin, who is retiring after twenty-two seasons hunting the pack.
The condition, fitness, and biddability of the Blue Ridge hounds testify to Allman’s work ethic. He spends a great deal of time training puppies early on, so by the time the season starts they are ready to enter, off the couples, all at once. On the first day of the season, every hound to be entered is out with the pack. And it’s a big pack, typically twenty-five to thirty couple, virtually every hound in kennels capable of walking on four legs.
Also on the first day of hunting, every hound is fit not only for the chase but for the late-summer weather as well. Allman wants hounds as oblivious to the heat as he appears to be. There are to be no excuses.
Moore County, NC: Is the Eastern Coyote a new Subspecies?
Every foxhunter in the eastern U.S. is by now well acquainted with the coyote—the Eastern coyote, that is. The question, according to ThePilot.com in Moore County, North Carolina, is this: is the Eastern coyote a new subspecies, or just the same old coyote formerly seen only in our western states? Dr. Colter Chitwood has been […]
A Sporting Tour Through Merry Old….Part 2
Join James Barclay—an ex-Master of five English foxhunts—for Part 2 of his personal and revealing tour of elite hunting establishments through Middle and Eastern England. Barclay went out with twenty-one packs in just two months during the informal season, the last of which on the morning before the first of six Opening Meets. Click for Part 1.
Fitzwilliam huntsman George Adams and hounds with birdman John Mees at the kennel meet, Milton Park / James Barclay photo
Fitzwilliam
Hunting with the Fitzwilliam is always a treat, especially as my family and I spent twelve very happy seasons there. Although Peterborough is on the doorstep, the Park is beautifully laid out for hunting and many good days are enjoyed there. The kennels are situated on the eastern side of the Park and have a history going well back into the 1700s.
The combination of these hounds hunting with an eagle—[The Hunting Act allows a pack of hounds to flush a fox to a bird of prey]—in close proximity to the action is something we are seeing in all but a few places now and is very much a sign of the times. George Adams has hunted these hounds for over thirty years and is certainly one of the most popular men in his profession. This particular morning was when one realises just how lucky we are. On our side of the Park wall was a great gathering of like-minded people enjoying something that has taken place here for generations. On the other side is four miles plus of new houses, factories, roads and the roar of urban noise. Is it therefore, not up to us—those who love our countryside and its activities—to encourage and involve those who may never have come across us before? Our worlds may be far apart in one sense, but they are not in another. There may be just a wall between us in this case, but it should never be looked upon us as a barrier.
Wise Dan in Rarified Company after Second Horse of the Year Title
Not since 1971—the introduction of the modern system of Eclipse Award voting—has a horse won three categories of awards—Horse of the Year, Older Male, and Male Turf Horse—two years in a row. Wise Dan did so by winning six of his seven starts on turf, carrying high weight in five races, and winning four Grade […]
The Foxhounds of John Emms
Foxhounds and Terrier / painting by John Emms
A major exhibit and sale of paintings by John Emms (1843–1912) will be mounted by the William Secord Gallery in New York City from February 8 to March 15, 2014. This will be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Emms’ work and is timed to coincide with this year’s Westminster Dog Show. More than fifty paintings of foxhounds, terriers, spaniels, and other sporting breeds are included. Foxhunters visiting New York during the MFHA Annual Meeting week are invited to visit the Gallery for a preview of the entire exhibit.
Born the son of an amateur artist in Norfolk, England, the young Emms moved to London where he apprenticed with the great academic painter, Lord Frederick Leighton. Emms soon went on his own, painting images that capture the beauty of English country life. An avid foxhunter, Emms maintained studios in London and in the New Forest area of England.
Inaugural Sporting Art Auction
Over the Ditch by Sir Alfred MunningsPut the expertise of the world’s largest Thoroughbred auction house—Keeneland—together with Gregg Ladd’s premier gallery of sporting art—Cross Gate—both located in Lexington, Kentucky, and you get what should turn out to be an exceedingly important auction of sporting art. This inaugural Sporting Art Auction will take place on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 4:00 p.m.
To be sold are 174 lots, both paintings and sculptures. The focus is on sporting art by nineteenth and twentieth century American and British artists—realists and impressionists—such as Sir John Frederick Herring, Sir Alfred Munnings, John Emms, Pierre Jules Mene, John Skeaping, Lionel Edwards, Edward Troye, Franklin Voss, Peter Curling, Peter Biegel, Michael Lyne, three generations of Wyeths (N.C., Andrew, and Jamie), Mary Cassatt, and Andre Pater.
Legendary Show Jumper Snowman Took the Kids Foxhunting
Harry deLeyer and Snowman
Harry deLeyer, born in the Netherlands in 1928, died last summer at the age of ninety-three.
After the Nazis rolled over the Low Countries and much of the European Continent in the spring of 1940, Harry’s family farm became a way-station for the Dutch resistance during World War II. Fallen Allied airmen attempting to return to their bases in England and Jews attempting to escape capture by the Nazis were sheltered in a cellar secretly dug out next to the barn and covered by a manure pile. After Allied bombing raids, twelve-year-old Harry would ride out at night, helping to search for surviving Allied airmen. One pilot died of his injuries at the deLeyer farm. Harry’ father buried him and mailed the dog tags to his family in North Carolina. Five years after the war ended, the pilot’s parents sponsored the deLeyer Family to emigrate to North Carolina. A few years later, the deLeyer family moved to Long Island, and Harry became a riding instructor at an all-girls school. And he needed one more school horse.
Legendary Show Jumper Snowman Took the Kids Foxhunting
Snowman and Harry de Leyer. Painting by Joan Porter Jannaman, courtesy of the International Museum of the Horse, Kentucky Horse Park
Harry de Leyer’s first look at Snowman was between the slats of the truck bound for the killers. Harry had had trouble with his old station wagon, and he arrived late to the horse auction in the Pennsylvania Amish farming country. It was over, and there was only one trailer left in the parking lot. It was always the last trailer to load.
Midst the fearful and fidgeting horses crowded together on the bare floor for their last journey, one plain-looking gray stood apart for his calmness and self possession. Harry had driven to the auction in the hope of finding an inexpensive school horse for his riding students at the Knox School on Long Island, so he asked the trucker if he could see the gray. The gelding was missing a shoe, had bloody knees, and rubs on his chest from a heavy harness, but he was well-made and had a kind eye. The trucker had paid the “killer’s price” of sixty dollars. Harry was indecisive, but something in the horse’s composed demeanor spoke to him. Harry paid the man eighty dollars—the most he had planned to bid for any horse—and took him home.
The Sporting Art of Juli Kirk
Autumn Avenue by Juli Kirk, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches
Juli Kirk is a classically-trained artist who prefers to work from her imagination. The results to me are both Impressionistic and Expressionistic—the former where the play of changing light on realistic shapes and visible brush strokes stimulate the viewer’s imagination, and the latter where moods and feelings are evoked.
Kirk lives and paints in Easthampton, Massachusetts and Warrenton, Virginia. She is a cum laude graduate of Boston University’s School for the Arts and has also studied art at Queens College (NY), New York Studio School, Cabrillo College (CA), and the University of Santa Cruz (CA).
Juli continued to paint daily while raising three children, riding for a sale barn, running a boarding stable where she gave riding lessons, and training horses on a freelance basis. She was taught to ride by her mother, who was a show rider competing in her youth at the top shows, including Madison Square Garden. Juli got into racing on the fair circuit in western Massachusetts and eventually traveled to Virginia to work with a cousin, Sharon Maloney, who broke racehorses. During that time, a broncy horse at the sale barn bucked her off. The fall resulted in severe back problems.
Melanie Mathewes Named Exec Director at National Sporting Library
Culminating an extensive nationwide search, the National Sporting Library and Museum (NSLM) in Middleburg, Virginia has announced the appointment of Melanie Mathewes as its new Executive Director. For the last eight years, Mathewes has served as Executive Director of the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. During her tenure, she oversaw the first strategic […]