Pentathlon Olympic Gold Medalist Is a Horsewoman First
Kate French, a horsewoman from a hunting family, wins the Olympic Gold Medal in the modern pentathlon for Britain.
The battle for gold in Tokyo’s modern pentathlon event involved yet another Olympian drama. Annika Schleu of Germany, comfortably in the lead going into the last day of the finals, experienced a meltdown in the equestrian test, catapulting Britain’s Kate French to the Gold Medal by the end of the afternoon.
Kate French, thirty years old, is at home on a horse. “I come from a riding background mainly; I’ve been riding since I was very little,” she said in an interview. French had horses from an early age and grew up in Pony Club. Her mother is Master of a mounted pack of hard-running bloodhounds, and her father is a Master of Beagles. She is the grand-niece of Derek French, ex-Master of the Eglinton and Caledon Hounds in Ontario (and an author and contributor to FHL).
Anti-Hunting Activists Target Northern Ireland
South Tyrone foxhounds of Northern Ireland at Minterburn / Noel Mullins photo
The League Against Cruel Sports has Northern Ireland in its cross-hairs. As we mentioned in a recent News piece, England’s Hunting Act of 2004 does not apply in Northern Ireland. Now, the LCAS wants to change that.
Free Hound Feed: A Win-Win-Win
Whey: the watery part of milk that is separated from the coagulable part (curd) in the process of making cheese. Whey is rich in lactose, minerals, and vitamins and contains lactalbumin (proteins) and traces of fat. –Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Foxhounds dig in to the palatable and nutritious mixture of kibble and whey. Note the healthy coats. / Graham Buston photo
The whey comes free. All huntsman Graham Buston has to do is drive a few miles from the Blue Ridge Hunt kennels to the cheesemaker’s farm in the village of White Post, Virginia and open the spigot on the fifty-gallon tank he placed there. He goes to collect the whey about once a week and has cut his feed bill in half.
What Foxhunters Can Learn from Eventers
“There’s something about horses that makes smart people stupid.” -James Wofford
Our main story in this edition tells in part how foxhunting played a role in helping a teenager become one of the leading young endurance riders in the country. Conversely, we have seen how other equestrian disciplines can help foxhunters get more enjoyment out of hunting by becoming better riders. What follows is extracted from an article we published ten years ago in which Olympian and Coach James Wofford addressed “What Foxhunters Can Learn from Eventers.”
James Wofford on Carawich,1978 / Gamecock photo
For most of us field members, one of the greatest single factors influencing the joy we experience during a day’s hunting is closely associated with our riding ability. The more competently we are able to cross the country on our horse, the closer we come to a totally fulfilling experience.
Hunt in Northern Ireland Charged In Court
The Iveagh Hunt Club in County Down—the south-easternmost county in Northern Ireland—has been charged along with several individuals at Lisburn Magistrates Court. The defendants are charged with two counts: allowing foxhounds to kill a cat and to attack a man. These charges are not made under England’s Hunting Act of 2004. That act does not […]
Foxhunting Junior Will Represent U.S. in Endurance World Championship
Charlene “Charly” Dugan and Southern Justice (Roo) in a CEI Young Rider 2* at Broxton Bridge in South Carolina, a qualifier for the World Championship squad. / Becky Kirchner Pearman photo
Charlene “Charly” Dugan is a busy teenager. Let’s start with horses. The sixteen-year-old is a foxhunter and endurance rider. She and her mom, Sally Jellison, own and train field hunters and endurance horses at their farms in Pennsylvania and Florida. They hunt primarily with the Rose Tree Blue Mountain Hunt (PA) and the Live Oak Hounds (FL).
In the world of endurance riding, Charly is one of three young riders chosen by the U.S. Endurance Team to represent this country in the 2021 FEI Endurance World Championship for young riders and juniors. The seventy-five-mile competition is scheduled to be held this year on September 9 in Ermelo, the Netherlands, and will host top young riders from around the globe.
Performance Trial Hounds to Vie for National Championship
Mission Valley 2018 Performance Trials: Fort Leavenworth Tracker 2010 (#71) was overall High Point foxhound after two days of hunting. / Allison Howell photo
The schedule of Foxhound Performance Trials for the 2021/2022 foxhunting season has been released by Trial Chairman Fred Berry, MFH, Sedgefield Hounds (NC). Nine qualifying trials will be run across the country, and the tenth and final trial will crown a Grand Champion and the top ten performance hounds in North America.
“‘Pretty is as pretty does’ really applies to foxhounds,” says Fred. The Brits invented mounted foxhunting and hound show, but they shouldn’t have stopped there.
What Were They Thinking?
The Quorn by John Ferneley, Yale Center for British Art
Quorn huntsman John Finnegan and his whipper-in at the time, Rhys Matcham, have been accused of hunting wild mammals with dogs in contravention of England’s Hunting Act of 2004. The incident is alleged to have occurred on February 24, 2020.
Finnegan and Matcham denied the charges and entered not guilty pleas in March 2021. A district judge ordered both men to stand trial at Loughborough Magistrates’ Court on August 24, 2021. So far, the story matches that of so many other British hunts since the passage of the hated Hunting Act.
The Unintended Consequences of Messing With Foxhunting
Britain―after having attacked, harried, and banned the sport of foxhunting―now finds itself missing the hedgerows built and maintained by foxhunters. Britain is missing her hedges not only for esthetic reasons but for practical reasons as well: carbon capture and the battle against global warming.
Robert Lane Fox, writing in the Financial Times, said, “The finest hedges in Britain are those planted and cared for by hunters: even as legal trail hunters, they want to be able to jump them with pleasure on horseback. For that reason, swaths of Leicestershire, say, or Herefordshire have been transformed and treasured. If hunters knock a hole in them they are promptly fenced at their own expense and cut and laid so as to grow back.
Mystery Photo
Calling hunt historians for help identifying the individuals in this old photograph which may have been taken at the venerable Norfolk Hunt (est. 1895), west of Boston. The man in hunting attire is Henry Vaughan, MFH of the Norfolk from 1903 to 1933. In the early part of the twentieth century, Henry Vaughan was well-known […]