The Outside of a Horse
Book Review by FHL
Ashmere Books, 2020, Steven D. Price, cover illustration by Ronnie Mutch, illustrated, color, softcover, 215 pages, $19.95. Click to purchase.
Writer, rider, raconteur Steven D. Price and I were making the long walk from an overflowing General Parking area to the Grand Prix jumper ring at the Upperville Colt and Pony Show.
We trudged slowly under a glaring mid-day sun on this June day. Steve was winding up a story—one from his trove of equestrian assignments during his days in the New York publishing business. Over those years he had the opportunity to meet, traveled with, and even ride with numerous world-famous equestrian personalities. This story was hilarious. He finished just as we set up our folding chairs on the hillside, and I blurted a suggestion that, as it turned out, he had heard before.
John Jacob Carle, II (1938–2021)
Douglas Lees photo
The loss of John “Jake” Carle on Sunday, February 28, 2021, was a blow to the North American foxhunting community. A former Master and huntsman, Jake continued to be active and immensely valuable as a foxhound judge, reporter, photographer, and statesman. He was eighty-two.
Piedmont Watchman: A Mighty Stallion Hound
Randy Waterman, MFH, (foreground) hunts the Piedmont pack in the 1991 Piedmont-Midlang Hound Match. Farnham Collins, MFH, Millbrook Hunt (NY), (behind) is a judge. Watchman would surely have been with the pack this day but is unidentified. / Douglas Lees photo
Watchman is a popular name for dog hounds around the foxhunting world. ‘Watchman’ appears in at least fifty different hunts in the North American Studbook, not to mention the studbooks of England and Ireland. Nevertheless, whenever you hear the name Watchman in a foxhunting conversation, you can bet they’re talking about Piedmont Watchman 1989.
Songster: Warhorse, Foxhunter
Songster and Bert Main, his rider throughout World War I
Songster, a small, aged, chestnut horse was called up for duty on the very day after England declared war on Germany—August 4, 1914. The fourteen-year-old gelding, standing just over fifteen hands high, was considered too old and too small for the demands of wartime service, but there he was on Wednesday, parading through Loughborough Market Square in Leicestershire, on his way to France.
Age and size notwithstanding, he brought to the service his character, intelligence, and bravery. Those attributes plus a measure of luck helped him and his Trooper, Bert Main, to survive the three frightful years of war.
The Hunting Horn: What to Know and How to Know It
A Conversation with the Author, Grosvenor Merle-Smith
The Hunting Horn: What to Know and How to Know It, Grosvenor Merle-Smith, introduction by Tony Leahy, former president, MFHA, Dementi Milestone Publishing, 2021, hardcover, landscape, color, 8.5 x 11 inches, 288 pages, ISBN 978-1-7360885-5-5, $75.00. Order from the website, or contact via email.
Grosvenor Merle-Smith’s new book is a labor of love. Between its covers, you’ll find everything you ever wanted to know―even things you never knew you wanted to know―about hunting horns.
Your editor knows of no resource that compares to this meticulously researched, artistically designed, and lavishly produced book. The book’s title and cover design were heavily influenced, with the author’s tongue in his cheek, by an old pamphlet written by L.C. Cameron for Köhler and Sons, The Hunting Horn: What to Blow and How to Blow It. That pamphlet was the subject of a recent Foxhunting Life article. For any foxhunting library, these two publications―Merle-Smith’s and Cameron’s―constitute the sum and substance of just about all that’s known concerning the hunting horn, its history, materials, manufacture, sources, and music used in hunting the fox with hounds.
MFHA Signs Up EQ Media for Communications
The Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America (MFHA) has engaged EQ Media to manage and execute the association’s communications. Based in Wellington, Florida, EQ Media describes itself as a “full service media agency with an equestrian focus.” “After completing the most recent strategic planning session, the board recognized even more fully the importance of […]
Data Penetration: Russia, China, Now Hunt Sabs
High tech has been of immense benefit to foxhunters. With increased road traffic in every hunting country, staff equipped with two-way radios have been a boon to hound safety. GPS collars accurately locate hounds and often rescue those hung up in fences or otherwise disabled. Computers create foxhound pedigrees in microseconds, once a laborious pen-and-paper […]
Margaret A. “Peggy” Poe (1932–2021)
Peggy Poe at Melvins 90th birthday celebration / Douglas Lees photo
Peggy Poe of Hume, Virginia, passed away peacefully on January 18, 2021. She was eighty-eight.
Peggy was best known for her unfailing hospitality, her devotion to her family, and her fifty-one year’s marriage and partnership with legendary huntsman Melvin M. Poe.
Radnor Huntsman John Dean Dies Fighting Covid
Huntsman John Dean and the foxhounds of the Radnor Hunt / Jim Graham photo
John Howard Dean, III, huntsman of the Radnor Hunt (PA), died in Paoli Hospital on January 16, 2021. He was hospitalized fighting Covid-19 along with other issues over a period of weeks. According to the Masters’ announcement made the day following his death, John appeared at one point to be on the mend but his condition reversed.
As Human Population Expands, Wildlife Increasingly Relies on People Food
Red Fox / Mike Roberts photo
A recent study reveals that wild mammals—even big predators—are getting portions of up to half of their diet from human leavings, crops, or smaller mammals that live near people. The study included wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, coyote, foxes, fishers, and martens across the country.
These wild animals are relying less and less on foods found naturally, as human population spreads and presents wildlife with domestic dietary alternatives. The outcome naturally puts wild creatures in conflict with one another, and leads to more human-carnivore encounters in territorial boundary areas and suburban backyards.