with Horse and Hound

Rachel Wilkoski

Vixen Meet Field

A Meet of Vixens and One Scarlet Fox

 

Vixen Meet FieldThe Vixen Meet Fields. Photo by John Wilkoski.

I jumped at the chance when I was asked to join the committee to plan and execute the third annual Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Vixen Meet in Pennsylvania. I was thrilled to be on a hunt committee for the first time and had some big ideas brewing almost immediately. Luckily, my fellow committee members had the same big ideas to make this Vixen Meet bigger and better than ever before. The goal to make our Vixen Meet a destination, rather than just a one-day event, drove us to think big and think fabulous.  We rallied the troops from our hunt community to pull off such a big endeavor. 

Read More
wilkoski.slabpile fixture

Andrews Bridge Opens Fall Season at the Slabpile

wilkoski.slabpile fixtureThe foxhunter's favorite view: between the ears  /   Rachel Wilkoski photo

Thursday morning, September third, just past 7:00 am, the sun was rising over high corn fields, alfalfa and late season tobacco fields, much of it soon to be harvested by teams of Belgian mules in Christiana, Pennsylvania. Off of Highland Road, arriving Andrews Bridge Foxhounds members were pulling their rigs onto the edge of a tobacco field. The farm ground was greasy from the prior night of rain and it was the slightest bit humid.

Read More
rachel wilkoski.crop

Keyboard Bullying Harms Your Hunt and Your Sport

rachel wilkoski.cropHappy time for our author is sitting on a good horse and following a topnotch pack of hounds. She worries that incivility, personal attacks, and coarseness on the part of foxhunters on social media is harming our sport and our clubs.

As a twenty-two-year-old, I have grown up in the age of extreme technological and social media growth. Everyone has it; everyone uses it. I’ve also grown up in the hunting field and follow hounds three days a week. I travel to hunt and do my best to experience all types of hunting, all over.

My happy place is on a good horse, behind a great pack of hounds. The hunt field is the place where you can leave all other thoughts behind for a few hours and turn your focus to staying topside and keeping up with hounds. The hunt field is a place to be at peace, away from our own and the world’s struggles, whether big or small. But recently...

Read More