Literature
The Happiest Man in England
The happiest man in England rose an hour before the dawn;
The stars were in the purple and the dew was on the lawn;
He sang from bed to bathroom—he could only sing “John Peel”;
He donned his boots and breeches and he buckled on his steel.
He chose his brightest waistcoat and his stock with care he tied,
Though scarce a soul would see him in his early morning ride.
The Fox’s Morning & Other Stories
The Fox's Morning & Other Stories, W.H. DeCourcy Wright, edited by Ann L. McIntosh, illustrated by Peggy Kauffman, The Elkridge-Harford Hunt, Maryland, 2010, 106 pages, $33.00, available from Ann L. McIntosh, 3810 Beatty Road, Monkton, MD 21111
W.H. DeCourcy Wright suffered a fatal fall from his horse while foxhunting on February 3, 1951. The horse stepped in a groundhog hole, throwing his rider heavily and breaking his neck. For years after that, Wassie Ball, another larger-than-life personage from the distant mists of Elkridge Harford Hunt Club history, albeit from a slightly more recent era than Mr. Wright, would thrill local youngsters by showing them that exact groundhog hole and then poking around in the loose dirt and stones surrounding the hole to find tiny shards of glass, ostensibly from the deceased foxhunter’s spectacles.
For my part, other than having a vague knowledge that DeCourcy Wright was one of the defining personages from the glory days of our hunt club before and after The War, and having an exact knowledge of which groundhog hole brought about his demise, I knew little about him.
Little, that is, until his grand-daughter Ann McIntosh left in my mailbox the collection of his writings that comprise this book. It turns out that this is one of the freshest, brightest, most brilliant and original collection of "sporting" pieces I have ever read. By the way, "sporting" is intended to be descriptive, not limiting. This is wonderful writing, period.
Horse Tales and Hunt Talk
Horse Tales and Hunt Talk: The Life and Times of 31 Equestrians in Ireland, America, France and Australia, Noel Mullins, NDM Publications, Ireland, 2006, Hard Cover, 171 pages, 37 Euros, www.noelmullins.com. See special Christmas offer at end of article.
Where else but in the hunting fields of Ireland could you have found such larger-than-life and totally disparate characters as Lady Molly Cusack-Smith, Elsie Morgan, American John Huston, and Thady Ryan? Sadly, those four have passed on, but others---Michael Dempsey, Willie Leahy, and Aidan O’Connell---wear big shoes as well and are very much with us still! Also included in this delightful book of personality profiles are North America’s Nancy Penn-Smith Hannum and a smattering of French and Australian characters whom you should also meet.
Photo-journalist Noel Mullins is a regular contributor to The Irish Field, and his work has also been published in Horse and Hound, Baily’s, Hunting and Country Illustrated in England, and The Chronicle of the Horse and Foxhunting Life in the U.S.
"I started hunting with the Galway Blazers with Michael Dempsey when I was eight years old in 1952 on the milkman’s pony, Teapot, but only after I helped him on his delivery rounds!" recalls Mullins.
Secretariat
Secretariat
by Raymond Wolfe
Updated Edition
Foreword by Ronald Turcotte
The Derrydale Press
224 pages, color
The toss of a coin determined the ownership of the foal that was to become the greatest racehorse ever bred. By losing the toss, Penny Chenery had to settle for the colt that was foaled the following year. When it finally arrived she named it Secretariat.
Some track pundits laughed when the big, fat colt with the ravenous appetite came to the track in training. He was even-tempered and relaxed but possessed a clownish streak. Trainer Lucien Laurin teamed him up with Gold Bag who "wasn’t much of a hoss" according to the grooms, but Gold Bag still worked faster than Secretariat. Then one early morning the youngster flashed by and trainer Lucien Laurin looked at his stopwatch in disbelief.
The Simple Game: An Irish Jockey’s Memoir
The Simple Game:
An Irish Jockey’s Memoir
by Thomas Foley
Foreword by Otto Thorwarth
Caballo Press of Ann Arbor Book, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2010, 163 pages, ISBN-13: 9780982476659
Thomas Foley was an empty-headed (by his account) seventeen-year-old when he came to America from Ireland to pursue a career in jump racing. This month he will be seen by millions of movie goers as he plays the part of Secretariat’s exercise boy in Walt Disney’s long-hyped movie about the great racehorse. Between the two events, which bracket a period of twelve or thirteen years, young Foley has experienced a bit of life.
Foxhunting Forever
Last month FHL published Ema Klugman’s winning entry in the United States Pony Club annual Hildegard Neill Ritchie Joys of Foxhunting Writing Contest for 2010. Her excellent poem Foxhunt has since passed from the Home Page, but can be found under the Horse and Hound drop-down menu by clicking on Literature.
This month, we bring you Maria Filsinger’s well-written entry, Foxhunting Forever, which was awarded second place in this year’s contest. As one of the contest judges, I liked how Maria tied age to youth as it relates to the continuum of foxhunting.
Blair’s Memoir: An Astonishing Claim
In an astounding revelation, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair claims to have deliberately sabotaged the Hunting Act of 2004 so that foxhunting would continue.
In his newly published memoir A Journey (Random House), Blair says that the hunting ban was "one of the domestic legislative measures I most regret." He claims to have (1) engineered sufficient loopholes in the Act so that hunting could continue and (2) instructed his Home Office minister to steer the police away from enforcing the law.
Foxhunt
FHL takes pleasure in publishing the winning entry in the United States Pony Club annual Hildegard Neill Ritchie Joys of Foxhunting Writing Contest for 2010. As one of the contest judges, I was impressed by the powerful imagery produced by this young author's creative description of wind, trees, and earth from the horse's perspective.
In the coming weeks FHL will publish more worthy top-placing efforts by foxhunting Pony Clubbers in the contest.
The Kill: Take This One to the Beach
June 29, 2010
"A shot exploded in the hushed twilight and grumbled through fog in the hollows."
So begins The Kill, Jan Neuharth’s third mystery novel set in the famed foxhunting country of Middleburg, Virginia. All the familiar landmarks are there: The Coach Stop, Books and Crannies, Middleburg Tack Exchange, The Upper Crust. You want to keep clear of Goose Creek and the Foxcroft Road, though. Bad things happen there.
Biography of a Sportsman, II
Most foxhunters know Sherman Haight by reputation, but it’s our guess that few know about his new memoir. That’s because it was written primarily for friends and family, but FOXHUNTING LIFE believes it deserves to be relished by a wider audience.
