Norm Fine’s Blog

Our writer/foxhunter friend Martha Woodham from Georgia has sent us a touching memorial about the life and times of one of the best field hunters in North America. I realize that’s a bold claim, but Martha is telling us about a mare that, at the age of twenty-four, came to Morven Park as the oldest of the sixty top qualifiers from all over the country and placed third in the MFHA Centennial Field Hunter Championship. I watched all those horses go, and they were truly the cream of the crop.

But I have another stake in this story. I had the good fortune to ride that mare with the Bear Creek Hounds (GA) in her twenty-third year, and it was an experience to savor. My visit to Bear Creek constitutes Chapter 18 in my book, Foxhunting Adventures: Chasing the Story, and here’s an excerpt:

I shall always be grateful to the Masters of Foxhounds Association for allowing me to develop Covertside and serve as

its editor for fifteen years. During that time I had the unparalleled opportunity to meet, observe, hunt with, talk to, and interview many of the greatest huntsmen, hound breeders, Masters of Foxhounds, and foxhunting statesmen of the last half-century. Not only in North America, but in England and Ireland as well.

When planning this website, one of the features I wanted to offer was access to authorities such as these. Every foxhunter has the occasional question, whether it be on an arcane hunting term, hunting hounds in the field, breeding hounds, correct attire, a point of etiquette, training the field hunter, sporting art or literature.

The young lady was waiting in line—a long line, all the way outside the building—at the Virginia Foxhound Show when a soft-spoken, older man started a casual conversation. Where are you from? What hunt? Did you bring hounds to the show? How are they bred? What is your country like? He was interested in all she had to tell him about her hounds and her hunt. Then he strolled off.

"Do you know who you were talking to?" gushed a friend nearby.

Our FHL calendar shows two poker rides in June—one at Shakerag (GA), just completed, and one at North Country (VT), later this month. What is a poker ride? I wondered. Sandra Carnet at Shakerag enlightened me. Every participating rider picks up one playing card at each of five stops during a ride. After the ride, the winning hands earn cash prizes. At Shakerag, sixty-four riders paid $40 (adults) or $25 (juniors) each and enjoyed a beautiful two-hour ride in Shakerag’s clubhouse territory in northeast Georgia. The top four winning hands earned cash prizes of from $25 to $100. Lunch was served afterward at the clubhouse, where participants snapped up raffle tickets to vie for more than a dozen gifts donated by tack and feed stores. Shakerag members organize and conduct the ride annually as a fund raiser for needed hunt projects. The Poker Ride is a popular event, says Sandra, and always draws a crowd of junior and adult riders from both English and Western disciplines. Imagine the suspense as riders collect their cards and build their hands—the groans or cheers as the next card is dealt at the Master’s Spinney or at Major Kindersley’s Coop. Sounds like great fun to me!

Marcia Brody, whipper-in for the New Market-Middletown Hunt (MD), has teamed up with photographer Liz Callar to provide a short report and slide show of the Third Annual Bull Run Huntsman’s Hunt held last March. See article below. Check out the latest recipe posted by Andrew Clarke — Salsa di Parmigiano. It looks easy to make and delicious. I plan to make it for the next hunt trail ride at my farm. And as soon as my tomatoes start producing, I’ll make it to spread over them. As Andrew says, “The possibilities are endless.” How about sharing one of your own favorite hunt breakfast recipes with FHL? Submissions are easy to post.