Blog

MFHA Director of Hunting Andrew Barclay

In a September 2, 2020 letter to members of the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA), president Tony Leahy made the following announcement.

“After an extensive search process, it is my pleasure to announce that Andrew Barclay has been appointed as the Director of Hunting.

“Andrew’s experience and knowledge of foxhunting combined with his work with the MFHA to further its mission has proven that he meets the needs of our members. Over the past 14 years he successfully led the Professional Development Program as well as supporting a variety of MFHA initiatives.

Now? This instant? Free of charge and legal? Something by a world-class author?

Edith Somerville, MFH, West Carbery Foxhounds riding Tarbrush. She was the first female MFH in Ireland, an author and artist as well, and, with her cousin Violet Martin, wrote some of the most hilarious and literate books on Irish foxhunting ever published. / Wikimedia Commons photo

Something perhaps by Somerville and Ross, G.J. Whyte Melville, and other brilliant writers of foxhunting stories as well as classic works of English literature. Many are in the public domain and may be downloaded and freely reproduced.

In 1971, Michael Hart, a student at the University of Illinois, conceived the most wonderful notion. He had access to a computer that was part of the government sponsored research network that ultimately became the Internet. He set himself a goal to make the ten thousand most consulted books available to the public digitally by the end of the twentieth century. He plucked a copy of the Declaration of Independence from his backpack, and it became the first Project Gutenburg e-text. Hart named the project after the German printer Johannes Gutenburg, who revolutionized the printing press.

Today, there are about forty thousand texts in the Gutenburg collection. For most works you have the option to download the full text as an epub to be read online (even with images); you can download Kindle files with or without images; or simply download plain text.

What are you missing out on by cancelled events, and how are your horses helping to keep you occupied now that we are engaged in the newly-minted but necessary practise of social distancing? If you have such a story, share it with Foxhunting Life.

Over the next couple of months I was scheduled for book talks and signings at five libraries and at one of the oldest country clubs in the U.S. Of course, that schedule has gone by the boards along with your own schedules.

I have been publishing Foxhunting Life from my home office from the start, and can certainly continue to do so. Since publication of my new book, Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in Europe, just last December, I have also been giving talks and signing books at museums, libraries, bookstores, and cultural centers. I spoke to a large, knowledgeable, and engaged audience in Georgia at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force with a ninety-six year old B-17 WWII pilot sitting in the front row. That was a thrill!

Frightened by nearby foxhounds in Warwickshire, a young rhea—a large, flightless bird related to ostriches and emus—escaped its pen and wound up on a road carrying traffic. A video of the event taken by hunt saboteurs was turned over to a sympathetic news outlet which painted a picture of a frightened foxhunter getting his comeuppance by being chased up and down the road by this impressive bird. Bottom line? A story of a frightened and angry foxhunter.

Any viewer who knows anything about foxhunting or horses would interpret the video quite differently. Bottom line? A story of a foxhunter doing his best to herd and contain the rhea to the area, alert the traffic, and keep it off the road until help arrived. All, despite the machinations of his nervous horse.

Caution: Readers are advised that this article contains neither a horse, a hound, or a fox. Fair warning.

Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II, Norman Fine, Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2019, hardcover, illustrations, 264 pages, $29.95 (less 40% direct from the publisher with discount code).As with most readers of Foxhunting Life, I admit to having lived another life separate from the sporting subject which brings most of you to these pages. In that other life I was an electronics engineer; before that I had an uncle who, unbeknownst to the family, did something extraordinary during World War II; and in the course of my engineering work those many years ago, I discovered a little-known but critically important story about the war, the invention that proved most influential in getting the Allies to D-Day, and my uncle.

That story is about to be published. I want to share a 40%-discount code for any one inclined to purchase, and I hope I will see many of you on my book tour next winter.

During my engineering years I researched the story with this book project in mind, finally wrote the manuscript two winters ago, found a respected publisher of war history, and, lo! In this year in which the world marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day, Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II is scheduled for release on December 1, 2019. (Click for a fuller description of the book and how to order from the publisher using the discount code.)

FHL Editor Norm Fine / Karen L. Myers photoPaul Oliver, ex-MFH and huntsman of the South Herfordshire Foxhounds has been convicted of animal cruelty offenses. He provided live fox cubs to his hounds to be killed in kennels. The once-respected hunt, established in England 150 years ago, is now disbanded.

The evidence was damning. Footage was shown in court taken by hidden cameras covertly put in place by anti-bloodsport activists.

Original pencil sketches of Mountain and Muse by Samuel Ogle (c.1814)  /  Collection of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting NAThree museums—the Museum of Hounds and Hunting North America, the Masters of Foxhounds Association and Museum, and the National Sporting Library and Museum—all located in Loudoun County, Virginia, seem to be a cause for confusion amongst some North American foxhunters.

With a "Museum" sign on the new MFHA office building in Middleburg, Virginia, Museum of Hounds and Hunting members have asked if their museum is now a part of the MFHA. The short answer is, “No.” But there’s a longer answer.

I’m looking forward to the new exhibits at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting. They’ll open the day before the Virginia Foxhound Show at Morven Park, Saturday afternoon, May 25, 2019 at 4:00 pm. In addition to the permanent exhibits, including the hallowed Huntsmen’s Room, visitors will see twelve ancient wooden toy horses lovingly restored by Meg Gardner, ex-MFH and Field Master of the Middleburg Hunt (VA). Meg retired as Master in 1994.

She was a superb horsewoman and adventurous Field Master. I followed her over a five-foot stone wall once—yes, someone measured it—and we weren’t even running at the time. In cold blood. Just something she decided to do for a lark. No panel. No rider. Just a solid stone wall. But as for artistic restoration of wooden rocking horses? Who knew?

C’mon, Gotta Walk a Few Hounds..  /   Sheri Buston photoIt’s a week and a half since huntsman John Harrison was suddenly faced with, then miraculously dealt with what could have been a horrendous outcome of that day’s electric storm. A bolt of lightning struck the power meter at the Deep Run Hunt kennels and the building burned to the ground.

We’ve all heard how, with flaming shards falling from above, John was unable to reach hounds to free them from their pens. Needing another way in, he took a tractor to the perimeter and used the bucket loader to smash a way through, saving virtually all the foxhounds. The nightmare that ‘could have been’ was mercifully averted by John’s quick thinking and bold action.

Peter Scargill, writing for the Racing Post, reports that three Cheltenham Festival-winning trainers “launched a ferocious assault” on Nick Rust, CEO of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). In their letter, they rebuked Rust for a list of faults, among them Rust’s recent comparison of racing to a sport like foxhunting—a blood sport—and pronounced Rust unqualified for his leadership role. What?

We publish this report not to judge the merits or policies of the BHA either pro or con, but to express our regret that horsemen of any discipline—especially a discipline like racing which is also a target of animal rights activists, and even more especially a discipline so closely related to foxhunting—would leap to disavow foxhunting in a pathetic attempt to distance themselves and curry favor with those swayed by virulent animal rights activism.