Hunt Reports
Keswick Celebrates Its 125th
The Keswick Hunt Club is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Forces responsible for its longevity include the kindness of landowners, the hard work of professionals and volunteers, and the generosity of special angels. On December 10, 1896, nineteen foxhunting enthusiasts gathered at Cloverfields, the Keswick area home of Frank Randolph, to organize a club for “Social Intercourse and Fox and Drag Hunting.” The spirited gathering, which lasted until two a.m., elected Cary Ruffin Randolph Master of Foxhounds, and John Armstrong Chanler President. Chanler was an eccentric philanthropist who patrolled Keswick roads mounted and armed to enforce Virginia Code Section 2139 requiring automobile drivers to give horse traffic the right of way. Halting traffic for hounds and horses nowadays requires greater discretion. Foxhunting has been a feature of Keswick life since colonial days. According to sporting historians and family tradition, Dr. Thomas Walker (1715-1794) kenneled four couple of English Foxhounds at his home Castle Hill. Drafts from local farmer packs constituted the first Keswick pack. Some early members contributed hound puppies instead of dues―gentlemen $12/year, ladies $2/year―then claimed raising the puppies cost so much that the club owed them. Hunt club treasurers must contend with all varieties of explanations. Higginson and Chamberlain in their 1908 Hunts of the US and Canada declare the Keswick pack, then used for Saturday drag hunting and Thursday foxhunting, of inferior quality compared to the Keswick hunt horses, which included show champions belonging to Julian Morris, MFH. They suggest more attention be paid to the canine “arm of the service.” Little or no wire spoiled the country during the club’s early years. Jumps were high split rail fences enclosing pastures. Automobile traffic was minimal. Keswick members did not realize how lucky they were. Wire encroachment necessitated construction of dedicated hunt jumps beginning in the late 1920s. Despite periods of scarcity, inactivity, and political turbulence, Keswick has maintained good sport and good times. Hunting in the 1950s and 60s with Roberts Coles, MFH, was always lively and fun. Following Coles was the successful Mastership of Jake Carle, who served for thirty-six years from 1964-2000. Carle expanded Keswick’s territory into Orange, Louisa, and Madison Counties. He used mostly Bywaters bloodlines in Keswick’s American foxhound pack, which remain in the kennel today. Keswick recently completed a massive renovation and reconstruction effort. The clubhouse, built in 1898, was in danger of collapsing under the next heavy snow. The building has been reengineered, brought up to present day code and needs, while retaining its distinctive historic character. The kennels have been modernized, made more comfortable for hounds, and more easily maintained. A new staff horse barn, with huntsman’s cottage above, replaced a structure whose walls were caving in. Present Joint-Masters Will Coleman, Nancy Wiley, and Mary Kalergis have instituted frequent junior meets which have drawn many enthusiastic participants. New young faces in the hunting field and at the clubhouse offer a promising start to Keswick’s next 125 years. Posted January 18, 2022... This content is for subscribers only.Log In Join Now
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An Historic Blazers’ Opening Meet
Huntsman Anthony Costello and hounds head to covert. Behind (l-r) are whipper-in Oisin Rigney, Senior Master Michael MacDonagh, and local landowner Martin Moran. / Noel Mullins photo
History
The County Galway Hunt (the Blazers) was founded by John Denis in 1829. Denis was Master and huntsman.
In Foxhunting LIfe, we have previously written about the late Lady Molly Cusack-Smith of Bermingham House and her ancestor, John Denis. Lady Molly was Master and hunted the Blazers’ pack from 1939 to 1943 during most of World War II when so many of the men were away in service. At that time, she was known as Miss Molly O’Rourke.
Cleveland Bay Hunting Action at Farnley
Video by James Tonery
Farnley Farm in White Post, Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Hunt hosted seventeen Cleveland Bays and Cleveland Bay crosses for their annual reunion hunt. Representatives of the breed―all plain bays!―arrived from all points of the compass on November 13, 2021, and enjoyed a spectacular day of hunting.
Farnley is an entirely appropriate fixture for this annual reunion of Cleveland Bay horses and meeting of the Blue Ridge hounds. In the 1930s, Farnley was home to the late Alexander Mackay-Smith and where he bred the first Cleveland Bays to be foaled in America.
Keswick Hunt Club Marks its 125th
Carrie Randolph Joslin hunting with Keswick, circa 1905
The Keswick Hunt Club (VA) is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Responsible for the hunt’s longevity are its kind landowners, hard-working professionals and volunteers, and generous special angels.
Foxhunting was a feature of Keswick area life since colonial days. According to sporting historians and family tradition, Dr. Thomas Walker (1715-1794) kenneled four couple of English Foxhounds at his home, Castle Hill.
Millbrook’s Opening Meet: All the World’s a Stage
By Erin McKenney, huntsman, and Marion de Vogel, videographer
A Marion de Vogel equestrian sport film. Click to play.
In this, the 114th year of the Millbrook Hunt (NY), a special project is underway. Marion de Vogel, who regularly rides in first flight, is filming a video featuring our hunt from the beginning of roading through the formal season. Last month, we shared a segment with Foxhunting Life readers that captured the first-of-the-season MFHA-sponsored foxhound performance trials. Now we present our Opening Meet, which took place on October 2, 2021.
As seen in the video, Opening Meet really starts the day before. Grooms groom. Braiders braid. Tack is cleaned. Boots are shined. The breakfast committee puts up a tent. Donald Philhower and I evaluate the hounds for soundness, and I put together my final list for the day. Parts of our country can be thick with bushy undergrowth, tight for hounds to push through, so it’s important to always be on the lookout for any minor cuts or injuries that require treatment and rest.
Blue Ridge Opening Meet Returns to Historic Carter Hall
1987 Blue Ridge Opening Meet at Carter Hall. Master and Staff: (l-r) Robert J. Pillion, honorary whipper-in, Mrs. George P. Greenhalgh, Jr, MFH, Christopher P. Howells, huntsman, and Clifford J. Hunt, honorary whipper-in. Fieldmembers: Mrs. Roy Batterton, Field Master, Mrs. Hobart Bauhan, Dr. Alfred Berz, Mrs, Jean-Claude Buffeault, Miss Leslie Bowery, Mrs. Robert Chandler, Cynthia Coates, Peter Cook, Georgia Crawford, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Donaghy, Mimi Donovan, Mrs. A.R. and Molly Dunning, Gray Farland, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Fine, Caj Haakenssen, Katie Henke, Mrs Clifford Hunt, Herbert Jonkers, Ann-Estelle Jung, Peter Levendis, Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Mackay-Smith, Philip T. McIntyre, Mr. and Mrs. Leander McMillen, Mrs. Walter Nalls, Sara Ohlidal, Allyn Patterson, Mrs. Robert and Sarah Pillion, Dr. and Mrs. Marc Read, Mrs. William Smythe, Mr. and Mrs. John Staelin, Mrs. Harry Stimson, III, Richard Sullivan, and Harold Van der Wilt.
History and tradition are synonymous with the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA). The hunt was established in 1888 and has been an enduring, influential, and visible institution in Clarke Country ever since.
On Saturday, October 30, 2021, the hunt’s Opening Meet will once again, after a hiatus of twenty-six years, take place at Carter Hall. Opening Meets had been held at Carter Hall since the mid-1930s.
A Gloriously Fine Hunting Day
On December 14, 2020, members of the Belle Meade Hunt (GA) enjoyed their best hunting day of the season—up to that point! Master and huntsman Epp Wilson has allowed Foxhunting Life to publish an account of the day’s sport from his informal, after-hunt notes. For the benefit of our readers who love to better understand how the top huntsmen of our times produce sport with hounds, Epp has expanded on a few of the Belle Meade methods and protocols that may surprise some traditionalists. Your editor has only to say, however, that the proof is in the pudding, and that he knows of no other hunt that draws more enthusiastic hunting visitors, year after year, from hunts all across North America, than does Belle Meade.
Master and huntsman Epp Wilson and Belle Meade's Midland Maiden 2013.
We met at 3 PM from the kennels. Fifty-six degrees: good. Dew point 46 degrees: not so good. Wind from the west at 7 mph: good. Game table* was low at 14 percent average for the day: not good.
Proper to Cropper: Miss Rodeo Goes Foxhunting
A celebrity in the hunting field, Miss Rodeo USA 2020
In any sport, there are many terms that might be unfamiliar to anyone outside the circle. In rodeo, for example, not everyone might know the term bufford, dog fall, or union animal.* It was the same for me stepping out of my comfort zone to learn new terms in the foxhunting community. I rightfully earned the title of cropper within the first five minutes of the hunt. This is how it went.
A First-Year Huntsman, Her Hounds, Her Sport
After the close of last season, professional whipper-in Erin McKenney was tapped to take over the horn at the Millbrook Hunt (NY). What’s it like to be a first-year huntsman following in the boot prints of a retiring, respected, experienced huntsman and long-time hound breeder like Donald Philhower? Butterflies, sure, but what goes through the mind of a huntsman responsible for giving sport every hunting day? Erin gives us a taste.
Lindsay Baldwin photo
November 5, 2020, 9-1/2 couple
It was a warm, bluebird sort of day with a dry wind which didn’t bode too well for scenting conditions. I took a smaller pack since it is a tight fixture.
I went with idea of taking older, slower hounds, with some younger ones for an educational day. I’m not convinced when young hounds are flying on a coyote that they’re learning a ton, except to keep up. The seasoned hounds may not be so quick under this day’s conditions, and the younger ones should have a chance to really get their noses down and learn.
Rebuilding the Mells Fox Hounds
Mells Opening Meet 2020 / Drone photography by Michael Gomez
The history of the Mells Fox Hounds (TN) goes back to a universally known nursery rhyme—“Little Jack Horner.”
Really. Stay with me. This innocent-sounding rhyming couplet is believed to be based upon a sixteenth-century real estate swindle at the highest levels of church and government in jolly old England.*
When “Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie, he stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum.” Jack’s plum was metaphor for a far dearer prize.
