Hunt Reports

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Orange County Hounds Field Master John Coles, MFH, leads a field of 60 visiting foxhunting ladies on the Vixen's Meet . /  Joanne Maisano photo

When the COVID pandemic and executive orders from the Governor of Virginia forced cancellation of Orange County Hounds’ primary annual fund raising event—the barn party held at Board President Jaqueline Mars’ legendary home—OCH Board leaders Jane Bishop and Emily Hannum put their heads together and scheduled instead a Vixen’s Meet. Given the strong showing October 15, 2020 at Stonehedge in The Plains, Virginia, the ladies like it.

Ladies from a dozen hunts turned out in support of Orange County: Belle Meade Hunt (GA), Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA), Cloudline Hounds (TX), and De La Brooke Foxhounds (MD). From Virginia were ladies of the Blue Ridge Hunt, Casanova Hunt, Loudoun Fairfax Hunt, Middleburg Hunt, Piedmont Fox Hounds, Rappahannock Hunt, and Snickersville Hounds.

Millbrook's new huntsman, Erin McKenney, parades hounds to the Stirrup Cup before moving off from Wethersfield. /  Carol Pedesen photo

The Millbrook Hunt (NY) held its 113th Opening Meet at Wethersfield, the former home of Mr. Chauncey Stillman, on Saturday, October 3, 2020. Mr. Stillman first hunted with Millbrook in 1937 as a guest. Soon after, he assembled the land and began construction of this elegant property. He continued to hunt with the Millbrook as a member.

Purely American hunting after the fleet coyote over the Big Sky Hounds country /  Gretchen Pelham photo.

It is not something you expect to see in Montana. You’ll do a double take and rub your eyes the first time you round the bend in ranch country and catch a glimpse of a pack of foxhounds followed by a bunch of people horseback, some wearing scarlet coats and hunt caps, some Carharts and cowboy hats. You’ll want to stop and watch as some sail over a haphazard jump put across a barbed wire fence in the middle of a cow pasture. You will probably hear the huntsman’s horn and the hounds screaming. And if you look way, way ahead, you might catch a glimpse of a very nonplussed coyote. Not a fox.

This is foxhunting, Montana-style. Even though there usually isn’t a fox involved, and without a rifle it’s not really considered hunting out here, but for those of us who ride to the Big Sky Hounds, it is a helluva lot of fun.

The 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.

The wildfire tops the final ridge before descending into the valley toward the Red Rock Hounds kennels, stables, and homes, from where this photo was shot. / Joy Smith photo

“A huge scare. That’s for sure,” said Angela Murray, MFH and huntsman, Red Rock Hounds (NV).

After many hot and blistering weeks the sagebrush had turned to dry tinder for miles around, just waiting for a spark. On August 2, 2020 the wait was over. A car blew a tire on the north-south freeway 395 about ten miles west of the ranch that is home to the Red Rock Hounds. The spinning rim of the wheel hit the pavement and sparks flew. The sagebrush caught fire, spread, and with windy conditions for encouragement headed east from the freeway and over the first mountain range.