Horse & Hound
Chris Ryan, MFH, and the Scarteen
The Ryans and Scarteen are fabled names to every foxhunter in the world. In addition to the many visitors to Ireland who have experienced the magic of following their pack of Kerry beagles—bred for more than 300 years by succeeding generations of the Ryan Family—both Chris Ryan and his late father, Thady, are well known in North America where they have visited over the years to judge hound shows, hunter trials, participate in panel discussions, lead clinics, and promote Irish tourism.
Chris Ryan, MFH and huntsman, Scarteen, takes his hard-hunting pack of Kerry Beagles to the draw. / Catherine Power photo
The name of Chris Ryan is synonymous with all that is good about foxhunting and the famed Scarteen Black and Tan hounds. He is the eighth generation of the family to carry the horn, a tradition that goes back all the way to the late sixteen hundreds.
Philippa’s Fox-Hunt
"...made me feel as if I were being skillfully kicked downstairs." / Illustration by Edith Somerville
This week's Bonus article, free to all (no subscription necessary), finds Major Sinclair Yeates, R.M. (Resident Magistrate) posted to Ireland by the British Crown with the authority to adjudicate local disputes. He rents a house, Shreelane, for himself and his wife-to-be, Philippa, from Mr. Flurry Knox, Master of the local pack of foxhounds.
No one can accuse Philippa and me of having married in haste. As a matter of fact, it was but little under five years from that autumn evening on the river when I had said what is called in Ireland "the hard word," to the day in August when I was led to the altar by my best man, and was subsequently led away from it by Mrs. Sinclair Yeates. About two years out of the five had been spent by me at Shreelane in ceaseless warfare with drains, eaveshoots, chimneys, pumps; all those fundamentals, in short, that the ingenuous and improving tenant expects to find established as a basis from which to rise to higher things. As far as rising to higher things went, frequent ascents to the roof to search for leaks summed up my achievements; in fact, I suffered so general a shrinkage of my ideals that the triumph of making the hall-door bell ring blinded me to the fact that the rat-holes in the hall floor were nailed up with pieces of tin biscuit boxes, and that the casual visitor could, instead of leaving a card, have easily written his name in the damp on the walls.
A Fabled American Foxhound and His Legacy
Potomac Jefferson 2005, the toast of North American Foxhounds, winning the Grand Championship at the 2007 Bryn Mawr Hound Show one week after capturing the same honor at Virginia. (L-R): George Hundt; Vicki Crawford, MFH, Potomac Hunt; Larry Pitts, huntsman, Potomac; Lance Taylor; Jake Carle, ex-MFH, Keswick, judge. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
At breakfast this Thursday morning, Joan reminded me that Memorial Day was just a few days away. Boy, it sure didn’t feel like it.
Normally, we’d have been recently back from our hunt’s kennels having watched the practice hound show, afterwards assessing our hounds’ prospects for ribbons and trophies at the Virginia Foxhound Show. Which should have been on the calendar for this weekend. We would have been looking forward to seeing old hunting friends from across North America, and I would have been assuring Joan that I had remembered to send in our reservations for the reception at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting and the dinner under the tent at Morven Park (whether I had, in fact, remembered or not). In short, I would have been looking forward to an important and unique weekend of camaraderie and foxhound study.
Reap The Wild Harvest
If the predictions of Nostradamus should prove to be correct, by riding to hounds you may well be preparing to save your life. If Armageddon happens, you will know how to survive—just so long as it happens between August and December. In other words, during the hunting season.
Sounds a little ridiculous? Well, maybe, but ride along with me and learn how foxhunting might have already prepared you.
The Dunraven Arms
Louis Murphy carves Dunraven's famous roast beef at tableside. / Catherine Power photo
There can be few hotels that are so intrinsically linked to their owners or the world of the horse as the Dunraven Arms in Adare, Ireland. An institution, it has been a welcoming home to generations of North American foxhunters, and indeed, families across the sporting world. Once you enter that famed revolving door you are struck by the quiet elegance, and you won’t have taken too many steps before you will meet one of the Murphys, Louis or Brian and more latterly Brian’s son Hugh. Brian and Louis were born and brought up in Athenry, County Galway where their father PF (Paddy) was a veterinary surgeon and a keen hunting and racing man. He bred and produced many useful horses such as Orient War and Fred Octerri who went on to win the Sweeps Hurdle.
A Best Buy for Ladies of Discernment
Ladies, if you’ve been at a loss as to where to find a silk hunting veil for your side saddle habit, Foxhunting Life has solved your problem with the help of Daphne Wood, MFH, Live Oak Hounds (FL), who has sent us this image with her highest recommendation for fit, wear, and quality. And such a good deal! Posted May 11, 2020
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An American’s Experiences as an English MFH
Linda Armbrust, MFH, High Peak Harriers (UK), leads her field. / Jim Meads photo
Years have passed since I was resident and MFH of two hunts in England. Now, as a married and ex-MFH in Virginia, I reflect on my fourteen years of English hunting. All the dark moments—rain, rain, and more rain, difficult farmers, and monumental mistakes—have faded now, leaving me with thoughts of good friends, outstanding hunts, great hedges and walls, and lovely hounds.
In The Curranhilty Country
Illustration by Edith SomervilleNow that we all have more reading time on our hands, here is this issue’s Bonus Article to fatten the content for our subscribers and to open more articles, previously restricted, to our non-paying registrants. We’ve been talking about the Irish cousins and author team of Someville and Ross in this issue, so here’s a condensed version of a chapter from Experiences of an Irish R.M. The narrator is Major Sinclair Yeates, the lovable (in the instance of the Somerville and Ross stories) British Resident Magistrate (R.M.) sent to Ireland to adjudicate local disputes in the days before Irish independence in 1922.
County Limerick at Knockainey
Traditionally-bred English foxhounds of the Co Limerick with huntsman Fergus Stokes (right) and whipper-in David Beecher (left) / Catherine Power photo
George Blenerhaasset of Ridelstown is credited with being the first Limerick Master around 1800. In about 1830 Mr. Croker of Ballinagarde took on the pack with Geo Fosbury which went on to become the County Limerick Foxhounds.
Hounds have been kennelled in Clonshire, the hunt property in Adare, since 1930. The village is now one of Ireland’s leading equestrian centres. Former County Limerick Masters familiar to many in the U.S. are the recently mourned American Master Al Schreck of the Los Altos Hounds (CA) and Master and huntsman Hugh Robards who hunted the Co. Limerick for twenty-seven seasons before coming to North America.
Foxhunting and the Cavalry Spirit
This scholarly examination of how English foxhunting and European manège schooling influenced warfare as it was waged and as it evolved over the last three centuries of European conflict is extracted from the author's forthcoming book, Horsemen, Horsesoldiers, and Grand Illusions by Professor Caramello, for the readers of Foxhunting Life.
An earlier article titled, “Siegfried Sassoon, Foxhunting, and the Great War” (Foxhunting Life, March 27, 2019), focused on Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (1928) and its companion volume Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1932), semi-autobiographical works of Great War fiction. It proposed that Sassoon, in those works, developed a complex and nuanced comparison and contrast between fox hunting in untroubled English “countries” and trench fighting in the “waste land” of the Western Front. It also pointed out that Sassoon did not invent this parallel between fox hunting and warfare, but, on the contrary, was visiting, intentionally and pointedly, a recurring theme in British equestrian and military writing in the 18th and 19th centuries and the first decades of the 20th century: fox-hunting as ideal preparation for cavalry service and leadership. The following article briefly sketches some aspects of that theme.