Horse & Hound
Gaining Confidence Outside the Comfort Zone with Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan sets exercises to benefit horses and riders of all levels. / Alys Emson photo
For the second consecutive year, Chris Ryan, MFH of the Scarteen Black and Tans in Ireland crossed the Atlantic to impart some of his knowledge and experience to participants in the Woodford Hounds Hunt Clinic held over the Labor Day weekend at the kennels in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Chris has been Master of the Scarteen since 1987, and the hounds have been in the trusted care of the Ryan family for over 350 years.
The clinic was held for three days with divisions for the open horse and rider as well as for green horses and for hilltoppers over the three-day period. Overwhelmingly, the results were positive. Chris's teaching style leaves one a more positive, confident rider. He pushes and pushes and gets results. He even had some of the participants jumping wire, after explaining that we must be prepared to jump what is encountered in the hunting field.
Foxes and Coyotes of Every Color and Stripe!
Professional huntsman Andy Bozdan cast the Tennessee Valley Hunt Penn-Marydels early on the morning of October 13, 2012 at our Berry Hill fixture, owned by the Dobbs. The country consists of cattle pastures dotted with thick cover and lots of hills.
After a slow start, hounds hit a line in the woods outside of the Dobbs' house, and what ensued was an amazing day of sport and a smorgasbord of quarry—red and silver foxes and yellow and gray coyotes—one or more of which were viewed by nearly every field member.
Cubhunting in Maryland: Foxes and Cornfields
Five-Year-Old Anabelle Small holds huntsman Dulany Noble's horse, Smitten, after the meet. / Elizabeth Martin photoWednesday, October 17 was a perfect day for cub hunting in Central Maryland. The morning was clear, crisp, and chilly, the dew covered the ground, and the fall foliage is coming into full color. This Carrollton Hounds fixture—Ships Quarter Farm—is one of my favorites, not only for the quality of hunting but also for selfish reasons as it is where I board Joe, Jr. It means a more leisurely morning as there is no hitching up the trailer and driving to the meet.
This day would see small fields and me leading the Second Field as our regular Field Master was indisposed with work. After hounds were off loaded, announcements made, and guests welcomed, MFH and huntsman Dulany Noble rode off for the first draw, the bottom of Cranberry Creek below Ships Quarters. This covert is always productive as Sir Charles makes it a home. This summer we had two cubs that would come out to play in the driveway and pastures.
Another Use for the Hunt Whip
While hunting with the Old Dominion Hounds on school break, Denya Dee Leake’s horse came into a fence offstride and took care of the situation by catapulting itself over, launching Denya Dee skyward. “I went so high I could look down towards the ground and think, ‘Oh god, this is going to hurt!’” said Denya Dee. It looked as if she may have broken her wrist, so they stabilized it with her hunt whip as a splint and secured that with a member’s necktie and the whip thong. Another necktie provided the sling. Fortunately, she had just given a her thumb a bad sprain. [We’ve all read time and again how a stock tie may be used as a bandage in the hunting field, but I never heard of a hunt whip as a splint. Good to know! -Ed.] Posted October 19, 2012
Read More
Piedmont Horse and Rider Win Field Hunter Championship of America
Judge Barbara Batterton presents the championship trophy to Elizabeth Green, riding Gold for Glory. / Liz Callar photo
Elizabeth Green, representing the Piedmont Fox Hounds (VA), rode Shelby Bonnie’s Gold for Glory to victory in the Theodora Randolph Field Hunter Championships of America. The trials, founded in 1989, are named for the late Master of the Piedmont, so it is particularly fitting when a Piedmont horse and rider win the championship.
The week-long event attracts foxhunters from across North America. Entries ride with up to four different area hunts over a five-day period, and horse and rider pairs are selected to compete in the final tests and mock hunt by a team of mounted judges. The finals were held on October 7, 2012 at the Glenwood Park Race Course in Middleburg as part of the Virginia Fall Races weekend program.
Never Too Late for New Adventures
At age fifty-five, Rick Burtner discovers new adventures. / cell phone photo by Betsy Burke ParkerIn September, I rode with the Old Dominion Hounds (VA) on my first fox hunt. It was an early start from Julia Theriot’s Poe’s Run and a crisp fall morning at the outset with a few shivers to be had by all, but it soon warmed into a beautiful sun shining day with many riders sporting beads of sweat as we neared the end of the hunt. The transformation of the cold morning into a warm, sunny day was reminiscent of my experience preparing for foxhunting.
Commander Bill King: A Life Lived to the Fullest Measure
William Donald Aelian "Bill" King died recently at the magnificent age of 102 at his home, Oranmore Castle, in County Galway, Ireland. He was a highly decorated submarine commander, a world renowned sailor, boxer, athlete, organic farmer, writer, and family man.
Also, he was a lifelong follower of both the Galway Blazers and Lady Molly Cusack Smith’s Bermingham & North Galway Foxhounds, with his late wife, the author Anita Leslie, whom he met in Lebanon during the war in 1940. Anita was a daughter of Sir John Randolph Leslie and Marjorie Ide, a daughter of General Henry Clay Ide, a former American Ambassador to Spain and Governor of the Philippines. Anita had been previously married to the well known Russian cavalry officer Colonel Paul Rodzianko who was appointed chief instructor of the Irish Army Equitation School in 1928. She wrote seventeen books, including Lady Randolph Churchill, The story of Jenny Jerome, the life of Sir Winston Churchill’s mother, and Sir Francis Chichester, the biography of the famous round the world yachtsman.
Bill held the distinction of being the only submarine commander to command a British submarine on the first and last days of World War II, such were the perils of such a dangerous command. He was also the last surviving submarine commander of the British Navy from the last war.
Paint Not the Porch
Karen L. Myers photo
Paint not the porch while “walking” hound puppies.
Worry not how bad the porch looks.
Look to the future, a future without hound puppies, before painting the porch.
Paint not even the porch ceiling when hound puppies are on the premises.
Even if your husband has three new partners and he wants to welcome them
And, besides, his old friend Harry Poling is retiring;
Even if he has scheduled the caterers,
And his office has sent out two hundred and fifty invitations
To a garden party at your house,
Panic not!
Paint not the porch.
The Savvy Whipper-In
A good whipper-in can be the decisive ingredient in turning a mediocre hunting day into a brilliant one. If you need a better authority before agreeing with my premise, how about Peter Beckford? Here’s what he had to say in 1781.
“In a country full of riot, where the covers are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full of game....I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excellent huntsman.... The whipper-in, if he have genius, may show it in various ways: he may clap forward to any great earth that may, by chance, be open; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails; he may stop the tail hounds, and get them forward; and has it frequently in his power to assist the hounds, without doing them any hurt, provided he should have sense to distinguish where he may be chiefly wanted.”
I recently witnessed a great example of Beckford’s “without doing them any hurt” admonition. It was just a simple thing, yet after forty-five years of hunting it still made me shake my head in admiration.
