Horse & Hound
Foxhunters Wilson and Gunnell Wed in Middleburg
Photograph by Middleburg Photo
Wendi Wilson and Nelson Gunnell were married at Banbury Cross Farm, the Gunnell family farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on Saturday evening, May 28. The ceremony took place in the garden—a fairy tale setting midst blooming spring flowers under a perfect blue sky with a pond sparkling in the distance. The bride arrived in an antique white horse drawn carriage driven by her hometown friend, Tommy Lee, who later whisked the couple away after the vows were completed.
Live Oak Wins Grand Championship at Virginia. Again.
Live Oak Fable 2010, shown by huntsman Charles Montgomery, is Grand Champion at Virginia. / Janet Hitchen photoFor the second straight year a live Oak English hound was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show. Last year it was Live Oak Maximus 2009, a dog hound; this year it was Live Oak Fable 2010, a first-year bitch.
“That’s the most unexpected win we’ve ever had,” said Live Oak Joint-Master Daphne Wood.
Amazing, Amusing Day
Matthew Mackay-Smith, DVMJust because we’re between seasons doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a hunting tale now and again. Matthew Mackay-Smith, DVM is an internationally-known veterinarian, co-founder and former medical editor of Equus magazine, and a member of Foxhunting Life’s Panel of Experts. The following account transpired twenty-five years ago. Your editor was there and can vouch for its veracity! -Ed
On Thanksgiving Saturday, the day of the 1986 Blue Ridge Hunt Ball, hounds started the festivities with some most unusual and unforgettable sport. An eager field of fifty followers, including lots of visitors and a dozen children, met hounds and hacked east into the Annefield meadow along Chapel Run. With adjustments to tack scarcely complete, hounds were sent to whipper-in Bobby Pillion’s immediate view halloa upstream.
Myopia Godfrey Is Grand Champion Foxhound in New England
Myopia Godfrey 2008 (Toronto & North York Godfrey 2001 ex Myopia Devon 2004) / photo by Curve27 StudioMyopia Godfrey 2008, a lovely moving white, modern English dog hound, was judged Grand Champion Foxhound at the New England Hunts Foxhound Show on Sunday, May 8. Godfrey is full of Exmoor and Heythrop bloodlines going back to the halcyon days of the brilliant English hound breeder Captain Ronnie Wallace, who served as MFH at both hunts.
The First Saturday in May
New Market-Middletown Valley Unity was Champion American Foxhound / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoFor most of the horse world, the first Saturday in May means the Kentucky Derby, but in Maryland and much of the Mid-Atlantic it has come to mean hunt races at the Howard County-Iron Bridge Hunt on Saturday and the Maryland Foxhound Club puppy show on Sunday. This year the dates fell on May 7 and 8.
Brazos Valley Meadow Takes Top Honors at Central States Hound Show
Brazos Valley Meadow, shown by Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman, is Grand Champion. Standing (l-r): Dr. Robert Smith, ex-MFH, Ringmaster; Bobby Dixon; John (Jake) Carle, ex-MFH, Judge; Terry Olsen, MFHIt was Mom’s day out on Mother’s Day weekend for Brazos Valley Meadow 2006. She was judged Best Hound of Show at the Central States Hound Show on May 7, 2011. Among the other division champions over which she prevailed was her son, Brazos Valley Mystic 2010, who just a month earlier had been judged Grand Champion at the Southwest Hound Show.
Brazos Valley Mystic Is Grand Champion at Southwest Hound Show
(l-r) Dennis Foster, judge; Sandy Dixon, MFH; Nancy Jones, presenting trophy / Bryan Hall photoThe Master’s Cup for the grand championship of the Southwest Hound Show was awarded to Brazos Valley Mystic 2010. Mystic is a Brazos Valley-bred American dog hound with strong Potomac bloodlines on the dam’s side. Mystic’s maternal grandfather was the knockout-handsome Potomac Jefferson, Grand Champion of the Virginia Foxhound Show in 2007.
“Mystic was a bit exuberant when he entered,” said Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman at the Brazos Valley Hunt (TX). “He had a tendency to run too fast without taking the time to search for scent. However, by the end of his first season [2011], he had learned what a coyote was and how to slow down until he had the line before turning on the speed.
Foxhunting and Polo: A Sporting Crossover in Aiken
The Tallyho Cup (foxhunters and polo mallets) and Polo Saturday (polo players and hounds) debuted in Aiken, South Carolina this season, reaffirming the traditional Aiken bond between foxhunting and polo. The two sports have been entwined in Aiken since the early 1900s, when all the great polo names of the day—Hitchcock, Knox, Bostwick, Corey, and others—played polo in Aiken and rode to hounds as well.
Polo Saturday
In keeping with this historic tradition, Linda Knox McLean, MFH sent out an open invitation to all of Aiken’s polo players to cap with the Aiken Hounds on their polo ponies while wearing their polo gear. Dubbed Polo Saturday, the day was the brainchild of Theresa King, who hunts with the Aiken Hounds and plays polo on her foxhunter.
Private Attack and Blythe Miller-Davies Formidable in Maryland
Blythe Miller-Davies on Private Attack is congratulated by husband Joe Davies after winning the Maryland Hunt Cup. Michael Wharton leads the winner.First the Grand National on April 23, then the Maryland Hunt Cup on April 30. Two winning performances for Blythe Miller-Davies and Private Attack. Yet the circumstances made it all the more dramatic.
Miller-Davies—former champion jump jock, mother, and trainer—had retired from riding races more than eight years ago. Mark Beecher was to ride Sportsmans Hall’s Private Attack in the Grand National for trainer Alicia Murphy, but was having visa problems in Ireland. Murphy turned to Miller-Davies, and the pair won by a neck.
Meanwhile, Miller-Davies had been training her husband’s horse Fort Henry which she had intended to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup one week later. The Grand National win changed those plans, and husband Joe Davies, a former three-time winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup, graciously scratched his horse so his wife could ride Private Attack in that race.
Foxhunting Amateur Rider Wins Irish Grand National
The value of the foxhunter’s riding experience was well demonstrated on April 6 when Ward Union Staghounds hunt follower and amateur rider Nina Carberry won the 250,000 Euro ($350,000) 3 miles 5 furlong Irish Grand National on a horse named Organisedconfusion at Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath. She prevailed against top National Hunt jockeys, including Ruby Walsh and recently crowned sixteen-times British Champion Jockey A.P. McCoy.
