Picture of the Week

Red Rock Master and huntsman Angela Murray with her “O” boys, (l-r) Oslo and Oops  /   Nancy Stevens-Brown photo  Just before the start of the current season, Nancy Stevens-Brown shot this photo of Master and huntsman Angela Murray, Red Rock Hounds (NV), telling two of her up-and-coming “O” boys that hunt season is only weeks away. Oh, boy, were they ready! The two young dog hounds, Oslo and Oops, were unentered two-year-olds from a litter of six drafted from Walter Epp, the gentleman who started Red Rock founder and Master Lynn Lloyd with her Walker hounds. “They’re all rock stars,” says Angela. She reports that the pair are hunting brilliantly and maturing into what she hopes to be incredible breeding stock for the pack. Masters and staff are in love with the drive, stamina, grit and biddability of their “O” boys, and Oslo now has a litter on the ground. Posted March 16, 2020

Selfie by hard riding Jenny Irwin, who rarely misses a day’s sport. A winter storm blanketed the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on a hunting day for the Blue Ridge Hunt. The gently falling snow quietly covered the drabness of the frost-killed rolling fields and bare trees. It also produced rosy cheeks and a soft, white covering upon those hardy souls who embraced the temporary beauty of a wintry day in the woods and fields. Posted January 26, 2020

“The Moment” by Yongqing Bao, Wildlife Photographer of the Year This image of a Tibetan vixen with three cubs to feed attacking a terrified Himalayan marmot earned photographer Yongqing Bao the prestigious title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The paralyzing wildlife moment was shot in the remote Qilian mountains of China. Competition winners were announced during an awards ceremony at London’s Museum of Natural History from 48,000 entries received from 100 countries. Posted November 19, 2019

The Green Spring Valley (MD) foxhounds were gathered at the meet, waiting to move off, when one member of the pack decided to catch a quick rest beforehand and needed to find a comfortable chair. Karen Kandra, whose photos often grace these pages, was there to shoot this unusual tactic, a humorous example of civilized life in a pack of foxhounds, from the alphas to the long-suffering. The hound providing the comfort is clearly speaking to us with its eyes. Posted September 29, 2019

Mary Phillips Coker photo The Huntsmen’s Room of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting at Morven Park is a space that honors all North American huntsmen for their existential contributions to our sport. Enshrined therein are the images and histories of certain huntsmen who, by their demonstrated skill with hounds, their courage across country, and their unselfish and complete dedication to the sport, have been selected for individual honor in representing their peers. In the same room stands a sculpture of the Old Virginian by the important American artist (and Hall of Fame polo player) Charles Cary Rumsey (1879–1922). This is one of Rumsey’s many smaller bronzes of horses, though he is probably best know for his grander works such as war memorials, the Three Graces Fountain at Forest Lawn Cemetery, his controversial nude, The Pagan, and the triumphal arch and colonnade at the Manhattan entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. Mary Phillips Coker’s snapshot of Rumsey’s bronze in context with the image of recently deceased Albert Poe may not be an award-winning photograph—Mary has already won her share of awards and attention for her artistry and sculpture—but for those of us in the foxhunting fraternity, the photograph has a stirring significance. The mounted Old Virginian, walking with his hounds in this hall of memories where fitting tributes have been paid to both Albert and Melvin Poe, makes us wonder if we have seen the last of such Virginians with their passing—countrymen born in a simpler time when youngsters grew up absorbing naturally the secrets of the fields and woods and hunting for the dinner table and for sport. If so, aren’t we lucky to have been here in their time? Posted June 10, 2019

Ghost Dog. That’s how this foxhound is referred to in Fairfax County, Virginia. For nearly a year now, Ghost Dog has been seen hunting through suburban properties by homeowners in Fairfax and Annandale, just west of the Washington D.C. Beltway, between Routes 236 and 50. These are busy high-speed roadways, and local residents fear he may be lost from a nearby hunt or a family, and would like to see him safely home and out of danger. In the photograph, he appears to be clean, well-groomed, and healthy, which suggests that he actually may have an owner who simply allows him to run loose. But the hound is shy of people, and no homeowner has yet been able to lay a hand on him to look for a tattoo or implant. We publish this appeal in the hope a reader may be ably to identify the hound or provide information. Please use the New Comment feature or respond directly to Foxhunting Life. Posted January 23, 2019

Photograph by Liz Callar Photographer Liz Callar says this was “just a great moment after trying for ten years to get a great Orange County fox!” Liz not only captured her fox—one that invites me to rub my hands on its fur—but a photograph that includes all the colors of nature both in crisp focus and in fuzzy pastels. Every color in the visible spectrum is represented in this lovely composition of a graceful and healthy fox standing alertly in the midst of its natural world. Click for larger image. Posted December 26, 2018

Photographs by Liz Callar

By the north-western banks of the Shenandoah River, just under the sweep of the Blue Ridge Mountains, huntsman Beth Opitz, MFH, Thornton Hill Hounds (VA) readies to move off to the first draw with her pack of Penn-Marydel foxhounds. Husband and Joint-Master Erwin Opitz (in scarlet) helps to keep the pack together.

The joint-meet at the southern-most end of the Blue Ridge Hunt country at Blue Ridge Master Jeff LeHew’s beautiful Shannon Hill fixture was held on Tuesday, December 4, 2018. It was new country for Thornton Hill’s Penn-Marydels, and a different experience for the Blue Ridge hosts who regularly follow their Crossbred pack of Modern English and American lines, but also includes some pure Old English, pure Fell, and crosses on these bloodlines as well. (See “A Level Pack or a Team of Specialists?”)

Frances Player photo Early every season, foxhunters get to sit for a special moment on a horse, in the midst of the natural world, as the rising sun ignites crystals of dew, and the slanting light creeps across the once dark fields. All is silent but for nature’s sounds, and then… “…the sounds of the hunting horn and this year’s young entry could be heard in the cornfield, giving hope for a promising season ahead,” said Heather Player, professional whipper-in for the Keswick Hunt (VA). Heather’s mother, Frances Player, took this lovely photo. Posted September 14, 2018

Janet Ladner is a sporting photographer in the UK who shoots spectacular foxhunting and beagling images in the southwestern tip of England on the cliffs of Cornwall. This young cub and two other littermates were whelped in this huge earth covering about twenty feet of a granite stone hedge not far from the village of Ludgvan, writes Ladner. “There are usually cubs in this field each year, and it’s where we walk our dogs regularly. I’m not sure how long they will be here as the potato crop is about to be harvested,” says Ladner. She has been watching the earth for a couple of weeks, and used a Nikon D7200 with a 300 mm lens for this shot.