Picture of the Week

Junior whipper-in Buzzy Fisher / Elisabeth Harpham photoJunior whipper-in Buzzy Fisher (12) has been working with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds this summer. He rides to the kennels by himself each morning to help staff with morning chores, then walks out on hound exercise. Buzzy’s parents—Drs. Phoebe and Rush Fisher—arrive by trailer with horses and ponies for the rest of the family and join Buzzy and other hunt members on the morning hound walks through their beautiful Unionville hunting country. Posted August 3, 2012

With privacy now a quaint relic of the recent past, we paparazzi can tune into intimate conversation wherever we wish. Recently our hidden camera and super-sensitive parabolic microphone caught Toronto and North York huntsman Antony Gaylard and his favorite hound Barter in an unguarded moment. Couldn’t you have given the judge just one little smile?  But Boss, I’ve given you my heart! Denya Massey Clarke photos Posted July 20, 2012

We had some good captions submitted on our Facebook Caption Contest, but Candy Love’s caption produced such an immediate and stunning graphic image to our mind’s eye, that we declared her the winner. Candy, please email your postal address to me. Foxhunting Life would like to send you a gift for playing the game! Posted July 3, 2012

The Sublime Prance, oil on linen board, 20×24 inches, by Susan Smolensky Okay, it’s not really a “Photo of the Week”; it’s a painting. But let’s not quibble with semantics. Foxhunting Life has featured Susan Smolensky’s art before, and when this new work of hers passed before us we felt the jolt and sympathized with the poor rider curling up into a ball of discomfort. Susan has the great talent to use her Impressionistic technique to capture a fleeting moment—the rider’s pain, the horse’s celebration of its freedom—in all their awkward, transient, and uncoordinated glory. Susan is represented by the Chisholm Gallery and is currently displaying many of her Steeplechase Series paintings at the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club Gallery in Wellington, Florida. Posted May 14, 2012

Ken Graham has to be the envy of all foxhunting photographers this week with these amazing shots of fox and hounds at a meet of the Potomac Hunt (MD). Click Readmore to see a slide show of the complete sequence.

This fox had two options: leave covert and make for the open or beat the lead hound to the intersection and duck back in. Appearances notwithstanding, the fox had it calibrated just right and made its escape!

Denya Dee Leake was preparing to exercise her field hunter Fearnought bareback (under blanket), when Promise, her Jack Russell terrier, jumped onto the horse’s back from the mounting block. This wasn’t the first time! There must be a message there. If you think you know what Promise is thinking, type it into the Comments box. The best quote will receive a gift from Foxhunting Life! Posted January 31, 2012

Five-year-old Charlie Eifler shows his delight in meeting a foxhound of the Loudoun Hunt West. His dad Scott Van Pelt facilitates the introduction.  Photo by Austin Kaseman

Click the photo above to view the whole sequence in the Photo Gallery.

I used to pass this stack of round bales every day on the school run. It’s a few hundred yards as the crow flies from the Cottesmore (UK) kennels! One day I noticed this fox and was able to stop the car, get the camera out, and shoot several frames. He/She didn’t bat an eyelid. When I drove past later that day it had gone. Posted November 4, 2011        

There are strip horses, upon whose pristine limbs no blemish may appear lest the judge be offended. Then there are the field hunters who carry their lumps and bumps like badges of honor.

There are show dogs, most of whom exhibit beautiful form but little function. Then there are the working hounds who slog through the bogs and rip their ears crashing through the briers.

The Casanova Hunt (VA) had their Opening Meet on Saturday, October 22. The pack started out clean and beautifully groomed for the photo ops during the Blessing, but after huntsman Tommy Lee Jones put them into covert they got down to business. We thought Douglas Lees’s portrait of this Casanova hound displayed the indomitable spirit and courage of that canine warrior—the Working Foxhound.