Latest

Peggy Poe at Melvins 90th birthday celebration / Douglas Lees photo

Peggy Poe of Hume, Virginia, passed away peacefully on January 18, 2021. She was eighty-eight.

Peggy was best known for her unfailing hospitality, her devotion to her family, and her fifty-one year's marriage and partnership with legendary huntsman Melvin M. Poe.

Huntsman John Dean and the foxhounds of the Radnor Hunt   /  Jim Graham photo

John Howard Dean, III, huntsman of the Radnor Hunt (PA), died in Paoli Hospital on January 16, 2021. He was hospitalized fighting Covid-19 along with other issues over a period of weeks. According to the Masters’ announcement made the day following his death, John appeared at one point to be on the mend but his condition reversed.

Orange County Hounds Masters (l-r) Neil Morris and John Coles. (Malcom Matheson, MFH not shown) / Douglas Lees photo

The Orange County Hounds—founded in 1900 by sportsmen and women in Orange County, New York, and hunting country in The Plains, Virginia, since 1905—has donated the hunt’s seventy-one-acre property to permanent conservation easement. By so doing, the hunt—many members having long been active proponents for open space conservation—relinquishes in perpetuity the right to subdivide its acreage.

In short, the hunt practices what it preaches.

Fox painting by Beth Carlson

The Iberian Peninsula comprises that territory at the southwest corner of Europe, consisting mostly of Spain and Portugal, a sliver of France, and at its southernmost tip, the British territory of Gibraltar. In the northeast of that huge peninsula, between the third and second millennium BC, a widespread funeral practice of burying animals with humans was discovered. At two excavation sites of Early to Middle Bronze Age tombs, four foxes and a large number of dogs were found together with their dead humans in large burial silos.

In a press release dated July 10, 2020, the organizers of the international Virtual Hound Show (iVHS) announce that the start of the (iVHS) has been delayed until July 31, 2020 due to the “unprecedented support from the International Hunting community.” Entries have been received from more than 250 hunts from seven countries, and the uploading of images and entries—a vast amount of data—has been the cause of the two-week delay.

MFHA President Tony Leahy has prudently announced the cancellation of several popular spring events due to the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic.

Canceled are the Virginia Foxhound Show; the National Horn Blowing Championships; the Ian Milne Huntsman’s Award presentation; the Professional Development Program graduation ceremony for the class of 2019/2020; and the ceremony for those huntsmen selected to be inducted into the Huntsmen's Room at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting this year—all previously scheduled over the Memorial Day weekend. 

Sir Roger Scruton, conservative thinker, teacher, foxhunter, author, and advisor to the British government, died of cancer at age seventy-five on January 12, 2020. He wrote more than fifty books on aesthetics, morality, politics, and even on foxhunting.

In that well-received book On Hunting (1998), Scruton’s opening sentence goes like this:

“My life divides into three parts. In the first I was wretched; in the second ill at ease; in the third hunting.”

The two hundred-year-old Atherstone Hunt that hunts country in West Leicestershire and North Warwickshire (UK) has ceased hunting for the remainder of the season. Bordering the four hundred square mile Atherstone hunting country are the iconic Pytchley and Quorn hunts. According to the Daily Mail, a spokesman for the Atherstone said, “We are sad to report that following a hunt committee meeting on Monday, October 7, 2019, a decision was made for the Atherstone to cease hunting activities for the 2019/20 season with immediate effect. “The longer-term future of the Hunt and its country is being considered with regards to a possible amalgamation or sharing of kennels. “However, the welfare of the hounds remains the priority at this stage. “Arrangements have been made to draft hounds to other packs but while they remain in kennels they are being looked after by hunt staff under the supervision of the Masters. “We would like to thank everyone and in particular our farmers and landowners for their generous support.” The West Midland Hunt Saboteurs organization claims victory after an aggressive six-year campaign targeting the pack. The Canary reports that audio leaks from an Atherstone Hunt meeting revealed that acts by hunt followers had left the hunt uninsured. The alleged acts included a pro-hunting farmer riding a quad into a saboteur, one man slashing the tire on the group’s vehicle, and two men throwing manure at anti-hunt protesters. A spokesperson for the saboteurs’ organization claimed the hunt had been out only three times this season, that the huntsman had left, annual staff turnover was high, and that the hunt was losing members. Posted October 12, 2019

Pony stick racing over hurdles  /  Priscilla K. Miller photo

The Master’s Chase is a fun-filled annual event that hunts can put on as a fund raiser for a worthy cause and reach out to their community of non-riders as well. Billed as “family fun for horse and non-horse people alike,” Essex Fox Hounds Master’s Chase will feature amateur racing for field hunters and ponies, adults and children, tailgating, and a group of local vendors at Natirar Park, 2 Main Street, in Peapack, New Jersey on Saturday, October 5, starting at noon. The day is sandwiched between a weekend of events with a Friday night party and a Sunday hunt.

It all traces back to the Farmer’s Day Races of the early twentieth century in which hunt clubs invited farmers in their hunting countries to a picnic and day at the races. For those hunts that do not hold annual point-to-points or sanctioned steeplechase races, it’s a fine way to keep racing alive and give everyone a taste of the excitement. The Essex Fox Hounds donate all proceeds to the non-profit Countryside Alliance of Somerset Hills for the preservation of farmlands.