Hobbyhorse Showjumping Craze Sweeps Scandinavia
I can’t believe I’m reporting on this, but I assure you it’s not fake news. Riders, mostly girls between five and eighteen, but some boys as well, are riding, practicing, and competing in dressage and showjumping events on hobby horses. Riders can buy their mounts—stuffed heads on a stick—for about two hundred dollars; other riders […]
Breakthrough in Preserving Live Horse Sperm for AI
Researchers in Australia have developed a new scientific method they claim could boost the success of horse breeding via artificial insemination (AI) around the world. With their discovery, semen can be stored, shipped, and used at ambient temperature. Chilling or freezing, which can damage cells, would not be necessary. Scientists at the University of Newcastle […]
Flying Fox a Threatened Species
The flying fox, so called for its large eyes and pointed ears and snout, is not really a fox at all. The other common name for the mammal is fruit bat. It’s the largest of all bats in the world with a wingspan of nearly five feet. Its senses of smell and eyesight are well-developed, […]
Headwaters Hounds’ Neighbors Say Nix to Foxhounds
Neighbors of the Headwaters Hounds (CO) have filed both civil and criminal complaints against Dr. Alison Brown, MFH of the Headwaters Hounds, objecting to the kennel noise. Brown claims that her foxhound breeding operation is protected by the local Right to Farm and Ranch ordinances. Brown kennels about thirty foxhounds, one third of which are […]
Jedforest Staff Members on Trial for Breach of Hunting Act
A video taken from nearly a half mile away purports to show a man digging out a fox, after which staff members of the Jedforest Foxhounds pursued it on horseback in contravention of Scotland’s Protection of Wild Mammals Act of 2002. Mounted hunt staff members John Clive Richardson and Johnny Riley stand trial accused of […]
Popular Riding Safari Leader Murdered in Kenya
Tristan Voorspuy could identify every tree, every bird, and every creature that walked the landscape, and was a force for preservation. / Garth Thompson photo
Tristan Voorspuy, sixty, was ambushed and murdered on his Sosian ranch on March 4, 2017. We report this breaking news because Tristan was well-known and respected by so many foxhunters across North America who traveled to Kenya for his riding safaris.
Tristan led most of the safaris. He could identify every tree, every bird, and every creature that walked the landscape, and had stories to tell about each. His death at the hands of renegade tribal warriors comes as a painful shock to those who remember him as a gifted horseman, pilot, former foxhunter, bold and rugged friend, naturalist, and a force for conservation in Africa. He truly cared about and and worked for the preservation of his natural world.
In fact, in a bizarre way, Tristan’s murder can be directly related to his conservation success. In 2005, Tristan and six investors purchased Sosian, a 24,000-acre ranch that was badly degraded. Tristan turned it into a highly successful wildlife conservation project, one of a number of large ranches that double as wildlife conservancies. Tribal warriors, members of Kenya’s Samburu and Pokot ethnic groups who live in an area denuded by drought and livestock, have recently seized several of these ranches so they may now graze their goats and cows.
Georgia Declares War on Coyote
In an effort to reduce the high population of resident coyotes, the state of Georgia has introduced new incentives for hunters and trappers to target the predator. The Coyote Challenge is a program sponsored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division to reward those who kill coyotes. Monthly drawings for lifetime hunting […]
Scotland’s SNP Would Alter Hunting Ban; Trample Ancient Codes of Law
Scottish National Party (SNP) Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham proposes to tighten the screws on foxhunters in that country. Scotland was the first nation in the UK to pass a hunting act affecting foxhunting. Now the SNP wants to tighten the act with measures that border on the oppressive, if not the actual contravention of basic […]
MFHA Elects Tony Leahy President; Promises Season of Celebration
MFHA President Tony LeahyTony Leahy, MFH of the Fox River Valley Hunt (IL), was elected to a three-year term as President of the Masters of Foxhounds Association at the Annual Meeting held on Friday, January 27, 2017 in New York. Leslie Rhett Crosby, MFH, Mooreland Hunt (AL) was elected First Vice President and Penny Denegre, MFH, Middleburg Hunt (VA) was elected Second Vice President. Also, David Twiggs was officially confirmed as the MFHA’s new Executive Director.
Retiring Executive Director Dennis Foster will remain at the office for another two months to complete David’s training. Upon his official retirement, Dennis will continue to assist the MFHA in animal rights and other areas, on a consulting basis.
I had the distinct honor of addressing the Annual Meeting crowd, the largest crowd I have ever seen, to relate how special David and his family are, and to explain President Leahy’s vision for an upcoming season of celebration. It was literally standing room only.
NYC Carriage Drivers Take the Offensive
Mayor de Blasio, have you no romance? (c.1960 original vintage poster by Stan Galli and other antique horse-related posters are availabe from Chisholm Gallery.)Just three weeks after embattled New York City horse carriage drivers filed a lawsuit against NYCLASS, three leaders of that animal rights group—the Executive Director and two organizers—have resigned.
During his 2013 mayoral campaign, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to remove the iconic horse-drawn carriages from the city’s streets. The FBI has been investigating that campaign pledge as it relates to donations made to NYCLASS by top de Blasio supporters; donations from NYCLASS to deBlasio’s mayoral campaign; how those donations related to de Blasio’s pledge to wipe out the horse carriage industry; and threats made by NYCLASS in 2013 to de Blasio’s chief rival in the mayoral race, Christine Quinn.