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The Masters of Foxhounds Association, soon to be headquartered in Middleburg, Virginia, seeks an executive director to succeed Lt. Col. Dennis Foster, who will retire next year. Foster is just the third person in the 109-year history of the MFHA to manage the venerable association. The MFHA is the umbrella organization of mounted foxhunting in North America. It sets and maintains standards, requirements, and sporting guidelines for all registered hunts. It maintains registration and pedigree records for all hounds hunted by registered hunts and all that are shown in MFHA-sanctioned hound shows. The association also registers the hunting territories for all registered hunts and mediates territorial disputes. The executive director works closely with a board of directors and reports to the president. He or she manages the association and its budget, finances, and fund raising. Other activities include planning events, seminars, and board meetings; marketing, promotion, and public relations for the sport of mounted hunting with hounds; and working with local and federal legislative activities. The executive director will engage with 154 member clubs, as well as other hunting-related organizations. Salary and benefits, commensurate with experience. Candidates are invited to submit resume and salary expectations to [email protected] immediately. Selection will be made on or before the fall of this year. Posted March 25, 2016

Forty-eight foxhounds in the kennels of the Essex Fox Hounds (NJ) were all safely evacuated by early responders from the local police departments as a fire that broke out in the feed room filled the building with smoke and flames soon seen shooting through the roof. The fire was reported at 4:51 am on March 3, and was declared out at 5:40 am through the efforts of firefighters and volunteers from four area fire departments. The kennel building was semi-attached to a stable complex, but the fire was contained to just the kennel. The fire was discovered by a hunt employee arriving at work. Peapack-Gladstone Police Officer Paul Morris, the first officer at the scene, heard the cries of frightened hounds as he pulled up in his patrol vehicle. He set about freeing hounds from the pens closest to the fire, and worked his way through the rest of the pens that were starting to fill with smoke. While freeing hounds, he was joined and assisted by two other officers from Bedminster and Far Hills. Karen Murphy, MFH, praised the fast response. “We’re really lucky we had very good guys here so fast,” she said. “We’re very thankful.” The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. It remains under investigation, but is not considered suspicious. Click for P.C. Robinson’s complete article and James Brusso’s photo in the Bernardsville News. Posted March 4, 2016

Senior Master James E. Covington of the Deep Run Hunt (VA) died at home, surrounded by  family, on January 21, 2016. He was born February 23, 1935 in Richmond, Virginia, but spent most of the first four years of his life in Shanghai, China, where his father bought tobacco for Universal Leaf. After the Japanese invasion of China, the Covington family returned to Richmond. Jim loved sailing, skiing, and golfing, but his main passion was foxhunting. He served as MFH from 1980 to 1985 and from 2001 to the time of his death. Among his many roles as Master, he worked hard to ensure that Deep Run would have open country for hunting. Following a tip from Joint-MFH Polly Bance, he learned that Sunnyside Farm in Fluvanna County was up for sale. At the time the farm had not been lived in for several decades. The buildings were in disrepair, and the fields were overgrown. Nonetheless, he had a vision. He mowed and cleaned up fields, fenced pastures, and cleared miles of trails. With the help of his daughter, Janie, he restored barns and outbuildings. Sunnyside also became the center of his land conservation efforts in Fluvanna County. He put land he owned in easement and convinced and guided neighbors through the process. As a result, several thousand acres of land have been protected there. At Sunnyside he could be found on the back of a horse or behind the wheel of a tractor. Jim was a graduate of the University of Virginia. While in law school there, he met his wife of fifty-five years, Jane Elizabeth Ellis. They married in 1961 and after his graduation, the couple moved to Richmond, where he joined the law firm of Williams, Mullen, Christian, Pollard. In 1969, he created The Covington Company, a residential and commercial real estate development company that is still in operation today. He is described as having introduced the concept of luxury-condominium living to the city of Richmond, and pioneering its development. Click for James Covington’s complete obituary. Posted March 3, 2016

British hunts are damned and accused by hunt protesters whether the evidence is valid or not. A dead fox was found in a hedge in the vicinity where the Ledbury foxhounds were hunting. A member of the hunt staff, who had a chance to handle the carcass before it was hustled off by hunt protesters, claims it was cold and had a gunshot wound. Hours later, photos of the dead fox were posted on various social media strongly accusing the hunt for unlawfully killing it. The local hunt saboteurs association reported on the Ledbury Reporter’s website that the fox’s body had been taken away for a “post mortem.”   Hunt spokesman Donald Haden said the hunt conducts its activities within the law. “We are now into the lambing season,” said Haden, “and farmers quite understandably are not hesitant in shooting any foxes they see disturbing their sheep. We believe that in this particular case the fox had indeed been shot by a local farmer several hours or possibly days before and the dead carcass then thrown into the hedge.” Click for Gary Bills-Geddes’s story in the Ledbury Reporter. Posted February 26, 2016

The Oklahoma House of Representatives will soon consider House Bill 2250, a measure crafted to forbid animal rights groups from spending monies raised in Oklahoma on any out-of-state expenses or for political purposes. The bill is being championed by State Representative Brian Renegar (D), a veterinarian. He was prompted to his crusade when, in the aftermath of a 2013 tornado in Moore, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) took advantage of Oklahomans’ concerns for lost or injured pets. HSUS raised more than one million dollars in the state but used only ten percent of the funds within the state. Renegar points out that, according to HumaneWatch.org, HSUS allocates only one percent of its $120 million budget to grants for local animal shelters across the nation. Cynthia Armstrong, Oklahoma Director for the HSUS, denied that her group raised funds or advertised based on the Moore tornado. She claims the bill is unconstitutional and that HSUS spending on animal shelters is irrelevant because the organization’s purpose is “to take on the larger, institutional issues that are beyond the scope and reach of a local animal shelter.” Click for Christy Lewis’s complete article in News9.com. Posted February 16, 2016

A study has shown that horses can distinguish between happy and angry human facial expressions. The study was performed by psychologists at the University of Sussex (UK) on twenty-eight horses. When viewing angry human faces, horses look more through their left eye. This phenomenon has also been seen in dogs and other animal species, the rationale being that the right side of the brain, where left-eye information is processed, is the hemisphere activated by threatening stimuli. Angry faces also produced increased heart rates and other stress-related behavior in the horses. The horses were recruited from livery stables in the area and had received no previous training for the experiments. They were shown photographs of unknown human male faces in both angry and happy attitudes. The experimenters recorded the horses’ responses without knowing which photographs were being shown to the horses. Amy Smith, a doctoral student in the Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group at the University of Sussex who co-led the research, said, “We have known for a long time that horses are a socially sophisticated species but this is the first time we have seen that they can distinguish between positive and negative human facial expressions. “The reaction to the angry facial expressions was particularly clear….there was a quicker increase in their heart rate, and the horses moved their heads to look at the angry faces with their left eye.” The study was published today (February 10, 2016) in Biology Letters. Journal Reference: Amy Victoria Smith, Leanne Proops, Kate Grounds, Jennifer Wathan and Karen McComb. Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse (Equus caballus). Biology Letters, 2016 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0907 Posted February 10, 2016

In New York City, as Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” In the case of Mayor de Blasio’s animal rights-funded war against the horse-drawn carriages, that homegrown proverb was never truer. With a deal in hand between the mayor’s office and the Teamsters union representing the carriage drivers—requiring only the City Council’s approval, which, in the opinion of even the wavering council members, was a given—the horse the mayor was riding balked at the wire. And the deal collapsed. Council members who had never warmed to Blasio’s quest, nevertheless wanted the entire affair to be over and off their plates. Most were reluctantly prepared to sign on when the Teamsters union suddenly pulled their support. And that was the ballgame. De Blasio’s humiliation is a defeat entirely of his own making. During his election campaign he seized on a narrow issue with little widespread traction, but one that brought him campaign funds from animal rights organizations along with their pledge to smear his chief opponent in the race, Christine Quinn. The plan worked: de Blasio promised to remove the horse carriages from the streets on his first day in office; he deposited the campaign contributions; Quinn was smeared; he was elected, but now more than two years later, he hasn’t delivered. The deal he expected to finally deliver the fruits of his quest turned out to be a Pandora’s box. Once opened, it released a slew of newly-affected stakeholders who had never even been party to the original issue…like taxpayers who would have to ante up twenty-five million dollars for new stables in Central Park and pedicab drivers who would be barred from carrying passengers in the park. “New York City politics is in danger of becoming just as much as a laughingstock as the presidential race,” Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, said. “It’s a great day for the horse and carriages,” Ian McKeever, a carriage driver and spokesman for the industry, said. “I’m from Dublin, so I’m having a pint.” For more details on the undoing of de Blasio’s plan for the carriage horses, see the February 4, 2016 New York Times article by J. David Goodman and Michael M. Grynbaum. Posted February 5, 2016

Representatives of the horse carriage industry in New York City have reached an agreement-in-concept with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office on the future of horse drawn carriages there. To become effective, the deal must be approved by the City Council. Under the compromise agreement, new stables will be built in Central Park for the horses, but the numbers will shrink from 220 horses active today to 95 horses by 2018. Operation of the carriages will be restricted to the park, according to some reports, and not the city streets. On the plus side for the horsemen, pedicabs—competition for the carriages—would be prohibited from operating below 85th Street. On the plus side for the Mayor and real estate developers, the building now housing the horse stables will become available for conversion to higher-revenue use. Animal rights activists spent about one million dollars supporting de Blasio’s election bid and smearing his chief opponent, Christine Quinn. De Blasio had promised during his election campaign to remove all horse drawn carriages from the streets. The majority of New Yorkers, however, opposed the mayor in his attack on the industry. The current deal may ease de Blasio’s conundrum, especially with the real estate developers riding quietly in the wake of the shrill cries and large campaign donations of the animal rights activists, but will it satisfy the latter’s ideological agenda? A question for the future. Click for our earlier report on events leading up to discussions of the current deal. Posted January 18, 2016

The Virginia Foxhound Club Annual Meeting, luncheon, and silent auction are scheduled for Sunday, February 14, 2016. This year’s guest speaker will be Martha Wolfe, foxhunter and author of The Great Hound Match of 1905: Alexander Henry Higginson, Harry Worcester Smith, and the Rise of Virginia Hunt Country. “There was to be a contest, a Great Hound Match, between two packs of foxhounds—one English and one American.” In her book, Ms. Wolfe sets a fictionalized version, accurately based on events, of this historic competition against the history of foxhunting in Virginia. Viewed as a metaphor for America’s brash emergence as an international power, she has written a wonderful account of the battle between two wealthy men—Higginson and Smith—with egos to match their fortunes, one representing the New World and one representing the Old World, each adamant that his hounds were the best. Meeting and luncheon will be held at the Fauquier Springs Country Club, 9236 Tournament Drive (off Springs Road), Warrenton, Virginia 20186. A cash bar and silent auction will start at noon, with luncheon at 1:00 pm, followed by a short meeting and Ms. Wolfe’s talk. Foxhunting Life Editor Norman Fine will introduce Ms. Wolfe. Price is $35.00 per person. For reservations, mail check payable to Virginia Foxhound Club to Judy Allen, PO Box 11, Casanova, Virginia 20139. Reservations must be received no later than February 3, 2016. Posted January 7, 2016