Morven Park Will Reveal Master Plan to the Public
Morven Park has invited all interested parties to a meeting on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. Director Frank Milligan will share maps and explain the recently adopted plans charting Morven’s future. A new “easy-to-find” entrance is planned; a visitors center; trails for hiking, riding, and bicycling; along with new uses for the land […]
EHV-1 Case Confirmed in North Carolina
The neurologic form of equine herpes-virus, EHV-1, has been confirmed in a horse that was stabled in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The horse is presently under quarantine at the College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University. This is thought to be the first case of the neurologic form of the disease in North Carolina. […]
New Public Land Rules Affect Horseback Riders in Virginia
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) owns more than 200,000 acres of land on 39 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in the Commonwealth. Most of the land was purchased and has been maintained with proceeds from hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses. For years, bird watchers, nature enthusiasts, and horseback riders have accessed and […]
Huntsman and Whipper-In to Wed at Tennessee Valley
Huntsman Andy Bozdan and whipper-in Erin Doyle, both at the Tennessee Valley Hunt, have announced their engagement. The couple plan to marry in May. London-born Bozdan is in his first season hunting hounds in the U.S. Prior to his arrival at the Tennessee Valley, he was huntsman of the Barwon foxhounds in southern Australia. Andy […]
Blue Ridge Hunt Signs On New Huntsman
Huntsman Robert Howarth has been working his way south. He will carry the horn at the Blue Ridge Hunt in Virginia this year, arriving after a season hunting hounds at the Myopia Hunt in Massachusetts and before that the Hamilton Hunt in Ontario. Howarth will succeed Dennis Downing, now completing his eleventh season at Blue […]
Boxing Day Foxhunting Meets Draw Big Crowds in UK
While Boxing Day—the day after Christmas—passes largely unnoticed in the U.S., it traditionally draws large number of riders and spectators at foxhunting meets in England. According to The Daily Mail, a quarter of a million hunt supporters turned out for meets all across the country. Now a bank holiday in England, Boxing Day is thought […]
Morven Park: Hound Show In; Steeplechase Out
Morven Park and its lovely grounds in Leesburg, Virginia are familiar to many foxhunters. The former estate of the late Governor Westmoreland Davis has been home for many years to the Virginia Foxhound Show, meets of the Loudoun West Hunt, and the Morven Park Steeplechases. The mansion has recently been refurbished—a major project taking several […]
Foxhunter Mary Motion Caught the Racing Bug on Her Pony
Mary Motion at sixteen is one of only four riders of that age in the country to have earned a steeplechase amateur jockey’s license. Riding against some of the best and experienced jockeys last fall on Pennsylvania Hunt Cup Day, she placed third. It was only a few years ago that Motion was tearing up […]
Let’s Meet for a Pint at the Death of the Fox Inn
A morbid meeting place at first blush, but this historic tavern in Mount Royal, New Jersey, built around 1727, came by its name in the course of honest business—providing drink and sustenance to members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club after their hunts. Founded in 1766 by a group of Philadelphia gentlemen, the Gloucester Foxhunting […]
PETA Breaks Ranks with Activists on Horse Slaughter Issue
Congress recently cleared the way for the resumption of horse slaughter in the United States after a report by the General Accounting Office revealed that their earlier actions actually harmed the welfare of horses. (See prior FHL news item on this subject.) While most animal rights activists have expressed opposition to Congress’s turn-about, PETA, strangely, […]