Fox Hunting News
Thoroughbred Market in Doldrums
The market for even well-bred Thoroughbreds has suffered substantially since the global market crash of 2008. “The old million-dollar horse is now a $500,000 horse,” said Geoffrey Russell, Director of Sales at Keeneland. In the first session of the September Yearling Sales this year, the two highest selling colts went off at $1.4 and $1.2 million. On the second night, a filly went for one million dollars and another for $750,000. After two days of sales, the gross and the median prices for 2011 compared to 2010 were substantially the same, but the third session ended better, showing a twenty percent increase over last year. For more details, click here. Posted September 14, 2011
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Horses Across the Country Are Testing Positive for West Nile Virus
Horses have tested positive for West Nile Virus across the country, and some state officials are recommending vaccinations even now for horses that have not yet been vaccinated. California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, and Utah have reported recent cases, and the mosquito season has several weeks to go in many of these areas. Infected horses exhibit neurological symptoms such as stumbling gait, facial paralysis, drooping or disinterested attitude. Although no drugs exist to treat the disease either in horses or humans, there are live-animal tests for WNV in horses. The virus lives in wild birds of many species, and is transmitted to mammals by the bite of a mosquito that has previously bitten an infected bird. Check with your veterinarian for his/her recommendation if your horse has not been vaccinated this year. For more information about West Nile Virus, click here. Posted September 13, 2011
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Horses in Art at the Bruce Museum, Connecticut
The horse has been a romantic subject for artists for twenty-thousand years. That is when the oldest known cave painting of horses were executed. The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut has mounted an exhibit of horses in art—“Saddle Up! Horsing Around at the Bruce Museum.” From Pierre Jules Mene bronzes to Eadweard Muybridge’s iconic equine locomotion photos, visitors will view the horse rendered by the world’s leading artists in every style and discipline, including foxhunting, racing, polo, farming, and war. For more details, see Steven May’s article and/or go to the museum website. Posted September 2, 2011
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Bill McDevitt: Friend and Benefactor
Bill McDevitt, honorary whipper-in and benefactor of the Los Altos Hounds (CA) since 1963, passed away at his waterfront Sausalito home over the weekend. He will be remembered by his many hunt buddies and the numerous Masters he served, including Tom Harris, W.W. Mein, Richard Collins, Eugene Rettig, Mrs. Jay Foss, and Albert Schreck. He served as Vice President from 1981 until 1985 and maintained his membership until 2000. He and his great friend Niels Schultz, Los Altos member for many years, were great benefactors of the hunt in the early years, often meeting with landowners and hosting hunt breakfasts, not only in Marin County but also in San Benito County, and providing needed funds, labor, and vehicles for the hunt, his friends recall. Bill and his son “Willie” often rode as a pair in the Los Altos Hunt Pebble Beach Race Meet. Bill also rode jumpers and played polo. He was the honored guest at the 1993 Hunt Ball held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He was owner and founder of McDevitt and Sons construction company in Marin County and is survived by an extended family. Funeral arrangements were private, but a party for his friends is planned in mid-September, to be announced later. Posted September 1, 2011
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New Evidence Pushes Back Earliest Domestication of Horses
It has long been thought that the domestication of horses goes back about five thousand years to central Asia. New evidence could push that estimate back by another four thousand years and change the locale. Among the remains of a recently discovered ancient civilization in the Arabian Peninsula was a three-foot tall bust of a horse. “A statue of an animal of this dimension, dating back to that time, has never been found anywhere in the world,” said Ali al-Ghabban, vice-chairman of the Department of Museums and Antiquities in Saudi Arabia. “This discovery shows that horses were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time more than nine thousand years ago.” Click for more detail in Discovery News. Posted August 26, 2011
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Red Rock Hounds to Parade at $25,000 Jumping Derby
The Red Rock Hounds are scheduled to parade at the 2011 Franktown Meadows USHJA International Hunter Derby in Carson City, Nevada on Labor Day, September 5. The “best horse and rider combinations in the country” are expected to compete over this beautiful course in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Hounds will parade around the course at noon with mounted staff, and the Derby will begin at 1:00 p.m. Red Rock Master Lynn Lloyd believes it’s an appropriate venue for both her hounds and the spectators. “The derby came because of field hunting,” she said, and we are “presenting its roots. I think [the spectators] begin to understand that this is where hunters in the show ring began, and that hunting in America is still available….I want people to understand the freedom [of hunting] and being in nature. I think it grounds people, and I want them to remember the fun of horses. Sometimes I think they forget that.” More information about the derby is available from the Phelps Media Group. Posted August 17, 2011
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Promised Vote on British Foxhunting Ban “Dead and Buried”
A new generation of urban Tory has upset the countryside’s applecart. Notwithstanding Prime Minister David Cameron’s pre-election pledge to allow a free vote in Parliament on the hunting ban, twenty members of his party are opposed to revisiting the ban. Calling themselves the Blue Fox group, they comprise a younger set of MPs who are conservative on economics but liberal on social issues. They insist that the Tory party should no longer be identified with “the hunting, shooting and fishing fraternity” and characterize Cameron’s pledge as “dead and buried.” Privately, some MPs of a more traditional view are also reluctant to insist upon a vote. They take the view that the ban as passed in 2004 is so unworkable and full of holes that hunting with hounds is proceeding without much police interference anyway. See Brenda Carlin’s article in the Mail for more details. Posted August 15, 2011
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Troubled Illinoios Racing Industry Gets Windfall
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan paved the way for a $141 million windfall to Illinois race tracks and horse owners when she denied the request of the state’s casino companies to continue holding the funds in escrow. The funds, earmarked for the racing industry pursuant to a 2006 law, had been collecting in the escrow account for nearly five years. The law required the four biggest casinos to divert three percent of their earnings to the race tracks to bolster that industry, which was suffering as a result of competition from the casinos. The racing industry will use the cash to boost purses to winning owners in an attempt at reviving the horse racing business in Illinois. The money was released at midnight on Monday, August 8. The casinos have a separate lawsuit pending in federal court. Read more details in Kurt Erickson’s article in the Southern Springfield Bureau. Posted August 10, 2011
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Storms Wreak Havoc in Belle Meade Hunting Country
As the result of recent storms through Georgia, fifty percent of all the trails in the Belle Meade hunting country are blocked, according to Epp Wilson, MFH. Hounds and coyote are able to get through, but not horses. “There are more large trees down across our trails than I have seen in forty-five years of hunting this territory,” said Wilson. “The country is virtually unhuntable.” The Belle Meade Masters have called out their membership and friends to come and help. They need tractors with mowers and front-end-loaders and people to operate chain saws and four-wheelers. The Saturdays of August 13 and August 20 have been designated as official workdays. Posted August 10, 2011
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Harry Miliner, Former Field Master, Loudoun West
Liz Callar photo Harry Miliner of the Loudoun West Hunt (VA) has made his final point and now resides in perhaps a better place. Harry finally succumbed to cancer on July 21, 2011. Harry came to hunting a bit later than many, not born of a hunting family (much like myself), but when he took up the sport he did so with a passion and conviction that revealed his true sportsman’s heart. Moving from his Maryland home to Northern Virginia where he was convinced the hunting was the best in the world (one of the few points on which we disagreed, as gentlemen will), Harry and his wife Dixie soon found a second home. With mentoring hunting friends such as Dr. Joe Rogers and Donna Rogers, MFHs along with Sherman Haight, ex-MFH and Peggy Haight, they quickly settled in and became an integral part of the Loudoun West hunting fabric. Harry was ultimately recognized as a more than competent Field Master for Loudoun West. No one got more pure joy from foxhunting than Harry. He was a big man with a huge heart, and as a Field Master, he was warm and welcoming. He fully ascribed to John Jorrock’s old sentiment, “Tell me a man’s a foxhunter, and I loves him at once”! Suffice it to be said by a very old friend, “Harry, you will truly be missed.” Posted July 25, 2011
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