Virginia
I arrived in Virginia after driving up from the beach in North Carolina. The drive was easy if you didn’t include the two ladders that had flown into my fast lane, with the owners of said ladders running down the medium to fetch the wayward equipment. At over 70mph I had to dodge each ladder by weaving into the medium and then swerving back into my lane to avoid flattening the runners. Two separate ladders in one day! Thank god I wasn’t hauling a horse trailer.
I arrived at the 600+ acre farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia owned by my very good friends the Merle-Smiths. Rosie and Grosvenor Merle-Smith were my joint masters at the Tennessee Valley Hunt in East Tennessee. Their house is a combination of two houses dating to the 1700s that were disassembled when Gro bought them. The two homes, one a two-story clapboard house that used to be a tavern (with a rumored George Washington stay) and the other a log cabin, were reconstructed as one structure. Their daughter Nicolette, with her husband Joel (who is a joint master of Keswick Hunt Club), also lives on the farm in the original farmhouse, which dates almost as old as her parent’s house.
Thornton Hill Hounds at the Chancellor Gate Fixture on February 23
Sperryville, Virginia at an Elevation of 450 feet in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains
Nikki, Joel, and I hunted the next morning with Thornton Hill Hounds at their Chancellor Gate Fixture. We parked in the shadow of Old Rag Mountain (elevation 3,284) in the Shenandoah National Park. The weather was spitting rain on and off the whole morning, so most of us wore raincoats over our tweeds.
I rode Nikki’s main livery horse, WinterStormWarning (aka Breezy), a Thoroughbred whom Nikki also competes in eventing. He was a perfect gentleman who never tailgated or pulled. But we did manage his ride by making sure that he was in front of the mares that both Nikki and Joel rode to prevent him from jigging to keep up with his girlfriends.
The country is both pasture land and wooded mountainsides, with coops on the covertsides. We spent most of the time on logging roads up and down Walden Mountain (just shy of 1,000 feet elevation). There were large white, quartz veins that crossed the logging trails, along with granite and greenstone boulders the size of cars. We rode through thickets of mountain laurels and over shallow creeks.
The three of us went with the Hilltopping Field. Master and Huntsman, Beth Opitz, cast her pack of Penn-Marydels in the covert of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her hounds struggled with a cold line until we were almost back at the meet. Then they hit on a red fox just 200 yards from the trailers. They ran the fox for about an hour, going around and around for three big loops. Fox and hounds, in full cry, were seen racing across a neighbor’s front porch! First Flight got several views, including the porch run.
However, we in Hilltoppers were thrown out. But we did listen to that amazing hound music when we went up high to listen to hounds race around and around. You can tell when a pack is circling, as the sound roars so loud to raise goosebumps on your skin then fade slightly before coming roaring back.
My first hunt, Tennessee Valley Hunt, was started by Beth’s late father, Todd “Doc” Addis. He brought some of his famous Penn-Marydels down from Pennsylvania to provide the pack for Tennessee Valley. Penn-Marydel’s are my favorite hound; I love how they hunt, how they sound, and how they look. And to hear a full pack of PMDs again just made my heart sing.
Beth’s mom, Happy Addis, arrived at the hunt breakfast to hear how the hunt went. I was so glad to see her.
Keswick Hunt Club at the Two Over Two Fixture on February 24 Green Springs, Virginia at Elevation 470 feet in the Piedmont
The fixture name, Two Over Two, is the local name for a classic farmhouse style that denotes a two-story house with two rooms over the first floor two rooms. This hunting day I went out in the electric Polaris with Gro and Rosie (just returned from England) at the Keswick Hunt Club fixture that was very close to the Merle-Smith’s property. The fixture is located in the 14,000-acre Green Springs National Historic Landmark District, which puts every privately owned house and building within the boundary under the management of the National Park Service.
Paul Wilson, professional huntsman for Keswick, took their American hounds out on the chilly, overcast day for fox (coyotes are considered riot). The country was rolling farmland within the Historic District. Scenting was difficult that day, and the hunt stayed out just a couple of hours before calling it a day.
I stayed with Nikki and Joel in their house as Rosie and Gro were not yet back from a trip to England to catalog one of the largest hunting horn collections in England (Gro authored the book, “The Hunting Horn”). This meant that when Nikki, Joel, and I all got COVID within a few days of my arrival, our house was the COVID House. And Rosie and Gro’s house was the Fun House, admission only possible with a negative COVID test. COVID took me out for a week. I had plans to hunt with several other hunt clubs in Virginia, but none of that happened. And to add salt to the wound, I got the flu less than a week after testing negative for COVID.
Keswick Hunt Club at the Montpelier Fixture on March 4
Orange, Virginia at Elevation 335 feet in the Piedmont
It was a beautiful day at their Montpelier fixture. Founding Father James Madison’s Montpelier plantation house is a 2,650-acre property that is open to the public. The park hosts the annual Montpelier Steeplechase each year and is listed as a National Historic Landmark.
We parked on the back side of the steeplechase course. The day was very warm and the only dry day in several days of rain. Scenting was off, but that meant that the Hilltopping Field was able to stay up with the huntsman for most of the day. Nikki was leading Hilltoppers, and our field stayed with Paul more than the other fields. This day was also the last hunt for Keswick’s long-serving whipper-in Barclay Rives, who was retiring.
The country was pastureland and the woods of the Montpelier property. We rode around the marked hiking trails in the woods of the park.
I got to ride Nicolette Merle-Smith’s beloved homebred Fortune Cookie. She was picky, fresh, highly opinionated, yet very bidable at the same time. She was so easy to ride, despite her being hot and forward. And with a collected canter to die for, she was so comfortable! I loved her.
Next Nikki and I, with Keswick’s professional whipper-in Toni-Ann Gambale, hauled up to Pennsylvania to ride in the Vixen Hunt with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds.
