On International Women’s Day, Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries” played from a boombox at the meet as the hounds lead the hunt away to start the day. Jumping four-plank fences as they came, led Olympian Boyd Martin, the only man out that day, over 120 women enjoyed a great day in timber country putting three foxes to ground.
On March 8, Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds held a Vixen Hunt as a fundraiser. Located halfway between Lancaster and Philadelphia, the meet was held at Lydia Bartholomew’s Plumsted farm in West Marlborough Township, Pennsylvania. Plumsted Farm is the home of the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup*, held in the fall, and the meet was on the timber course. The country is rolling farmlands, with lots of wood fencing that line the paved roads. This means that most of the jumping efforts land and take off very close to or on the blacktop.
Timber racing is strong in the community, and many of the hunt horses are ex-timber horses. The hunt doesn’t build many coops like most hunt clubs. Instead, they build post and rails to mimic the timber jumps. And if a fox crosses the fence where there is no purpose-built jump, then the hunt will routinely jump the four-plank fence “as it rides” instead of going out of their way to a built jump.
The charity meet, benefiting the hunt club, was organized by Rachel Wilkoski. This is the second year that Rachel has organized the event with its biggest asset, Olympian Boyd Martin, as the only man in the field.
Martin is a three-time Olympian, two-time CCI5* winner, and two-time Pan American Games team gold medalist and individual gold medalist for the sport of Eventing. He is currently listed as third in the world rankings of Eventing riders. Originally from Australia, Boyd is a member of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds and lives nearby.
The huntsman for the day, Mary Taylor Miller, fit the vixen casting call and was in her first season as a professional huntsman. She took the pack of mostly crossbreds out on a beautiful clear day to hunt red fox (coyote are considered riot). Approximately 120 ladies were split into two jumping fields and a non-jumping field.
I came to Pennsylvania from Virginia with my friends Nikki Merle-Smith (wife of Keswick Hunt Club’s MFH Joel Merle-Smith) and Toni-Ann Gambale (professional whipper-in for Keswick). We hauled up horses for Nikki and Toni-Ann to Cheshire member Cindy Buchanan’s Mercer Hill Farm. One of the great ways that Rachel organized the Vixen Hunt was to set up every guest with a Cheshire member to have a place to stay and to stable their horses.
Cindy’s place was beautiful. The horses were settled in paddocks, and we stayed in her children’s rooms in her house. The night before, as I was getting ready for the welcome cocktail party, I saw Cindy’s husband, Richard, leaving by himself. I asked him if he was meeting us at the party, but he said no. “They take this vixen thing very seriously. No men are allowed at the party, so I’m taking the husbands of the guests out to find our own dinner.”
On the way to the cocktail party, a red fox ran in front of our car. It was to be a good omen for the coming day. At the party, I met several new faces who told me that this would be their first foxhunt. The ladies had flown in from as far away as Los Angeles and Idaho just so they could ride with Martin. When I found them the next day at the Hunt Tea, they had grins on their faces. What a great introduction to our sport.
When we arrived at Plumsted Farm, there was a line of trailers waiting to check-in. There were three stops, the first was Lydia Bartholomew, the owner of the farm, welcoming each rig to Plumsted. The next two stops were to check that the hunt cap had been paid and the liability release had been digitally signed. It was so well organized and fast, I was impressed.
As we rode up to the meet, held on the steeplechase course next to one of the large equipment barns, men were handing out glasses of port or champagne from silver trays. Several ladies arrived turned out to the nines in sidesaddle habits. Boyd Martin arrived mounted on a borrowed horse from a whipper-in. He had on his Olympic scarlet with the USA patch and the USA Olympic hard-shell helmet adorned with rhinestones. It was announced that he would be leading the Field, but as the hounds were hacked away from the meet I heard him joke, “Do I have to ride up front?”
Martin never did keep his honorary position of First Flight Field Master, as he kept dropping back to various positions with First Flight. And at every check, he would visit the other Flights to take selfies and chat up the riders. Martin is obviously a pro at being a celebrity. He was always charming and friendly without being awkward or impatient.
I was in the Hilltopping field with a good friend Karen Sargent, who is a member of both the Woodbrook Hunt Club in Washington State and Belle Meade Hunt in Georgia. She splits her time between homes on each coast and in Ireland. We all want to grow up to be Karen. Karen makes the River Maigue Design stock ties, and they are just like her personality: colorful, fun, classy, and impossible to ignore. She was riding her medium pony Cricket, a Welsh cross that was pure energy. Throughout the day, I would check for Karen by thinking, “Where is my Cricket?” And there they would be, Karen and Cricket just bouncing in and out of frame.
I hired a horse from Erica Rose, a New York staple in the livery business. She had a rough time this spring with both her horse trailer and truck being totaled due to freaky mechanical issues. I met Erica down in Georgia with Belle Meade, where she spends the worst of the winter. She hired out for me a lovely large, paint pony mare named Sophie. Out of all the hirelings I had on the trip, this mare was one of the best I rode. She never tailgated, never jigged or pulled, and was foot-perfect over logs and creeks. She was lovely. She had only one flaw – and it was an unwillingness to stand still when I tried to get a photo with Boyd Martin. My mare almost pulled Martin out of the saddle! The only horse more allergic to standing still for a selfie was Cricket.
The day’s hunting was three red foxes put to ground. The first fox was found soon after leaving the meet and was put to ground in front of all three fields. The earth was in the middle of a fallow cornfield, so it was very easy for all 120 riders to watch the hounds mark the ground. The next fox was eventually put to ground in an old pipe. We in Hilltoppers watched the second red run alongside of us while we were stopped in a pasture. The red ran past all of us, and when he had passed the field master, he laid down by a fence row to rest and watch us. When the hounds got close, he slipped under the fence and disappeared from our view. He was put to earth in the pipe a little later. The third fox was put to ground in a quarry, but Hilltoppers missed out on that view.
Despite the large number in the Hilltopper field, there was almost no chaos with out-of-control horses. The jumping fields, however, had some issues with fallen riders unused to the jumping efforts over upright panels landing on paved roads. The roads were extra slick, and I discovered that the mare I was on had no borium welded to the bottom of her shoes. Her imitation of Bambi on ice was not comforting. I had to be very careful with my balance when we trotted downhill so I didn’t pancake on blacktop with my titanium spine.
The Hunt Tea was held in the large equipment barn at the meet. There were several vendors in the barn. The boombox has switched from the “Flight of the Valkyries” to girl power songs, ala the Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child. Boyd Martin stood on a box to make the announcements and thank yous. Martin also gave out the awards of the day. Best Turned Out went to sidesaddle rider Amy Magee (who was also the vendor for Black Diamond Designs) who rode in First Flight. Youngest Vixen went to Cheshire member Adlai Kaplan, 11 years old and in her first season of hunting. The favorite thing that her pony, Harry, likes to do is to go fast. Appropriate since she started in Second Field but moved up to finish in First Field. There was also a prize for the best hat at the Tea.
Boyd Interview
Did you foxhunt in Australia? No, the first time I hunted was with the Cheshire, and I just thought that it was a bunch of old ladies riding around the countryside. And then the first jump I saw was a big four-railer. My eyes lit up, and I couldn’t believe what you guys do out here. So I joined the Cheshire Hunt and haven’t looked back since.
How many Vixen Hunts have you done? This is my second Vixen Hunt.
What did you expect it to be? It’s been fantastic. As the only guy out there with 120 ladies, it’s very flattering.
How would you compare foxhunting to Eventing? It’s the same principle. The sports have a lot of similarities with the galloping and the fences. In Eventing, we get to walk to the course ahead of time, and then we complain about the ground if it’s not perfect. But in hunting, you really got to ride to the conditions.
Martin wasn’t the only celebrity at the Tea. His wife, Silva Martin, is a well-renowned Grand Prix dressage trainer. When Toni-Ann met Boyd, she told him she was a fan of his but loved Silva more. Boyd pointed and said, “Well, my wife is right over there”. Toni-Ann’s reaction was to immediately ditch Boyd and race to go meet Silva, her idol.
Full disclosure, I once wrote an article several years ago on how to fan girl stalk Boyd Martin. It was written as a joke. The Chronicle of the Horse originally agreed to run it, only to decline it later for being “too weird”. I’ve never been so proud of a rejection.
The Cheshire Vixen Hunt was a great event that I hope to attend again.
*The Pennsylvania Hunt Cup is a Timber steeplechase race with a distance of four miles and 18 fences, over fair hunting country. From its inception, it has been intended as a substantial test of both horse and rider and is one of just three 4-mile steeplechase races sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association.