Once again the time of year has arrived when hunts and huntsmen contemplating change make their decisions known—one to the other. Foxhunting Life will feature at least some of these huntsmen’s personal transitions through the coming months.
Nancy Kleck photo
Guy Allman, popular huntsman for the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA) for the past three seasons, received an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’ll return to England—home for him and his wife, Fran—to carry the horn for the Bicester with Waddon Chase Foxhounds. Guy will succeed huntsman Patrick Martin, who is retiring after twenty-two seasons hunting the pack.
The condition, fitness, and biddability of the Blue Ridge hounds testify to Allman’s work ethic. He spends a great deal of time training puppies early on, so by the time the season starts they are ready to enter, off the couples, all at once. On the first day of the season, every hound to be entered is out with the pack. And it’s a big pack, typically twenty-five to thirty couple, virtually every hound in kennels capable of walking on four legs.
Also on the first day of hunting, every hound is fit not only for the chase but for the late-summer weather as well. Allman wants hounds as oblivious to the heat as he appears to be. There are to be no excuses.
“Good morning Guy. Dry and warm, isn’t it? Tough scenting,” one might say in greeting.
“Well, that means hounds will have to work all the harder, won’t they?” he’ll reply with a straight face but twinkling eyes. No excuses.
The first discussion about hounds I ever had with Allman was about work ethic. That’s the all-important quality he wants his pack to exhibit. If he believes there’s a fox in covert that hasn’t been found the first time through, he’ll take hounds back through the covert again. “Hounds have to learn that hunting is hard work,” he said.
“Guy has been good for the Blue Ridge Hunt,” said Anne McIntosh, MFH. “He has created an enthusiasm among subscribers not seen in years, an enthusiasm that has spread to the community, farmers, and friends. The sport he has shown us has been fantastic. We have found foxes in country where we had been wondering, ‘What happened to all the foxes?’
“The work ethic he has instilled in our hounds is superb, and at the end of the day they are still going. Working with Guy has been a pleasure and a learning experience. I have never seen our hounds so fit, our kennels so immaculate, and our country in such good shape.”
In some hunting fields one may hear as many commands seeking the same response from hounds as there are staff members in the field. At Blue Ridge, where only the first whipper-in is professional and honorary whippers-in fill out the staff as available, Allman insists on simplified and uniform language to be used by all staff members when addressing or commanding hounds. Each staff member is instructed on the specific, brief hound commands he wishes them to use. Surely that is less stressful for hounds and should elicit faster responses.
The Blue Ridge has been hunting modern English and modern English/Crossbred foxhounds for many years. The current pack is the result of Master Linda Armbrust’s breeding program of the last fifteen years, and Allman has been happy with their work.
“I have very much enjoyed hunting a pack of predominately English/Crossbred foxhounds in a country where the American foxhounds should excel,” said Allman. “We have proven that with careful breeding and the right handling they can compete on level terms. I am very proud of the progress the Blue Ridge hounds have achieved in my tenure, and this is due to good teamwork, hard work, and continuity in breeding, handling and routine.”
Bicester with Whaddon Chase
The Bicester (pronounced Bister) with Whaddon Chase is a 1986 amalgamation of the Bicester Foxhounds, the country of which has been hunted since 1778, and the Whaddon Chase foxhounds where foxhunting has been going on since 1750. It’s a good scenting country—sometimes deep-going—of plough and grass with timber fences to fly.
The hunting country lies northwest of London quite near the city of Oxford. It’s bordered on the west by the Heythrop and the Warwickshire. The Pytchley country lies just to the north.
Past Masters read like a Who’s Who of English sport: Sir Thomas Mostyn, Col. Anstruther Thompson, Major R.E. Field-Marsham, and Captain Ian Farquhar, to name a few.
FHL recently published James Barclay’s report of his early season hunting tour that included a visit to the Bicester with Whaddon Chase. In it we learned that the pack is of modern English breeding crossed with Welsh bloodlines going back to the illustrious New Forest Medyg.
While the Blue Ridge Masters and subscribers are saddened to see Guy, Fran, and their two adorable children leave the community, they are happy for Guy having achieved the pinnacle of a huntsman’s ambition: to hunt a world-class pack of foxhounds, in the English Shires, for an elite hunt, in a four-day-a-week country.
Gone to ground on the bank of the Shenandoah / Nancy Kleck photo