From London’s streets to Virginia’s hunt country
Huntsman Andy Bozdan and the Loudoun Fairfax hounds / Laura Riley photo
The job: huntsman. The man: Andrew Bozdan—leader of fifty couple of Old English foxhounds. One hundred canines. How is this possible? In all my life as a dog owner, I’ve only had a handful who actually came when I called. How is it that we mortals have such difficulty in getting our dogs to sit and come and not potty in the house, while this man steers his entire pack in an apparently seamless manner.
The answer is, as always, nothing is ever as easy as it looks. Before the man appears in public, seated atop his skewbald gelding, wearing his scarlet coat, and blowing his copper horn to speak to the mass of hounds seething below, one heck of a lot of work happens and many miles are traveled.
Bozdan says consistency is the answer. But he also says patience, regimen, kindness, and the ability to back up his commands must all be believed by the hounds. The hounds, in their way, demand consistency, reliability and kindness. If he becomes cross with them it is to be regretted, for Andy Bozdan knows he has lost ground with his charges—a situation he never wants to create. The hounds are in some ways childlike endurance athletes who vie for his affection. “I must be very careful not to show one hound particular affection or attention.” When asked if it will cause a riot he replies. “Not while I am there, but after I leave there is a proper chance that the selected favorite will be punished by the others, so I must be careful about my desire to cuddle and love them up. I pick my opportunities with care.”
Born in London, Andy Bozdan was raised in a cosmopolitan world. It wasn’t until his school offered a horsemanship course that the young Brit was exposed to horses. Each week the school took the students to the stables. Andy received the gift precious few get to enjoy, and he absorbed a passion. Later when he was invited to go out to the country and ride to hounds, the teenager had doubts about the fairness of the sport. He was unsure if he could even do it. Once there, however, he was seduced by the beauty of the scene, the music of hounds, and the excitement of the flight across some of England’s most beautiful countryside. Bozdan had met a lifelong love.
Upon finishing school, Andy had the luxury of options. He chose not to play football (soccer), even though he was a draft pick. Instead, he followed the horses, initially getting his Assistant Instructor’s degree in a horsemanship program. He went to his first job interview with his rolled up diploma “tied in a pink ribbon” only to be asked by his future mentor, “Can you muck out? Can you plait manes?” And so it went. With a willingness to sit at the foot of the master while doing his part of the routine daily work he was a steadfast student. “My teacher was willing to answer the same questions over and over until I finally understood the answer.” That unofficial apprenticeship lasted six years. It was a show jumping stable, and eventually Andy ended up riding on the show circuit professionally and also competing for Great Britain in the International Carriage Driving Horse Trials. Amid such bounty of horse experiences one thing never changed: he never forgot about those hounds.
And so it was a beagle hunt next. Once again he sat at the foot of another Master and worked as whipper-in for ten years before becoming huntsman for another seven years. On the heels of that experience he took on some foxhounds, at the same time taking over a new pack of beagles, chalking up still more experience with hounds. Day in. Day out. Foxhounds. Beagles. And even a stint hunting a farmer pack of bloodhounds.
In 2007, in England, Andy took on a pack of Old English foxhounds as both Master and huntsman. Then the unthinkable happened. His wife was diagnosed with cancer and was taken from him within two weeks of the diagnosis. Devastated, he picked up and moved to Australia to work as a huntsman while he put the pieces of his shattered soul back together. Then he came to the U. S., to Tennessee, to hunt the Penn-Marydel foxhounds for the Tennessee Valley Hunt.
After three seasons in Tennessee, where Andy met and married Erin Doyle who was whipping-in, he was hired as huntsman in old Virginia hunt country. He and Erin moved, but huntsman and whipper-in inherited a complex situation. Two packs, the Loudoun Hunt West and the Fairfax Hunt, were to be merged. He found one hundred-fifteen hounds housed in three different locations. One huntsman had already left the area but the other proved to be a tremendous help. Andy was faced with the task of learning the names of all the hounds, getting to know their personalities, and, most important, forging that bond that makes it possible for a huntsman to lead a pack of hounds out into the countryside for a day’s hunting…and have that pack come home again.
It took ten months to get the three groups of hounds living under one roof. First the newly merged hunt had to build a new kennel in which to consolidate the packs. They built a state-of-the-art board-and-batten-sided hound lodge which was soon ready for its residents, and home they came. The transition was carefully orchestrated. Bozdan moved the bitches in first, allowing strangers to meet across a substantial wire partition. After a couple days of walking out together, the bitches became roommates. The dogs followed, and again the transition was dance-like. Walking out and seeing each other in the open was key to moving in together. There were fights. Struggle for kennel territory. A bench for the more assertive, under the bench for those willing to accept a demotion. There were battles for leadership. Blood was shed. But in the end they worked it out and became a new pack: the Loudoun Fairfax. Most of the hounds were of the Old English strain, but there are Crossbreds mixed in with the ancient lineages of the English purebreds.
Andy Bozdan and Heather Heider walk out hounds / Laura Riley photo
Huntsman and hounds began to walk out daily as a new pack—a single entity made up of many hounds. Hunting packs of hounds is rife with tradition and history…and knowledge. Knowledge handed down from the seasoned wise huntsman to the ones coming behind. The husbandry required to maintain the pack is formidable. First-aid is a common part of that husbandry. Psychology is interwoven into the relationship between the man and the pack.
Dogs want a confident, consistent leader. Packs of hounds want the very same. While we are so fond of saying, It isn’t rocket science, in many ways it is far more complex. The relationship between this man and his pack is a beautiful and delicate dance performed between a man of strong body and mind and a group of hounds hungering for a leader. A huntsman must have an even temperament while being a micro-manager. A huntsman multi-tasks to an unimaginable degree. A huntsman is the breeding manager and puppy trainer, both. A huntsman needs also to be a horseman and a skilled rider. Decades of experience bring Andrew Bozdan, huntsman, Loudoun Fairfax, to a place where he can not only hunt his hounds but he can love them, patch them up, and hold their respect. As Andy Bozdan was heard to say, “I did not get here by magic.”
Posted March1, 2015