Sandra Forbush photo
If you are wondering where in the Keswick countryside the cover picture was taken, you are observant. It was not taken in Keswick but at Massie’s Corner in Rappahannock County where I grew up. My father, Wade Massie, loved to hunt foxes. My Uncle Jim tells how Pop used to get on the school bus in the morning and get off a few stops later where there would be a horse waiting for him. He would hunt all day with Ennis Jenkins, Larry Jenkins’ father, and get back on the bus in the afternoon. His parents were none the wiser.
Later Jack Bruce helped Pop put together a pack of hounds which Clint Eastham, son of famous hound breeder C.C. Eastham, would hunt for him. (It is kind of fun to think about how I would hunt with hounds and people with a lot of the same bloodlines sixty years later).
Pop also hunted with Rappahannock and was a whipper-in there. Current Rappahannock Master Oliver Brown likes to tell a story about how Pop could make any horse quiet. One day a visitor from New Jersey had come down to hunt. The visitor’s horse was rank, while Pop’s was going along well. Halfway through the day Pop offered to switch horses. By day’s end Pop’s new mount was going along on the buckle, and the visitor’s horse was jigging all around.
Long-time foxhunter Mac Hayes recently told me a story about when he first met Pop. He came to the farm, and Pop had gotten a new horse, Little John. Pop told Mac he was a good jumper, and with that he jumped Little John over the manure spreader.
My mother, Sandra Forbush, also loves hunting. She looks beautiful on a horse and is always well turned out. She taught me a lot about hunting etiquette, and she has taught me a lot about horse conformation. With her artist’s eye and with years of experience raising yearlings for the summer sales, she is a conformation cracker jack. In fact, do not go horse shopping with her for she will spot all the horse’s conformation flaws in the first three minutes before you even get a chance to ride him.
My mom took me out hunting when I was five. Apparently, I was one of these kids who never got cold or wanted to go in. I wish that were the case now! By the time I was fourteen, my parents would drop me off with Rappahannock with Jimmy Dodson, Billy’s brother, hunting the hounds and pick me up at the end of the day. I hunted a white mare, Minnie, who had taught many people to hunt.
My best friend, Molly Dunning, lived in Clarke County, so on some weekends I would take Minnie to Blue Ridge to hunt with her when Bobby Pillion was huntsman. My mom married Gus Forbush when I was in high school, and we moved to her farm in Flint Hill and started hunting with Old Dominion and Jimmy Atkins. Gus later became Master there and has served for twenty years. In college and when I lived in Washington and New York, I would hunt on holidays and some weekends. Eventually, I moved back to Virginia and taught at Wakefield and started hunting with Old Dominion regularly, first with Charlie Brown and then with Gerald Keal.
At this time Justin and I met and started dating. It turns out we had (still have) a lot in common. He had come from a horse background as well. His mother, Serena Wiley, still rides almost every day and hunted a lot in her native England when she was younger. Justin’s father, Hugh Wiley, was an Olympic show jumper. It wasn’t too long after we met that I asked Justin to come hunting with Old Dominion. To test him, we put him on Tennessee, a timber horse Gus had gotten from Tommy Lee Jones. You could not, I repeat could not, touch Tennessee’s mouth. Justin passed the test with flying colors. He actually liked Tennessee. They got along great and so did we. Two years later we were married and moved to Orange where we started having children in two year successions. We also began hunting with Keswick.
I loved everything about Keswick—the hunting, the people, the country. I remember how much I liked (and still like) hunting with Mary Kalergis because she was always focused on the hounds and knew exactly what was going on. Soon after, we got our kids out hunting. Hugh was only three when he was bucked off the black pony Oreo at Mount Sharon, and Phil Audibert snapped that great shot which is in his book on foxhunting. I will never forget one day when Lily and Hugh were still young and we were hunting in Green Springs and we had to move on to catch up. It was one of Hugh’s first times off the lead, and he was on this great pony Lassie. Looking back and seeing him kicking on will be a memory I will never forget. Lassie remains the most valuable animal we own, having taught Lily, Hugh, and Georgina to hunt.
More than one former huntsman has told me that the Keswick hounds are the best. I concur. They are athletes and have great speed and a tenacious drive. They have great noses and a great cry. They are independent, yet work well as a pack. And they are super-smart. They are much like the huntsman who guides and directs them. Tony Gammell strikes the perfect balance with our American hounds. He is very encouraging, but firm. Hacking to a covert, Tony spends a lot of the time talking to the hounds and building them up, so when he does have to reprimand one, often it will only take calling a hound’s name in a stern voice. The fact is Tony is part hound, and he is also part fox. How else does he know where the fox has gone when no one has seen the fox, and the hounds aren’t even sure? How does he know when to let them figure it out and when to pick them up and keep them moving? Or when a particular hound is correct when they are all trying to work it out? This quality cannot be taught. It is God-given.
Tony would do anything for the hounds, even if it means nearly passing out from running a mile or so down a railroad track in boots and pink coat on a hot day. And Tony is a perfectionist for the sake of the hounds. That is why he calls himself and his staff to such high standards. We don’t have a lot of foxes in some fixtures and if there is a mess-up, that might be it for the day for foxes. Tony knows that the hounds will lose interest and grow discouraged if they don’t find, time after time. Yet the smile on his face when the hounds do find and take off at high speed is priceless, as it should be. He works hard and is tireless in his drive to provide great hunting for hound and human alike. He loves nothing more than seeing the field enjoy the hounds work.
I was extremely honored and humbled when Charlotte Tieken and Andy Lynn asked me to join them as a Joint-Master, and I truly appreciate how they are teaching me as we go. I have already learned from them that being a MFH is just one of the many jobs that make up the team of the Keswick Hunt. Charlotte put it well when she defined it as a volunteer job—a service to the community. I am astounded by the amount of work they do behind the scenes that no one ever knows about to make hunting seamless. They have done a spectacular job for Keswick, and the club is riding a wonderful high wave.
We have a fantastic huntsman, staff, and hounds. In addition, our members are hardworking, dedicated, and knowledgeable about the sport, and our board is active and engaged. Finally, our landowners, the bedrock of our sport, the one key ingredient without which we would not have a sport, are generous and supportive. Mrs. Tieken and Mr. Lynn have done well. I hope to maintain what they have created when they step down. I realize that I am a newcomer by Keswick standards. When Barclay Rives told me he was excited about the prospect of my becoming Master, I was flattered. Here is a man who has been a whipper-in with Keswick for most of his adult life, whose parents and brother had been Masters, and he was excited about me. I told him that he had been around a lot longer than I, so I will need his help and the help of many. I am so grateful for the kind and encouraging words of so many people as I am thankfulfor the support of great friends and a loving family. Most of all I am thankful for Justin and my children who have encouraged me to serve a life-long love.
Posted June 22, 2015
This story was previously published in Keswick Life and is re-published with permission.
Georgina, Nancy, Hugh, and Lily: a family that hunts together…. / Sandra Forbush photo