Hugh Motley, MFH with the Keswick foxhounds / Courtesy of the Motley Family
Hugh Douglas Camp Motley, ex-MFH of the Keswick Hunt (VA) and a highly-regarded horseman who started his own bloodstock agency and sold Thoroughbred horses at many of America’s premier racing sales, died in Wellington, Florida on January 9, 2016 of complications from pneumonia. He was sixty.
Hugh foxhunted all his life and served as Master of Foxhounds for the Keswick Hunt (VA) from 2000 to 2005. He also played polo for many years as a member of the Charlottesville Polo Club.
Jake Carle, longtime Master and huntsman at Keswick, remembers Hugh from the time he was hunting ponies. “He was game as hell,” Jake recalls. “He would go anywhere on his pony.”
“We bonded instantly because we both stuttered as kids, so I understood. Later, he whipped-in to me. When it was time to name a new Joint-Master, he was the only person I trusted to maintain the standards. And he did.
“He hired [huntsman] Tony Gammell, and they had a bond. He had the most wonderful sense of humor, and we all will miss him terribly. He’s one of only a few people I know who was liked by everyone who met him.
“Hugh showed up one day with a movie camera to film one of our hunts for a children’s meeting, but Charlie Brown’s and my language was so bad he wouldn’t show it to the kids!”
Orange County Hounds MFH John Coles remembers how Hugh and he starting foxhunting together at the age of ten. Coles praised Hugh’s horsemanship, sense of humor, and good nature.
Hugh began riding as a child when his family moved from Virginia Beach to Keswick, Virginia, near Charlottesville, when he was ten years old. For more than twenty-five years, he had his own business breaking and training yearlings on his family’s Highground Farm in Keswick.
Hugh attended the Blue Ridge School in St. George, Virginia, and graduated from Christ Church School in Richmond before starting his career in the horse business.
He is survived by his wife of forty years, Kathleen Buchanan “Winkie” Motley; a daughter, Sheila Camp Motley of Wellingon, FL (married to Mathew Allen); a sister, Mary Motley Kalergis of Charlottesville; a brother, James Coleman Motley of Salt Lake City , Utah and a grandson, Collins Camp Allen.
The family requests that donations be made in memory of Hugh Motley to two charities: the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, which funds veterinary research projects for all horses (821 Corporate Drive, Lexington, KY 40503) and the Little Keswick School, P.O. Box 24, Keswick, VA 22947.
Posted January 15, 2016