Shelley O’Higgins and Albert Poe evaluating foxhounds at Bryn Mawr.
Last July, Shelley O’Higgins, age sixty-two, lost her battle with cancer. She died as she lived—motivated by the heart and determination that characterized her passion for meeting every challenge. An avid foxhunter, she thrilled to the chase and encouraged new enthusiasts. Family and friends remember Shelley as a dedicated huntsman and an ambassador for the sport.
Shelley spent two decades of service as a professional huntsman. While at Bull Run Hunt (VA), she raced over fences for several seasons, making fifty starts in all. All nine of Shelley’s career wins took place aboard two outstanding timber horses, Woodstock Nation and Amberson Place. In 1980, five of her victories earned Shelley the title of Leading Lady Timber Rider on the Virginia Point-to-Point circuit.
Shelley, racing in 1981, was Leading Lady Timber Rider.
Susan Wight, who raced from 1980–1990 and garnered two Leading Lady Rider titles, said, “Shelley was a worthy adversary on the racing field of battle and a fun-to-be-around friend off the race field. We had continuing philosophical discussions at speed every weekend during the point-to-point season. I enjoyed both sides of her personality. To quote an old Irish saying: “to be lucky enough to know Shelley O’Higgins is to be lucky enough.”
But it was hounds and hunting that claimed Shelley’s heart, and many remember her best surrounded by foxhounds or beagles and a group of kids and adults.
Competitive by nature, Shelley was blessed with a relentless “can do” attitude coupled with an indomitable will to achieve each task and goal. She recognized no limits, not for herself or for any animal or human. Her stubborn determination and ability to throw herself, heart and soul, into everything she did played a vital role when diagnosed in August 2017 with a rare and aggressive cancer—a type usually discovered only by autopsy.
Last summer marked nearly one year that Shelley had fought against the rapid mortality usually suffered with this cancer when a routine checkup delivered devastating news: she had perhaps two weeks to live. Of course, she refused to give up and battled gamely to the finish. Always quick-witted, Shelley declared to Shawna O’Higgins, her eldest sibling and care-giver, that she was “*gobsmacked*” when she lived three days beyond that predicted two weeks.
Her sisters Shannon and Shawna put it this way: “No one, not a dog, horse or human, could say no to Shelley.” She encouraged young entry (puppies and kids) and new enthusiasts, zeroing in on anyone—juniors, parents, various adults—who expressed any interest whatsoever in horses or hounds. She was a terrific teacher and an avid student, influenced by the likes of Alexander Mackay-Smith, Bill Brainard, Buster Chadwell, Albert Poe, Chris Howells, and Warren Harrover, to name a few.
Shelley’s involvement with animals began in early childhood when her family settled in northern Virginia after their father retired from the U.S. Navy. Her mother, Jean O’Higgins, had grown up crazy about horses and encouraged her progeny—Shawna, Shelley, Steele, and Shannon—in their pursuit of equestrian glory.
The parents bought property in Great Falls, Virginia, building paddocks and a barn for their three daughters and son whose naughty, quirky ponies taught them to ride anything, whether bareback or under saddle. Eventually graduating to horses, the O’Higgins siblings enjoyed a classic education in old-fashioned horsemanship. Shelley knew from her earliest memories that she would devote her life to working with animals, especially horses and dogs. She was a fearless and accomplished rider, articulate and intelligent. She loved what she did with a passion.
Shelley was a young teenager when she was hired by a nearby petting zoo. One of the defining experiences of her life found her entrusted with raising days-old lion cubs. She kept them at home on her parents’ farm until they were six months old, hunting mice in the pasture and capering among the O’Higgins’ horses. Shelley continued to acquire all sorts of knowledge about local fauna and flora as well as exotics, which later in her career turned walking hounds or beagles into fascinating nature talks.
At seventeen, just out of high school, Shelley embarked on a year off to backpack through England, Wales, and Ireland where she landed a job with a major field hunter leasing business that catered to visitors capping with County Limerick and the Stonewall Harriers. This led to meeting Warren Harrover, MFH, Bull Run Hunt, who was on a foxhunting jaunt with Randy Rouse, MFH, Fairfax Hunt (VA), where Shelley had ridden to hounds as a junior.
Virginia Foxhound Show, Oatlands, 1986: Huntsman Shelley O’Higgins receives trophy from Joan Jones (now President, Virginia Foxhound Club). Judges are (l-r) Captain R.E. Wallace, MFH, Exmoor Foxhounds (UK); Bun Sharp, MB, Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles; Sherman Haight, MFH, Mr. Haight’s Litchfield County Hounds (CT)..
When Shelley returned to Virginia, the Bull Run kennels had just been moved to Haymarket, which, in the early 1970s, still had open farmland. Bull Run needed a kennel huntsman, and Shelley credited sheer tenacity for getting the job. Cleaning kennels is a job few people enjoy doing, but for Shelley, then nineteen, it meant learning from a Master/Huntsman. Warren became her mentor, teaching the eager but clueless protégée everything he could about hounds and hunting.
Shelley needed tenacity. When she started out as kennelman for Bull Run she couldn’t identify hounds or recognize them by voice, nor did she know if they were working in the hunting field or just larking. Her efforts quite often provoked Warren to blasphemy, especially in the early stages when she thought her name was “Goddammit, Honey ”
Shannon, the youngest O’Higgins, was an eyewitness to Shelley’s apprenticeship at Bull Run. “Warren Harrover was the father to Shelley that our own father never was,” Shannon said. “I stayed and worked with Shelley at Bull Run Hunt every summer for six or seven years. We rode and exercised hounds really early during the hot weather. We did the kennels every day, fed the hounds, cared for the horses and the hounds. He was a gentleman. There was no funny business. Warren was wonderful.”
The Master-Huntsman’s unexpected demise in 1984 was devastating for all concerned. Certainly for Shelley, who worshipped Warren both as father figure and as a mentor. She hunted the pack of American Foxhounds bred by Warren for two more seasons, serving twelve years altogether at Bull Run. Internal changes prompted her move to the Fox River Valley Hunt (IL), where she hunted hounds for five years, followed by two years as huntsman at Chagrin Valley Hunt (OH). Upon her return to Virginia, she was considering veterinary school, having earned her B.S. in Biology while at Bull Run.
Fred Brooks (now deceased) was whipping in at Middleburg-Orange County Beagles at the time. The 2002-2003 season was approaching when he realized that Eve Fout, Master of Beagles, was looking for a new huntsman, and he suggested Shelley. So did Joanie Jones, longtime MFH at Bull Run, now longtime president of the Foxhound Club of Virginia, who had hired Shelley as kennelman and watched her grow into a huntsman.
“Shelley was always very quiet with hounds and left them alone,” Joanie said. “I think that’s key to being a really good huntsman, and the hounds hunted really well for her.” Joanie provided a solid reference to Eve, who asked Shelley to help exercise and bring along the puppies at MOC. Eve Prime Fout had founded the MOC Beagles in 1961 to be a mounted foxhunting pack for kids to learn the ropes and become the next generation of foxhunting enthusiasts.
“Eve tried her and hired her, and the rest is a wonderful history of Shelley successfully hunting the beagles,” recalled Adrianne Brooks. “Shelley did more than hunt and care for the beagles. She had a way with animals and children—and adults too—but she loved all animals and children. She was a good friend with a great sense of humor. A kind and caring person.
“Shelley taught the children how to handle and show the beagles, and she and Eve and the dedicated children went to Bryn Mawr Hound Show for several years, bringing home ribbons and much praise and thanks from other hunts,” Adrianne continued. “The MOC kids, with Shelley’s blessing and encouragement, would help out the other packs whenever needed, including showing their beagles. One year when I went to Bryn Mawr, one of the older MOC girls helped to show foxhounds.”
Eve’s untimely demise in December 2007 resulted in an internal reorganization, which led to Shelley’s retirement from hunting hounds. She continued to be involved as much as possible, judging at the various shows for beagles, bassets, and foxhounds as well as serving in whatever capacity was needed, including the ”morning after” crew at the Virginia Foxhound Show.
Shelley used to say it takes a village to raise a child, and that’s pretty much what MOC Beagles did under the leadership of Eve Fout, who recognized what her huntsman had to offer. Shelley was happiest when sharing knowledge with enthusiasts of all ages and missed very little, sensing when someone wanted to learn more, to do more.
Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman, Brazos Valley Hounds (TX), recalled meeting Shelley way back during her Bull Run years when Sandy was a whipper-in at Hickory Creek Hunt (TX).
“Shelley was always helpful and talked to me on the phone a lot about how to build the pack and have the type of hound I like—all good ideas,” Sandy said. “She also taught me how to work with the puppies. She was unbelievably supportive to us down here in Texas and came down here several times. We didn’t have a lot of places to draft hounds in our own area, and she sent a hound named Bull Run Calvin to us at Hickory Creek when I was whipping in to Charles Fletcher. Calvin became the foundation sire of our American hounds. That was back in the 1980s.
“Then we started Brazos Valley in 1994,” continued Sandy. “Shelley got us drafts from Ian Milne and Albert Poe, and also some hounds from Orange County which was amazing and not that easy. She was one of the first people I looked for when I came to Virginia. When I had a hound in the ring, she was always ringside, cheering me on. Shelley did a lot for our industry. She was a true ambassador for our sport.”
Huntsman Larry Pitts and his whipper-in wife, Peggy Pitts, also thought the world of Shelley. Larry and Peggy, along with their whipper-in/hound-handling daughter Laura, are well documented in the annals and history of the chase. From 1980–2014, Larry carried the horn at Potomac Hunt (MD) where he trained and bred an outstanding pack of American Foxhounds, providing great sport in the field and garnering many championships in the show ring. Not happy with retirement, Larry and Peggy are back, doing what they love as huntsman and whipper-in with the Bedford County Hunt (VA).
Larry and Peggy were in their early years at Potomac when they met Shelley, who was carrying the horn at Bull Run after Warren’s passing. Larry and Peggy kept up with Shelley’s hunting career and reminisced about her with affection and respect.
“Shelley was a hard worker, intense, and always tried to do it perfect, first class, when she worked with hounds,” Larry said. “I thought she was as good as anyone with hounds. When she worked with them, she knew what she wanted them to do, she expected them to do it, and they did do it. And they did it right. It’s a key thing with hounds not to get angry with them, and I never noticed her being harsh or angry. I didn’t get to hunt with her, but I was around kennels with Shelley and went to hound shows with her many times. I was amazed, when I went to the kennels, how easy she did things—the hounds were like no work at all.”
Every whipper-in knows the importance of that invisible thread between huntsman and hounds. “At Bryn Mawr Hound Show one year, Shelley had twelve or fourteen couple of Bull Run hounds and, after she had walked them out, she was putting them away in their pens,” Peggy Pitts recalled. “Shelley didn’t even have to touch them. They would come up to her and look at her and wait until they heard their name. She would open the door and they would walk in. She barely had to touch them, they were so completely focused on her. Shelley loved the hounds and they loved her.”
Larry and Peggy spoke about how passionate Shelley was no matter what she was doing and how she was always fun to be with. In the world of hounds and hunting where men far outnumber females carrying the horn, Larry awarded the ultimate endorsement when he stated: “Shelley was absolutely great with hounds, one of the best out there and she made it look so easy. She was better than nine-tenths of them.”
Many years ago, Shelley said, “Hunting’s always in my life.” She encouraged a lot of kids and adults to chase their dreams, to get involved, and to tally ho. That’s her priceless legacy.
Posted June 18, 2019