Horn Blowing Championship trophy is presented to Neil Amatt by Richard Hornberger. Ringmaster is John Franzreb. / AlCookPhoto.com

Neil Amatt, whipper-in to the Piedmont Fox Hounds (VA), won the 2013 North American Horn Blowing Championship on Monday, October 14. This final horn blowing competition of the season is held annually during Hunt Night activities at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hunt staff members across North America qualify to compete for the championship by winning a horn blowing contest at any one of the MFHA-sanctioned hound shows held the previous spring.

Previous winners have been Andrew Barclay, Sam Clifton, Emma Downing, Steve Farrin, Tommy Jackson, Brian Kiely, Ian Milne, Charles Montgomery, Adrian Smith, and John Tabachka.

A perpetual trophy engraved with the name of each year’s winner remains on permanent display at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting at Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia.

Posted October 17, 2013