Ada Catherine hunting at Moore County on a lovely Thoroughbred mare owned by T.J. Watson, a hunting friend.

Ada Catherine Hays has been on the foxhunting scene since she was in diapers.  “She was an infant in her father’s arms waiting for me at the breakfast after a hunt,” said her mom Elizabeth Hays. “She started hunting on a lead line at the age of four, sharing an 11.3-hand pony field hunter with her brother. She was off the lead and hunting on a great pony at the age of six.”

In mid-August, Ada Catherine, now twelve, took her show pony, Center Field, to her first-ever major show, and won the USEF Pony Medals Final over 164 entries. That’s what the foxhunting experience gives talented young riders. It’s interesting that this story of Ada Catherine’s experience follows so closely on the heels of our recent article about seventeen-year-old Caelinn Leahy, foxhunter and Grand Prix jumper winner.