A Funny Thing Happened
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- Literature
- By Gretchen Pelham
"A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Fox Den", by J. Harris Anderson.
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Crossing the Country to Help our Huntsman Exercise Hounds
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- By Wendell Hawken
Our horses in the gooseneck,
We’re in this capsule of a truck cab
Headlights probing thick fog, hurtling through time
And space between white and double yellow lines.
Good way to hit a deer, he says. They move around
this time of morning.
Foxhunting’s Influence on the Mounted Soldier
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- Literature
Book Review by Matthew Biscotti
Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare, Charles Caramello, University Press of Kentucky, 2022, Horses in History Series, illustrated, hardcover and digital, 279 pages, $34.95 (list)
Charles Caramello’s Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare is a thorough and erudite treatise on the evolution of the subject. Though the horse is no longer critical in warfare, much of this literary history describes principles of riding and instruction that laid the foundation for the theory and practice of riding today.
Turned Out
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- Literature
- By Jennifer Schuldt
The author sat in the viewing room above the arena waiting for her daughter and the instructor to appear for the weekly lesson. A groom led a horse into the empty arena and released it for a few minutes of turnout. The horse’s antics inspired Jennifer’s poem.
"Life jolts us at certain moments," she says.
We are never truly free
but tell that to the horse
who on a Saturday morning
has a few minutes to himself
in the pasture
just for the purpose of
thundering
in his moment
to do whatever wild thing
he has conceived
in the early half-light.
The Flying Change
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- Literature
- By Henry Taylor
The best description of the flying change―the mechanics and the moment―I have ever read. Riding instructors should give a copy of this poem to their students to study before even explaining how to achieve the maneuver.
The moment of suspension during the flying change in which the horse changes his lead on the fly from one lead to the other, left-to-right or vise versa. The horse can initiate the flying change on its own, generally as it changes direction at the canter, or the trained rider may induce the horse to change its leads at any given moment.
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The canter has two stride patterns, one on the right
lead and one on the left, each a mirror image of the
other. The leading foreleg is the last to touch the
ground before the moment of suspension in the air.
On cantered curves, the horse tends to lead with the
inside leg. Turning at liberty, he can change leads
without effort during the moment of suspension, but
a rider’s weight makes this more difficult. The aim of
teaching a horse to move beneath you is to remind
him how he moved when he was free.
Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833−1870)
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- Literature
- By Norman Fine
Adam Lindsay Gordon, c. 1860
English-born Adam Lindsay Gordon was a maverick. At least from the standpoint of a series of boarding schools through which he passed, having been shipped off from home at the age of seven. At age nineteen, he was again shipped off, this time to Australia. His father hoped his son would find a fresh start.
Adam's life was short but active. He was an exceptional horseman. After arriving in Australia, he joined the mounted police. He trained and rode steeplechasers, never shrank from a dare, was elected to Parliament, and is considered one of Australia's finest poets. A statue of Gordon was erected in Melbourne, near Parliament, bearing these words from his poem, "Ye Wearie Wayfare."
"Life is mostly froth and bubble
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble
Courage in your own."
What follows is a toast by Gordon, written to be sung. The first line is especially familiar to foxhunters when raising a glass. With apologies, I must admit that this toast was pretty much written for the men’s bar.
Folk Tails: The Japanese Fox
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- Literature
- By Nicole Stutt, NSL&M
At the National Sporting Library & Museum, there are over twenty-thousand books on foxhunting, horse racing, fishing, field sports, and other related topics. In my first few weeks as a Visitor Services Associate, I found what was probably the last thing I thought I’d see on the shelves: a book on kitsuné.
Kitsuné: Japan’s Fox of Mystery, Romance, and Humor by Kyoshi Nozaki is a delightful read for anyone who enjoys learning about the fox in Japanese culture or who likes folklore and mythology. This book contains many stories from legend, literature, theatre, and fairytales about the Japanese fox.
Tradition and the Individual Talent
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- Literature
- By Henry Taylor
Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, Henry Taylor
An old-school foxhunter let it get around
that he hunted a deer-proof pack. Hard to believe:
foxhounds are born to run foxes, all right,
but you have to make them stay off rabbits,
housecats, chickens, etc. They learn to stop
when the hound-whip cracks. Deer scent, though,
is strong enough to put whips out of their minds.
The Old Customer
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- Literature
- By Dorothea Conyers
At Fedamore in Co Limerick where Dorothea Conyers lived circa 1885, an extraordinary fox dwelt in the extensive gorse covert there. Mr. Nugent Humble, Master of the Co Limerick foxhounds, called it The Old Customer.
He was a very long, dark fox, and I really believe he liked being hunted. Day after day, he took hounds on the same lines―he had two―and seemed to beat them when he liked.
The First Flight
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- By Will Ogilvie
An ode to the “gallant First Flight,” this is one Ogilvie poem that your editor has too often overlooked. No longer!
By John F. Herring
While there’s one on his feet with a tale to repeat
And another is sampling a drink,
The eager First Flight have a girth to pull tight
Or a chain to let out by a link;
While the boisterous laugh in that circle of chaff
The opening music has drowned,
You will hear the First Flight as they whisper “That’s right!’
To the note of a favorite hound.
True to the Line, A Hunting Life
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- Literature
- By Adrian Dangar
Book Review by Dulany Noble
True to the Line, A Hunting Life, Adrian Dangar, Quiller, UK, 2017, Hardbound, $31.50, available at Horse Country Saddlery
I looked forward to reading this book by Adrian Dangar because I love stories about foxhunting, and, to be clear, this book is about foxhunting and about hunting all sorts of quarries, not just foxes. It is not about fox chasing. If you are reading this, I am sure you know that foxhunting in England was not strictly for the sport. It was to kill foxes that harm the livestock of the landowners and farmers in the country and to control the prolific fox population.
Still Horse Crazy After All These Years
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- Literature
- By Jim Wofford
Book Review by Caroline Treviranus Leake
Still Horse Crazy After All These Years, James Wofford, Trafalgar Square Books, North Pomfret, Vermont, 2021, $27.95
James Wofford was born in 1944 in Kansas. His father was stationed at Fort Riley, longtime home to the U.S. Cavalry. Early on, at the age of three, Jim received ‘riding lessons’ from his older sister and brothers, including jumping little fences on his 12-hand Shetland pony, Merrylegs. He would grab the horn of his Western saddle and ‘hang on.’ His siblings led the pony over the fences after which they allowed Jim to jump on his own.
As a result of that early and sophisticated training regimen (or despite it), during Jim’s competitive career, he earned team silver medals in two Olympic Games, an individual and a team bronze at two World Championships, and team gold at the Pan American Games. He also won five US National Championships (each on a different horse) and two Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Events on two different horses.
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