Aiken
EIA in Aiken; First Case in More than a Decade
A mule in Aiken, South Carolina has tested positive for Equine Infectious Anemia. This is the first case of EIA in Aiken since the 1990s. In fact, South Carolina is the only Southeastern state in which no positive cases of EIA were recorded in the last ten years. The mule, which has been euthanized and is said to no longer pose a threat to other equines, lived in the Fox Chase subdivision which borders the Hitchcock Woods. Since the disease is carried and transferred via mosquitos and horseflies, and since the Hitchcock Woods are a center of equine activity in Aiken, concerns are raised about the potential spread of the disease. Like the HIV virus in humans, the EIA virus weakens the immune system of equines and leads to other diseases. Click for more details in the WRDW-TV news report by Travis Ragsdale. Posted September 5, 2014
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A View from the Second Flight at Whiskey Road
Cornelia Henderson and Banjo / Shawn McMillen photoI was brushing Banjo's mane before a meeting of the Whiskey Road Foxhounds (SC). It was standing on end from static electricity, and I thought, “Oh, rats. It's not going to be a very good day today....too dry.” Was I ever wrong!
And John Emery had apparently told Master Lynn Smith that if the hounds spent another day in the swamp, he wasn't EVER going back to the Jackson meet. No worries there; John will definitely be back.
We started out toward Averitt Valley Road with hounds speaking in the woods on the in-country side. They worked hard, and first flight took off down and around Kirkland and in by the chicken houses. Second flight held up a bit and listened and watched, finally deciding to move along behind first. That's when all hell broke loose in the middle of the country with hounds screaming away while we were still on the far edge.
Whiskey Road Hunt Week, Aiken, SC
Installment Six
Whiskey Road huntsman Joseph Hardiman takes hounds, staff and field for a long day's hunting.Betsy and friends escape frozen Virginia for a week of hunting in warmer climes. We bring you Installment Six of her daily blog, exclusive to Foxhunting Life.
Why Worry?
The Why Worry foxhounds
Charles Sainsbury-Plaice photo
Charles Sainsbury-Plaice photo
"Would you like to ride up with me?" asked George Thomas, MFH and huntsman of the Why Worry Hounds. Thomas is a direct descendant of the Bywaters family of Virginia—renowned foxhound breeders of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—and he hunts a pack of Crossbred hounds, most of which carry the old Bywaters bloodlines. The meet was at Basset Hill in Aiken, South Carolina, home of Ward and Mary Lou Welsh. I was being offered a chance to watch a lovely pack of hounds work their country.
