with Horse and Hound

Dulverton West Foxhounds

Equine Herpes Interrupts Hunting in Devon

Three hunts—Devon and Somerset Staghounds, Exmoor Foxhounds, and Dulverton West Foxhounds—recently cancelled meets due to an outbreak of equine herpes virus (EHV-1) at a North Devon racing yard. EHV-1 is a serious and sometimes fatal disease that is transmitted through the air or close contact. Hunt representatives said that the cancellations are precautionary and temporary. Click for more details in the Somerset. http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Hunts-called-equine-herpes-outbreak-racing/story-17381729-detail/story.html
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Harry-Worcester-Smith-master-of-the-Westmeath-Foxhounds-1912

Harry Worcester-Smith and the Westmeath Foxhounds

The Westmeath Foxhounds based in the midlands of Ireland was founded in 1854 and is one of the most popular

Harry-Worcester-Smith-master-of-the-Westmeath-Foxhounds-1912
Grafton Staff in Ireland: Tom Jenner on Sir Ritchie, Harry Worcester-Smith on Success, Jackie Brown on The Cad

foxhunting packs in Ireland. They have had a distinguished succession of Joint-Masters over the years, but one of the most flamboyant arrived at the Irish kennels from the USA in 1912 with a retinue that caused quite a stir in the neighbourhood.

The new Master’s entourage included sixteen Thoroughbred horses, a pack of American hounds, five African-American grooms, a yellow open-top sports car, a yellow sulky, and three fighting cocks. His name was Harry Worcester-Smith, MFH of the Grafton Hounds in Massachusetts. He was even better known for the 1905 Great Foxhound Match in the Piedmont Valley with Mr. Alexander Henry Higginson’s English hounds, mainly of Fernie origin.

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