Honk, Honk; Gone Away!
Every sport has its downside. Consider some of the older, retired NFL players—hobbling about in a fog of multiple concussions. What about foxhunters? Most of us have had our share of concussions and fractures, too. Now comes this hunt report from a retired Master of Foxhounds. Is this what we have to look forward to? He claims his story is tongue-in-cheek. Whatever. But I wouldn’t believe a word of it. -ED
The pack / Alastair Strachan photo
This season’s armadillo hunting has started with a bang. There’s plenty of quarry as the local pack of coyotes has moved away. Lots of rabbits on the golf course is another sign that the coyotes have taken a hike. However, in the wee hours of the night a week ago, I did hear a strange howl out there on the fourth fairway of the golf course.
The local radio has been reporting that Florida panthers (no, not the sports team) have moved north of the Caloosahatchee River for the first time. Perhaps it is a coincidence, but a black Labrador and a house cat have been reported missing—another good reason to walk out our pack of Jack Russells in daylight hours.
My Hound Training Program:Well-Intentioned But Misguided
Marj Botsford would winter the hunt’s puppies again, but do it differently!A few years ago, the Ottawa Valley Hunt (ON) huntsman at the time, Mr. Adrian Quick, made a request for volunteer families interested in being sponsors for hound puppies over the winter. My husband and I volunteered to take on two puppies. We are animal lovers and were between canines at the time.
In late November, the puppies arrived—Hamish and Hawkesbury. They were about six months old. Being familiar with family dogs and not hounds, we asked Adrian if there was anything in particular that we should know about foxhounds. His advice was to feed them lots of proteins. We knew that hounds are working animals and not family pets so we prepared a stall in the barn for them. Feeding proteins was not a problem as my brother has a dairy farm and a side business selling beef; therefore we had access to all the organ meat the hounds needed.
Toronto and North York Farquhar Is Grand Champion at Canada
Canadian Grand Champion Farquhar with (l–r) Apprentice Judge Katherine Selby, huntsman, Green Mountain Hounds (VT); Judge Dr. Jon Moody, MFH, Mooreland Hunt (AL); Toronto and North York huntsman John Harrison; Mrs. Alice Tyacke; and Judge Richard Tyacke, MFH and huntsman, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn’s (UK). / Denya Massey photo
Toronto and North York Farquhar 2014 was judged Grand Champion of Show at the Canadian Foxhound Show on Saturday, June 18, 2016. This was the third Grand Championship for the hunt in the last three years.
It has to be exceptionally gratifying to John Harrison, who returned as huntsman just two years ago, as all three grand champions go back to bloodlines he introduced to the pack during his earlier term as huntsman twenty years ago. Common to the pedigrees of all three, going back three generations, is Toronto and North York Crafty 1995 by their Freedom 1992.
In 1995, while Harrison was hunting the Toronto and North York pack in his first stint (1991 to 1996), he received a draft from the Berkeley (UK). One was Ballad 1987, who arrived in whelp to Berkeley Freshman 1984. Freshman was by Captain Ronnie Wallace’s Exmoor Freestone 1981. “Freestone is the key,” Harrison said.
Huntsmen on the Move: 2015
Huntsman Jordan Hicks moves from the Tryon Hounds to the Piedmont Fox Hounds / Erik Olsen photoAs we approach the close of the 2014/2015 foxhunting season, here’s our report on thirteen hunts that have either hired or will require a new huntsman for next season. We have already featured personal close-ups of three of the migrating huntsmen—Guy Allman, Brian Kiely, and Graham Buston—and we plan to bring you more.
We invite readers to fill us in on any moves that we’ve missed. We also invite you to send us a personal profile on any of these huntsmen that we can publish as a feature article. Or, just send us the information, and we’ll write the story. Use the “Contact Us” link that appears at the bottom of every screen to communicate directly with me, and be sure to include your phone number.
What follows is foxhunting’s version of musical chairs.
Macy the Foxhunting Mule Is a Keeper
It’s the ears, of course. At a walk, the long, warm-brown ears swing with metronomic precision forward and back, forward and back, to her hoof beats. At the trot, they stiffen forward, and at a check they go into neutral, except when something catches her attention. Then she points with them, head up.
Macy the foxhunting mule is an eight-year-old, 15.2-hand molly (or mare) with zebra markings on her hocks and knees, a dorsal stripe, and a cross on her withers. Her coarse dun hair and sparse tail are more similar to her donkey father than to her quarter horse mother.
She is owned by Suzanne Dow of Dundalk, Ontario, honorary whipper in of the Eglinton and Caledon Hunt and MFH of the Bethany Hills-Frontenac Hunt from 1998 to 2004. Suzanne kindly offered to let me ride Macy for a Monday hunt recently, and I took her up on the offer. A landowner issue caused the hunt to be cancelled, but we did go out for a trail ride so I could sample the virtues of a mule. There are many.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel Is Grand Champion at Canadian Foxhound Show
Canadian Grand Champion Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 / Paul Wilson photoA lovely English bitch—a veteran of five hunting seasons—was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Foxhound Show at the London Hunt and Country Club on June 11, 2011. To emerge as Best in Show with that accumulated mileage is quite an achievement. There had to be a story here, so I looked up her pedigree.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 is descended from all modern English on the sire’s side and fell hound bloodlines on the dam’s side. The answer to her achievement was there, but I didn’t put two-and-two together until I talked to huntsman Steve Clifton.
Full Cry Largo Wins Top Honors at Belle Meade
Full Cry Largo, hunting back home, just after being judged top hound at the Belle Meade Foxhound Performance Trials. She still carries her number 17, which was painted on her for the competition. Adrian Jennings photoFull Cry Largo was judged top hound at the Belle Meade Foxhound Performance Trials held in Thomson, Georgia on February 25 and 26. Belle Meade Lifeguard was runner-up to Largo, and, with three hounds in the top ten, Belle Meade took top honors among the hunts. For complete results, click here.
“Largo’s story is a great testament to how hunts and huntsman can work together to help each other out and find the right fit for hounds,” says David Hyman, MFH and huntsman of the Full Cry Hounds (AL). “It’s truly a unique fraternity.”
The Green Spring Valley Hounds at Dover and Dark Hollow
Many of the MFHA-registered packs in North America have close associations with Ireland and the UK either through hunt staff, field members, jockeys, or through the many Irish and British field hunters and racehorses that grace their hunting fields. One such well known pack is the Green Spring Valley Hounds in Maryland, USA. They met a few weeks ago at Ned Finney’s farm at Dover and Dark Hollow, which is close to the Maryland Hunt Cup racecourse and Shawan Downs racecourse.
Walter Pady, ex-MFH (1933–2010)
Walter Pady (right) was photographed recently with fellow Canadian 3-day team members John Rumble (left) and Brian Herbinson. Denya Massey Clarke (also shown) is the daughter of the late Stewart Treviranus, another team member of the three here. -Andrew Clarke photo Walter James Pady, ex-MFH of the Toronto and North York Hunt (ON) was killed tragically […]
Leica: Horse of a Lifetime
Leica was a remarkable horse whose career took her from incorrigible youngster with a vicious buck to an impressive third-place finish at age twenty-four in the grueling MFHA Centennial Field Hunter Championship. She was still hunting and showing at age twenty-seven, when she had to be humanely euthanized as the result of a pasture injury.
With her bloodlines and dazzling good looks, Leica was primed to be an outstanding dressage horse. An imported bay with touches of white, she was registered Hanoverian (by Lindberg, out of St. Pr. Kari) who was also entered in the main stud book of the RPSI (Rheinland Pfalz Saar International) and Holsteiner registries.
But after abuse from trainers who pushed her too far too fast, Leica had other ideas, says owner Julie Whitlock McKee of Grantville, Georgia. McKee acquired the hard-headed mare at age four after the trainers gave up on her. The pair did not get off to an auspicious start, with Leica rearing the first time McKee threw a leg over her. Rearing and bucking would become a regular occurrence.