Cheshire Centennial Meet at Brooklawn
Cheshire Honorary Whipper-In Paddy Neilson, Huntsman Ivan Dowling, and professional whipper-in Stephanie Boyer at Brooklawn / Noel Mullins photo
Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA), founded in 1912, are celebrating their Centennial this season. W. Plunkett Stewart, a Philadelphia banker, set out to find the perfect hunting country and settled on the rolling hills, rich pastureland and extensive woods around Unionville. As what in modern terms could be classed as a committed environmentalist, he purchased thousands of acres of land and, before reselling, amended deeds to restrict development and nurture conservancy, clean water, and natural habitat. As a result of his efforts and the culture of conservation he passed on, the Cheshire hunting country today boasts thirty square miles and twenty-six thousand acres free from ribbon residential and commercial development that has allowed foxhunting and National Hunt racing to thrive.
Turning the Tables: Aiken Foxhunters Travel North
Loudoun West huntsman Martyn Blackmore blows his fox to ground.Aiken Hounds huntsman Katherine Gunter and I had been planning this trip for months. South Carolina summers are tough, and no sooner had we returned to Aiken after the 2011 Virginia Foxhound Show and found ourselves enveloped in ninety-plus temperatures that we began to think about September and a possible hunting vacation.
Everything came together well. We don’t begin our own cubhunting until October, which left September free and clear for adventure. Where shall we go? We had a wonderful invitation from friends in Millbrook, NY, so we decided to make the big push north, out of the heat first, and work our way back south.
How Maryland Prepares Hounds for the “Big Time”
Penn-Marydel Champion Mount Carmel Mandolin with (l-r) kennelman Nancy Morris and handler Allen Forney / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoFor thirty-seven years now on the “first Sunday after the first Saturday in May,” foxhunters from the Mid-Atlantic region have gathered to display and compare the results of their breeding programs for the past year. Initiated by Dr. Roger Scullin, MFH, Howard County-Iron Bridge Hounds (MD) in an effort to better prepare young hounds for the *big* shows in Virginia and Bryn Mawr, the Maryland Foxhound Club Puppy Show has grown to now having representatives from nearly all Maryland packs, both recognized and private, several Virginia packs, and many from Pennsylvania. This year the show even attracted hounds from as far away as New York state. In all, nearly two hundred hounds were entered.
Flying Change
Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing by Patrick Smithwick, Chesapeake Book Company, 2012, 360 pages, $30.00If you can avoid disabling injury, horseback riding is a sport that many enjoy for a lifetime. All of us have heard anecdotal tales of people who ride—and even foxhunt—up into their seventies and eighties.
With Baby Boomers aging, those stories will become more prevalent, although many of us may be opting for the dressage arena instead of the hunt meet…or the race track.
Author Patrick Smithwick decided to meet growing older head on. He challenged himself at age forty-six to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, a four-mile timber race over twenty-two solidly built fences that are not for the faint of heart. It is the world’s stiffest timber race.
And the Chase Is On
And the Chase Is On, bronze sculpture by Margery Torrey, will benefit injured jump jockey Jake ChalfinHere is a delightful work of art by sculptor Margery Torrey that will bring a smile to any foxhunter. Torrey is one of a number of generous individuals who have donated their unique talents to help raise funds for injured jockey Jake Chalfin.
A little over a year ago, during a hurdle race at the Blue Ridge Fall Races, a runaway racehorse he was riding catapulted Chalfin into the perimeter fence. It turned out to be a life-changing event for Chalfin. He remains paralyzed from the chest down.
Juniors Will Vie in Ninth Annual Field Hunter Championships
The meets have been announced for the Junior North American Field Hunter Championships in 2011. For fifty bucks, juniors eighteen-and-under can hunt with other juniors in new surroundings and experience camaraderie; competition; and a variety of hunting countries, foxhound types, and hunt staffs. It’s both fun and educational.
Farmington Hunt and J.B. Birdsall Honored for Conservation Success
J.B. Birdsall (holding trophy) is flanked by the Farmington Masters (l-r) Carol Easter, Pat Butterfield, and Joy Crompton. Cheryl Microutsicos photo
The Farmington Hunt and J.B. Birdsall received the 2011 Hunting Habitat Conservation Award at the MFHA Annual Meeting in New York City on Friday January 28.
Each year with each recipient of this award we witness yet another testament to the role of foxhunting in the preservation of open space. Arguably no other sporting culture has done as much to preserve land and natural habitat.
But, it often takes a leader, an individual driving force, to establish a culture of conservation within an organization. J.B. Birdsall—longtime foxhunter, landowner, and hunt member—provided that passion, commitment, and leadership for the Farmington Hunt to become a force for open space conservation in their hunting country.
The Fox’s Morning & Other Stories
W.H. DeCourcy Wright suffered a fatal fall from his horse while foxhunting on February 3, 1951. The horse stepped in a groundhog hole, throwing his rider heavily and breaking his neck. For years after that, Wassie Ball, another larger-than-life personage from the distant mists of Elkridge Harford Hunt Club history, albeit from a slightly more recent era than Mr. Wright, would thrill local youngsters by showing them that exact groundhog hole and then poking around in the loose dirt and stones surrounding the hole to find tiny shards of glass, ostensibly from the deceased foxhunter’s spectacles.
For my part, other than having a vague knowledge that DeCourcy Wright was one of the defining personages from the glory days of our hunt club before and after The War, and having an exact knowledge of which groundhog hole brought about his demise, I knew little about him.
Little, that is, until his grand-daughter Ann McIntosh left in my mailbox the collection of his writings that comprise this book. It turns out that this is one of the freshest, brightest, most brilliant and original collection of “sporting” pieces I have ever read. By the way, “sporting” is intended to be descriptive, not limiting. This is wonderful writing, period.