A Dream Fulfilled
(l-r) Megan, Deb, and Marti
The inspiration for this trip happened quite by accident. While traveling with cousins in the southwestern part of England in May of 2012 , we happened to stop for a Sunday roast at the pub in the tiny hamlet of Highclere Castle, the home of the wonderful television series, Downton Abbey.
We had missed, by a day, a trail ride on the grounds of the castle. My cousin Marti and I have taken many riding trips and are always looking for a new adventure. We began to dream of a trip in England where we would ride in some of the places that we had read about all of our lives in English novels but had never seen. As we visited the Exmoor and the Dartmoor, the haunts of wild ponies and the characters of Daphne du Maurier, we became more excited. We did not, however, have any idea how to accomplish our vision.
Thoroughbreds: Kings of the Hunting Field
Nina Siepel on Steppenwolfer, out with the Cheshire hounds this year
Consider the happy life of Steppenwolfer (by Aptitude out of Wolfer): lots of treats; a big field with clover and buddies; and, from September to March, running around the countryside with a lot of other horses chasing a pack of hounds. A far distance from running third to Barbaro (by Dynaformer out of La Ville Rouge) in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Arkansas Derby in 2006.
Gelded and purchased by Gail and Dixon Thayer as a steeplechase prospect, his short steeplechase career wasn’t as stellar as hoped for. But he’s one happy puppy now. And Nina Siepel, who hunts him with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA), always wears a big grin, as if she still can’t really believe her good fortune. I’m not sure who is the luckier of the two.
Thoroughbreds: Kings of the Hunting Field
Nina Siepel on Steppenwolfer, out with the Cheshire hounds this year
Consider the happy life of Steppenwolfer (by Aptitude out of Wolfer): lots of treats; a big field with clover and buddies; and, from September to March, running around the countryside with a lot of other horses chasing a pack of hounds. A far distance from running third to Barbaro (by Dynaformer out of La Ville Rouge) in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Arkansas Derby in 2006.
Gelded and purchased by Gail and Dixon Thayer as a steeplechase prospect, his short steeplechase career wasn’t as stellar as hoped for. But he’s one happy puppy now. And Nina Siepel, who hunts him with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA), always wears a big grin, as if she still can’t really believe her good fortune. I’m not sure who is the luckier of the two.
Dedicated Website Lists Field Hunters for Sale
Looking for a Field Hunter? Try FoxhuntingHorse.com, a website dedicated to our discipline. Certainly, horse marketing websites have been used successfully for years, but if you were looking for an experienced foxhunter, you had to wade through a lot of horses in a lot of other disciplines.
Many of those ads, after telling you that the horse is a great mover, snaps its knees, has four flashy white socks, and is schooling successfully over two feet, finish with the line, “Would make a great field hunter.” Well, maybe, but not just yet.
FoxhuntingHorse.com was created by Lisha Marshall, an experienced horsewoman and foxhunter. The website segregates field hunters into categories: First Flight, Second Flight, Hilltopper, Child’s Hunter, Staff Horses. Each horse’s experience is described in terms that are meaningful to the foxhunter.
Piedmont Horse and Rider Win Field Hunter Championship of America
Judge Barbara Batterton presents the championship trophy to Elizabeth Green, riding Gold for Glory. / Liz Callar photo
Elizabeth Green, representing the Piedmont Fox Hounds (VA), rode Shelby Bonnie’s Gold for Glory to victory in the Theodora Randolph Field Hunter Championships of America. The trials, founded in 1989, are named for the late Master of the Piedmont, so it is particularly fitting when a Piedmont horse and rider win the championship.
The week-long event attracts foxhunters from across North America. Entries ride with up to four different area hunts over a five-day period, and horse and rider pairs are selected to compete in the final tests and mock hunt by a team of mounted judges. The finals were held on October 7, 2012 at the Glenwood Park Race Course in Middleburg as part of the Virginia Fall Races weekend program.
Taming the Cannonball in the Trailer
Paul Striberry on Valentine / Erik Olsen photoA reader who we’ll call Easy-Does-It asks Foxhunting Life for advice on how to get her horse to exit the trailer slowly and safely, as opposed to ejecting itself like an equine cannonball.
We went to Paul Striberry, Lilla Mason, and Robinson Duncan for their expert advice. All agreed that this is a problem that needs fixing, yet each individual took a different approach. While the three recommendations are mechanically different, each is sensible, thoughtful, and promises success. Which all goes to reaffirm that there is more than one way to skin a cat! Or civilize a horse.
Nancy Milburn Kleck Art Studio
Cigar by Nancy Kleck, 24 x 30 inches, oil on canvasEquine and sporting artist Nancy Milburn Kleck has relocated her art studio from the Kentucky Bluegrass country where she lived for twenty-five years to Bluemont, Virginia, near historic Upperville and Middleburg. She relishes the opportunity to expand the scope of her work from mostly racehorses to the foxhunting field as well.
Is He Up to My Weight?
Denya Dee Leake was preparing to exercise her field hunter Fearnought bareback (under blanket), when Promise, her Jack Russell terrier, jumped onto the horse’s back from the mounting block. This wasn’t the first time! There must be a message there. If you think you know what Promise is thinking, type it into the Comments box. […]
EHV-1 Case Confirmed in North Carolina
The neurologic form of equine herpes-virus, EHV-1, has been confirmed in a horse that was stabled in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The horse is presently under quarantine at the College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University. This is thought to be the first case of the neurologic form of the disease in North Carolina. […]
Lynn Carlisle Breathed Life into her Animal Portraits
Lynn Carlisle was a gifted sporting artist and, though gone, shouldn’t be forgotten. I certainly won’t forget her. Besides my admiration for her artistic talent, I heard coyotes singing for the first time from her back steps in Lexington, Kentucky. (Coyotes hadn’t yet colonized Virginia.) This piece from the Foxhunting Life archives, written by Lynn about her art, was published in January 2012. She was then living in Aiken, SC. Five months later, she was shot dead. Her children maintain a website in her memory and make available prints and stationery bearing reproductions of her animal portraits. -Ed.
For me, drawing animals is an innate gift. My family always had horses, dogs, cats, and all the creatures that we five children could easily collect. At three, my favorite toys were easel and chalk. Recognizing my passion, my parents allowed me to start art lessons at the age of five. By age nine, I was attending all-day class every Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago, with live models and the entire museum in which to work. It was a young artist’s heaven.