flowerhill equestrian center
A Cowboy in County Clare
Kail Mantle from Montana: just like riding a bronc / Val Westover photo
Last year, while hunting with the Red Rock Hounds (NV), I met Renee and Kail Mantle from Big Sky Hounds in Three Forks, Montana. Kail gave us a bucking horse lesson one day before hunting. This Montana cowboy, who hunts in chaps and cowboy hat, had sat calmly to his horse bucking crazily above the sagebrush and had seriously impressed me.
When a group of these Western foxhunters invited me to accompany them to Ireland this year, I jumped at the chance. These were fun people---more than a little crazy, and I wondered if anyone had warned the Irish!
I also wondered if my companions knew what they were getting into. I had hunted the big Irish walls and hedges in 2000, and I came home with newfound respect for anyone who hunts regularly in Ireland. It is challenging country, and their version of foxhunting is an excuse to run and jump really big fences.
Sure, And the Going Was Soft!
As the owner of a multi-media production studio, Steve Toepp knows what he wants to convey in his foxhunting videos but he finds it to be a challenging task. “Filming while mounted is the most difficult type of videography I have ever encountered,” Toepp says. “I am trying to develop riding techniques that keep the camera flowing smoothly. GoPros have good optics but bad sound if kept in the housing, so I usually use a hand-held and a helmet cam. It helps to grow eyes in the side of your head so that when you are shooting the person running beside you, you don’t run into a tree or ravine.” Toepp is a member of the Battle Creek Hunt Club in Augusta, Michigan, where he was awarded his colors. He learned to ride in the hunting field at the age of forty-seven. The advice he got from his sister, whipper-in Kathleen Neuhoff, and his fellow field members was, hold on tight and don’t interfere with the horse; the horse knows what to do and will take care of you. “They were right,” says Toepp, “and I fell in love with foxhunting.” This video features hunts with the County Roscommon, North Tipperary, County Galway (The Blazers), and the Flowerhill Equestrian Center. Posted May 31, 2014
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