fox hunt
British Trail Hunting Video
The British Hound Sports Association put out an informational video explaining Trail Hunting versus hunting live game (now illegal in the England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
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Interactive Puppy Show: A Superb Idea
Rank these three hounds—green, pink, and yellow—to match the judges’ card, and you’re a winner! In the ring during the Spectators’ Class at the Wicklow Foxhounds (IRE) Puppy Show are (l-r) Judges Mark Ollard and Noel Mullins, whipper in Peter Kavanagh and Master and huntsman Philip Lazenby.
Here’s a superb idea for puppy shows guaranteed to increase spectator interest in and knowledge of foxhounds, and have fun at the same time...and it’s so easy to do!
Noel Mullins, a regular contributor to Foxhunting Life, recently judged the Wicklow Foxhounds (IRE) puppy show along with Scarteen huntsman Mark Ollard. After the pair had finished judging the puppy classes and chosen their Champion and Reserve foxhounds, a final class was held as a judging competition for the spectators.
Joan Batterton (1917–2015)
Field Master Joan Batterton, Opening Meet, 1986, on her homebred North American Field Champion Beacon RockJoan Batterton, one of the finest Field Masters I have ever followed across a hunting country, died on Monday, August 31, 2015 at the age of ninety-eight. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1917 and died at her home in Berryville, Virginia.
A diminutive but magnificent horsewoman, she led the field for the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA) for fifteen years, while in her sixties and seventies, on a succession of bold, grand jumping horses, some off the timber racecourses. She knew her country, knew how the foxes ran, and what I remember best is how she led her field at a steady hand-gallop, at an even pace, whether over fences or in the open, keeping us in touch with hounds in a lovely and seductive rhythm.
She never raised her voice, but spoke in her soft New Zealand accent, always with a touch of a smile, an inquiring arch of her eyebrows, maintaining an eye contact as expressive as her words. She didn’t suffer fools, however, and could flay them with a quiet single-sentence opinion.
Ewbank Clothiers Gutted by Fire
The fire that consumed Ewbank Clothiers in Berryville, Virginia on Thursday, August 13, 2015 couldn’t have come at a worse time for proprietor Karen Ewbank. Her custom tailoring shop was full of hunt coats and other foxhunting attire either being repaired or built in preparation for the upcoming hunting season.
"I woke up at three in the morning that night, counting red coats," she recalls.
In addition to the loss of clothing and fabrics, perhaps even more serious is the loss of her meticulously cut pattern drafts—now ashes—used to trace shapes onto fabrics. The patterns will have to be re-plotted on brown Kraft paper from client measurements and re-cut—a process that takes about five hours for each client’s hunt coat. As of the date of this article, Karen doesn’t yet know whether her client measurement charts survived. They’re in steel filing cabinets in the front of the shop, and she has hopes that they were spared.
“I’m kicking on,” Karen told me today, the first workday of a new week. “I’m moving everything to my house and will work from here until the shop is rebuilt. That could take months, even though the structure is still sound.”
Loose Foxhounds: Leave ’em or Secure ’em?
"Lost Hound" by Jane Gaston: illustration from the book of the same name by Robert AshcomWhat should we do when we see foxhounds in our yard or loose in the country? Our options are (1) try to capture and secure them in a kennel or horse stall and call the huntsman, (2) put them in our vehicle and drive them to the kennel, (3) call the huntsman or the kennelman, tell them what we saw, and leave it in his/her hands, or (4) do nothing.
It’s a conundrum because each of the above answers can be correct, depending on the circumstances. Has the pack been hunting from a meet in the vicinity? How far away are the kennels? Are there busy highways between hounds and kennels? Between hounds and the meet? Are hounds moving with a purpose or just nosing around? Is a hound injured?
When a Fox Barks
Evie Good queried Foxhunting Life about her recent experience with a local fox.
“Can someone explain why a fox would bark repeatedly at me?” she asked. “We heard it barking last night close to the house. We found it barking at the dog this morning. When it saw me it ran to the nearby pasture, but stopped and barked some more. Finally, the fox turned and ran out of sight.
We asked two members of our Panel of Experts—Marty Wood, MFH and huntsman Hugh Robards, ex-MFH—for their opinion on this fox’s behavior.
Fanciful Fibs and Other Sins
Photo by Karen MyerSome Foxhunting Life readers have already seen this opinion piece, published more than a year ago. While it attracted a number of comments for which I’m grateful, the message hasn’t, and of course never will reach everyone. So after having seen a new batch of newspaper articles from around the country, containing cringe-worthy quotes by foxhunters attending Opening Meets this season, I’m obliged to re-publish my argument. If it reaches another pair of eyes or ears and changes the mind attached, it will be worthwhile!
As Pogo once famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” I think of that bit of comic strip philosophy whenever I hear foxhunters attempt to con the public or distance themselves from the truth about our sport.
The Second Whip
Illustration by Gilbert HollidayOver he goes, with a crash and a rattle,
Hound couples clinking, ’gainst saddle and thigh;
Over he goes, and the light of the battle
Gleams like a spark in his eager young eye.
Twigs of the hawthorn fly backward together,
Meeting again with an ominous swish;
Over he goes, landing light as a feather,
One with his horse and quick as you’d wish.
Kinds and condition of fences don’t matter,
Straight as a ramrod he rides at them all;
Over he goes with a bang and a clatter,
Knocking loose stones off the top of the wall.
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH: A Huntsman Like No Other
Captain Ronnie Wallace with hounds while Master of the Heythrop / Oil portrait by Michael Lyne
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH was the undisputed dean of British foxhunting and a frequent and popular visitor to the U.S. He was a genius in the art of venery and in his uncanny breeding sense. He was arguably the English breeder most influential in the development of today’s modern English foxhound.
It’s been thirteen years since Captain Wallace died in an automobile accident at age eighty-two, yet whenever hunting conversation turns to amazing feats of hound work performed by a superb huntsman, I’m reminded of an astonishing story that illustrates Wallace’s supremacy.
Scottish National Party Delays Attempt to Relax Hunting Ban
In a reversal of expectations, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has threatened to oppose the pro-hunting effort to relax a key provision of the Hunting Act in England. The SNP move appears to doom chances of passage. As Foxhunting Life reported last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron, a former foxhunter, decided not to test the Hunting Act with a free vote in Parliament for a total reversal—an effort that would consume much Parliamentary time with questionable chance of success—but to attempt a statutory change instead. Cameron’s proposal would relax a key provision of the Act and consume only ninety minutes of Parliamentary time before a vote. Pro-hunting factions believed they had a chance of success, having been assured by SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon that the party would refrain from voting since it was an English issue. However, pressure from the party’s anti-hunting constituents in Scotland persuaded SNP MPs to announce their readiness to participate in the vote and defeat the bill. The SNP reversal is somewhat surprising in that the statutory change sought by Cameron would, if passed, bring the foxhunting laws in England more in line with those in Scotland. In the wake of the SNP turnabout, Cameron will delay this week’s planned introduction of his proposal to amend the Hunting Act. The ramifications of pursuing his original course now transcend the relatively unimportant (to most) subject of foxhunting and enter the more explosive realm of Scottish independence. If Cameron goes ahead with the vote, and if SNP MPs vote with the Labour Party as threatened, a new precedent of SNP votes on purely English matters will be set, and renewed pressure could arise on fragile Scottish-English unity. Read more details in The Guardian article by Rowena Mason and Libby Brooks and the more recent AP report. Posted July 14, 2015Updated July 15, 2015
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