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.
Gaining Confidence Outside the Comfort Zone with Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan sets exercises to benefit horses and riders of all levels. / Alys Emson photo
For the second consecutive year, Chris Ryan, MFH of the Scarteen Black and Tans in Ireland crossed the Atlantic to impart some of his knowledge and experience to participants in the Woodford Hounds Hunt Clinic held over the Labor Day weekend at the kennels in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Chris has been Master of the Scarteen since 1987, and the hounds have been in the trusted care of the Ryan family for over 350 years.
The clinic was held for three days with divisions for the open horse and rider as well as for green horses and for hilltoppers over the three-day period. Overwhelmingly, the results were positive. Chris’s teaching style leaves one a more positive, confident rider. He pushes and pushes and gets results. He even had some of the participants jumping wire, after explaining that we must be prepared to jump what is encountered in the hunting field.
The Foxhound: A Pearl of Considerable Price
Norm Fine’s Blog
Karen L. Myers photoThe State of Kentucky values the foxhound exceedingly. Indeed, this high regard was emphatically established in 1948 case law by the old Kentucky Court of Appeals which, at the time, was the highest court in the state.
Foxhounds were hunting across Tennessee Valley Authority property one day in 1946 when, during a chase, one hound fell into an open well and drowned. An individual named Stratton, presumably the owner of the hound, sued the TVA for damages (Tennessee Valley Authority v. Stratton, 306 Ky. 753, 209 S.W.2d 318 (1948)).
In recognizing that Stratton suffered damages, the court said most poetically, “In the great fraternity of fox hunters, a man’s hound is a pearl of considerable price.”
The court went on to write an effusive tribute to the joys of foxhunting.
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. […]
Foxhunter/Lawyer Trevor Potter Tastes Celebrity with Colbert
Trevor Potter, a long-time field member with the Orange County Hunt and a member of the hunt’s board of directors, has become something of a TV celebrity. The Chicago Tribune reports that Potter, a Washington attorney, has become a popular figure on The Colbert Report by analyzing legal questions “and trading banter” on-air with comedians […]
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 Breathes Life into her Animal Portraits
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.
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.