Deep Run Hunt Marks 125th Anniversary
Members of the Deep Run Hunt (est. 1887) near Richmond, Virginia, marked their 125th anniversary on Sunday, September 30, 2012 with a day of celebration, awards, and the introduction of a new book by Aynsley Miller Fisher recounting the hunt’s history. For the Love of the Sport—The Horses, Hounds, Foxes and Friends of the Deep […]
Paint Not the Porch
Karen L. Myers photo
Paint not the porch while “walking” hound puppies.
Worry not how bad the porch looks.
Look to the future, a future without hound puppies, before painting the porch.
Paint not even the porch ceiling when hound puppies are on the premises.
Even if your husband has three new partners and he wants to welcome them
And, besides, his old friend Harry Poling is retiring;
Even if he has scheduled the caterers,
And his office has sent out two hundred and fifty invitations
To a garden party at your house,
Panic not!
Paint not the porch.
The Savvy Whipper-In
A good whipper-in can be the decisive ingredient in turning a mediocre hunting day into a brilliant one. If you need a better authority before agreeing with my premise, how about Peter Beckford? Here’s what he had to say in 1781.
“In a country full of riot, where the covers are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full of game….I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excellent huntsman…. The whipper-in, if he have genius, may show it in various ways: he may clap forward to any great earth that may, by chance, be open; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails; he may stop the tail hounds, and get them forward; and has it frequently in his power to assist the hounds, without doing them any hurt, provided he should have sense to distinguish where he may be chiefly wanted.”
I recently witnessed a great example of Beckford’s “without doing them any hurt” admonition. It was just a simple thing, yet after forty-five years of hunting it still made me shake my head in admiration.
Free Hunting Horn Ring Tones
Huntsman John Tabachka, Sewickley Hunt (PA)With the start of the new season, we want to remind readers once again of our popular free hunting horn ring tone offer for your cell phone.
Through the courtesy of two-time National Horn Blowing Champion John Tabachka, you may download mp3 files of the horn calls from John’s popular Foxhunting Life video, Calls on the Horn.
Just click on the horn icon below. We have had a huge response to this offer from the start, and we enjoy hearing from people who are having fun with it. Here’s what some of you had to say:
Pet Fox?
David Norman photo Whipper-in and pet fox out for a stroll? Not really. To capture this intriguing image, photographer David Norman used a long lens which foreshortened the perspective. The fox, he says, moved out smartly! Posted September 25, 2012
The Turning Point
Steve Price and Frosty test their mettle at Old Dominion / Tom Sullivan photoI wouldn’t consider myself a real foxhunter.
True, I’ve ridden to hounds several times, but always more like a spectator than a participant. This September, however, I had an awakening!
Thanks to the good graces of my friends Betsy Parker, proprietor of Hunter’s Rest in Flint Hill, and Norman Fine, of Millwood (and Foxhunting Life), I’ve been wending my way for the past four years from my New York City home to steep myself in semiannual Virginia equestrian sprees. Trail riding on Betsy’s school horses and on one of Norm’s hunters, Guitar, is the primary lure. In addition, Norm has taken me hunting with the Blue Ridge Hunt in the hilltopping field.
September: The Sweetest Month
Karen Myers photoFor foxhunters, our sport plays a major role in establishing the rhythm of our year. Yes, other interests and family matters intrude on this major annual cycle, but September looms large as the start of the foxhunting season for most of us. The summer months are for keeping the horses moving and smiling […]
Irving Abb Dead at Eighty-six
Irving Victor Marken Abb died at his home in Woodbine, Maryland on July 13, 2012 at age eighty-six. Mr. Abb was a passionate foxhunter. He kept a private pack of hounds in Howard County, Maryland in the 1970s. He helped organize the Carrollton Hounds and, after he stopped riding horses, followed the Goshen Hounds in […]
Hemmed in by Development?
Looking for open country over which to hunt? Try Cumbria or the Cheviot Hills on the English-Scottish border! Photographer Alexander Burns captures breathtaking hunting scenes in these magnificent countries. For a slide show, go to our Photo Gallery.
Sad Times for Goshen Hounds
Nick Hartung and houndsThis has been a difficult year for Goshen Hounds (MD) and its members. We have lost four men closely associated with us: former huntsman Nicholas Hartung, board member Bruce Sieling, ex-MFH Hansen Watkins, and, most recently, Irving Victor Marken Abb.