New From FHL: Music, Lyrics, and Audio Downloads
Before TV, video games, and texting, foxhunters used to entertain themselves with stories, poems, and songs. Foxhunting families would often break into song at the table after dinner, and windows rattled at many a hunt breakfast with songs of foxhunting.
My good friend Caroline Treviranus Leake remembers impromptu songfests at the dinner table led by her step-father, the late Alexander Mackay-Smith. The entire family—mother Marilyn and sisters Denya and Leslie—would join in. Caroline remembers those times with the greatest of pleasure—times of togetherness, good cheer, and shared enjoyment.
Juniors Meet in Pennsylvania for 2010 Junior North American Field Hunter Championships
Lauren Giannini photo
For their first seven years, the Junior North American Field Hunter Championships took place in Virginia, mostly at Old Whitewood, part of Orange County’s country in The Plains. However, after Alex Matz won the First Flight (12-and-Under) championship in 2009, the notion of staging the next finals in Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire country came to fruition. Blue Ridge Hunt’s David Pawlak partnered with the indubitable Paris to ace the individual test in the First Flight and claim their second consecutive 13-18 championship. Makayla Benjamin (Loudoun West) and Butterfly Painting went home with the reserve tri-color.
Hokie Hi Is Virginia Field Hunter Champion
Marilyn Jarvis, representing the Piedmont Fox Hounds, rode her hunter Hokie Hi to the 2010 Virginia Field Hunter Championship at Gregg Ryan’s Creekside Farm near Middleburg.
The Art of Foxhunting
The title of this captivating book is obviously a play on words. It showcases the photographic art of Phil and Susie Audibert and at the same time opens our eyes to the inherent artfulness of our sporting endeavor. I have used photographs by the Audiberts in Covertside, in the Millwood House foxhunting calendar, and in Foxhunting Life with great pleasure in the past, so I admit that I am not an impartial reviewer.
The photography is beautiful, not only by virtue of the artistic talent of the shooters in seeing and composing balanced and flowing images, but also because they have done the hard work in the field away from the meet—waiting in the country, sometimes in vain but occasionally rewarded by the opportunity for that single-chance shot of action and beauty. And in all kinds of weather! Some of my favorite images that resonated with old memories were dull, cold, wet hunting scenes blurred by falling snow and sleet.
Hunt Breakfast Recipe Contest in Full Swing
What a great response you made to our Hunt Breakfast Recipe Contest! We got some mouth-watering recipes that will surely be big hits with cold and hungry foxhunters.
For ease of preparation and instant warmth, Cathy Springer’s Tortellini and Meatball Soup will be hard to beat. We’ve already received a rave notice from someone who served it at a hunt breakfast and to her family at the dinner table.
Here are the contest rules once more:
Historic Hunt Coat Acquired by the Chevy Chase Club
The Chevy Chase Club in Maryland, the surviving organization of the Chevy Chase Hunt Club, acquired a valuable historical artifact on Wednesday, November 17, when a scarlet hunt coat and canary vest belonging to Brigadier General Charles K. Nulsen was donated to the Club by Charles K. Nulsen III. The coat and vest bear the buttons of the Chevy Chase Hunt and have been hanging in a New Hampshire home belonging to the family for nearly a century.
The Chevy Chase Hunt was active from 1892 to 1916. It was a highly respected hunt of its time, but short-lived because the Master, Clarence Moore, perished on the Titanic in 1912.
Jim Meads: Loudoun Hunt West Makes Five Hundred
Douglas Lees photo When the Loudoun Hunt West hounds meet on Sunday, December 5 at Dr. Jim Gable’s Valley View Farm, it will represent a world record setting milestone for both the hunt and for renowned sporting photographer Jim Meads. Loudoun West will become the five hundredth individual pack that Meads will have photographed over […]
FHL Banner Features Opening Meets
This is the season for Opening Meets. We’ve been getting some lovely photographs of that special day, so we decided to populate our website banner with them. Take a look at the show in our Foxhunting Life banner above! Although Virginia is well-represented, we need images of Opening Meets from other hunting countries as well. […]
Imminent Repeal of Britain’s Hunting Ban Is Doubtful
Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s promise of a free vote in Parliament on the repeal of the Hunting Bill, the issue has been eclipsed by the more pressing problems of the British economy. Despite Countryside Alliance head Alice Barnard’s recent statements urging that Prime Minister David Cameron “right a great wrong” by overturning the ban, the […]
Hunt Breakfast Recipe Contest
Matthew Klein photo Cool weather and foxhunting make for big appetites, so FHL is holding a Hunt Breakfast Recipe Contest. If you point to the Social drop-down menu above and click on Hunt Breakfast Recipes, you will see that our recipes are organized into seven categories: Appetizers, Breads, Desserts & Sweets, Flask Concoctions, Main Dishes, […]