In the Footsteps of a Huntsman
From London’s streets to Virginia’s hunt country
Huntsman Andy Bozdan and the Loudoun Fairfax hounds / Laura Riley photo
The job: huntsman. The man: Andrew Bozdan—leader of fifty couple of Old English foxhounds. One hundred canines. How is this possible? In all my life as a dog owner, I’ve only had a handful who actually came when I called. How is it that we mortals have such difficulty in getting our dogs to sit and come and not potty in the house, while this man steers his entire pack in an apparently seamless manner.
The answer is, as always, nothing is ever as easy as it looks. Before the man appears in public, seated atop his skewbald gelding, wearing his scarlet coat, and blowing his copper horn to speak to the mass of hounds seething below, one heck of a lot of work happens and many miles are traveled.
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 […]
Crawley and Horsham Prosecuted Again under the Hunting Act
Huntsman Nicholas Bycroft of the Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds in West Sussex, England admitted in court last month to illegal foxhunting after being filmed by an animal rights activist. A year ago, three members of the Crawley and Horsham, including the former huntsman, pleaded innocent of contravening the Hunting Act but were found guilty. Evidence […]
The Hounds of Annwn Series: The Ways of Winter and King of the May
Perkunas Press, 2013
Paperback from Amazon, e-book
from Amazon and the publisher
Perkunas Press, 2013
Paperback from Amazon, e-book
from Amazon and the publisherAuthor and avid foxhunter Karen Myers continues the adventures of huntsman George Talbot Traherne of Virginia, who found himself inexplicably pulled into a realm of fae and immortals in her first novel, To Carry the Horn: The Hounds of Annwn.
Her second and third novels, The Ways of Winter and King of the May plunge George deeper into the lives of the fascinating characters who inhabit this mysterious otherworld, where it is not always clear who is friend and who is foe. George discovers that he is related to the rulers of this ancient domain, which seems to have once paralleled that of humans. But he possesses godlike powers that not even the wisest of the fae with their magic and their charms fully understand.
Throughout all three novels, Myers weaves the myth of the Great Hunt and the Hounds of Annwn, which belong to the antlered god, Cernunnos. The hounds, which hunt stag and man, were bestowed by Cernunnos upon George’s kinsman, Gwyn ap Nudd, the Prince of Annwn, and are the secret to the prince’s power. Without the hounds, Gwyn loses all. George discovers magical skills of his own as he struggles to keep his hounds safe so that the Great Hunt on Nos Galan Gaeaf, or All Hallows’ Eve, can take place.
An Introductory Letter from England
Photo by BothSidesPhotography
As our respective seasons come to an end in the northern hemisphere, I would not be sure how the weather has been behaving itself in the US, but here in England and the rest of the UK, we have experienced one of the wettest years on record. Coming on the back of one of the driest in memory it certainly has given Masters and those who are at the very sharp end of hunting considerable challenges in keeping the ‘tamborin a rolling.’ In some areas the season was curtailed by just a few weeks, in others the use of roads and tracks has been an obvious answer. However, the most gratifying aspect of all is to find that our farmers, be they arable men or stockmen, are still the greatest friends to hunting.
Coming from a family who seems to have been involved with the sport for rather a long time has been a privilege to say the least. This is largely due to the very large cross section of people we have worked with, the hounds we have bred, and those vulpine friends of ours who have kept us on our toes for many a year! It has not only been our way of life for four generations of our family, it is far more than that. Hunting seems to be engrained in us, and if you think that as a member of the Barclay family you can escape from it, that I can tell you will not be looked upon as an option!
Hunt Club, MFH Sued: Hound Attack Alleged
A lawsuit has been filed in Buck’s County against the Huntingdon Valley Hunt and Richard Harris, MFH by a Warwick, Pennsylvania couple. John and Judy Cox claim they were attacked on January 1 while walking their blind dog in Dark Hollow Park. Hounds were hunting in the park at the time and came in contact […]
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.
John Pickering and the End of an Era
John Pickering, one of Irish foxhunting’s witty raconteurs and colorful characters, passed away recently in his adopted town of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. In his career he hunted the East Down Foxhounds, the Golden Vale Foxhounds, the Oriel Harriers, and was whipper-in and huntsman to the legendary Master of the Bermingham and North Galway Foxhounds, the late Lady Molly Cusack-Smith.
I first met him when he was hunting the Oriel Harriers in the 1980s. At a meet north of Dundalk, in County Louth, hounds put a fox away from Bell’s Covert, but he only ran a couple of hundred yards before going to ground in an earth in the middle of a field. To make matters worse his best hound Heckler was down in the earth with only his stern in view. Pickering sat casually back in the saddle and remarked, “I think I will have to take that hound to a shrink.”
“Why”, I asked, to which Pickering replied, “Because he thinks he’s a bloody terrier!”
FBI Probes Actions of Connecticut MFH
According to an Associated Press report, on July 11, the FBI raided the Bridgewater, Connecticut Town Hall for, among other records, documents relating to a trust fund established in the 1920s to benefit the town’s needy. Until recently the fund has been controlled by the town’s First Selectmen of nearly thirty years, William Stuart, MFH […]
Autumn Foxhunting in Maryland
Members of the Carrollton Hounds joined members of the Howard County-Iron Bridge Hounds on Sunday, September 18 for a day of autumn foxhunting in the open rolling hills of Frederick County, Maryland. Photographer Susan Bloom captured the action and color of a busy day with hounds.