Just One More Chase
Judy Harris yearns for “Just One More Chase” on her favorite mare, Practice. Bonnie Smith photoI remember the pounding of her strong heart
In sync with mine, she was ready to start.
It was our first morning, a dream come true
Out in the hunt field, alert for a view.
Excitement, adventure and thrills abound
Observe and listen and follow the hounds.
So we kicked on for ten years or more
A bond, a friendship a lasting rapport.
Many years later, she’s fought the good fight
but can no longer carry a rider in flight.
She whinnies from pasture upon my return
Eagerly waiting the day’s story to learn.
Oh, how I wish she were a bit stronger
To carry the saddle, just one day longer
To ride to the hounds, the wind in my face
with my very best friend, just one more chase.
Fox Shoots Foxhunter
A determined fox in Belarus turned the tables by accidentally pulling the trigger on his assailant’s rifle and shooting the foxhunter in the leg. The hunter had approached the fox after wounding it, with the intention of finishing the job with his rifle butt. The fox resisted strenuously and in the ensuing scuffle managed to […]
Good News and Sad News with Personal Connections
Foxcliffe Hickory Wind greets her admirers with regal dignity.Two news items recently posted on the Home Page touch me somewhat personally—one joyous, one sad: the Scottish deerhound that won Best of Show at Westminster and the destruction by fire of William Frazer’s custom tailor shop in Ireland. What follows in this blog are just sidebars to the stories below. Scroll down to see them.
Foxcliffe Hickory Wind
As every dog person knows, Best of Show at Westminster is huge. Even so, foxhunting veterinarian Scott Dove was completely unprepared for the widespread exuberance, the congratulations, and the excitement of friends and strangers over his Scottish deerhound being anointed with that honor.
Scott is a long-time foxhunter and honorary whipper-in to the Old Dominion Hounds. My wife has been a client of his for her field trial Labrador retrievers. I wanted to meet Hickory and my first opportunity was a party at a local restaurant/pub in Flint Hill, Virginia.
Foxhunter Has Best in Show at Westminster
Foxhunter Scott Dove’s Foxcliffe Hickory Wind Is Best in Show at Westminster Kennel Club Jack Grassa photoFoxcliffe Hickory Wind, a Scottish deerhound bitch owned by foxhunter Dr. Scott Dove, his wife Ceil, and Sally Sweatt, was judged Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club in New York yesterday, February 15, 2011. Hickory is the first of her breed ever to capture that honor at Westminster.
The news clips on TV showed her to be not only a magnificent specimen of a dog, but an astoundingly beautiful mover. Watching her trot across the ring, one would think she was filmed in slow motion—floating effortlessly—were it not for the legs of her handler doing double-time beside her!
Sportsman/Publisher Arthur “Nick” Arundel Dies
Arthur “Nck” Arundel at the Gold Cup Races, Great Meadow, 2007 Douglas Lees photo
Foxhunter, visionary, and publisher Arthur “Nick” Arundel died in his sleep at home on Tuesday, February 8, one day shy of being named Outstanding Virginian of 2011 by the Virginia General Assembly. He was eighty-three.
Mr. Arundel was publisher of the Times Community Newspapers covering four counties in Northern Virginia, including Loudoun and Fauquier.
His father was a foxhunter and once served as head of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association. His mother was an ardent conservationist. Mr. Arundel merged the influence of both parents into his life.
Blue Ridge Hunt through a Helmet-Cam
Here’s FHL’s first Video Hunt Report! We hope more hunts will send us their action videos. Cameraman Pat Cooney is in good position to catch hounds as they find and open. Blue Ridge huntsman Dennis Downing blows Gone Away and the chase begins. Galloping across the first field, Downing views his fox away and lifts […]
Whiskey Road Hunt Week, Aiken, SC
Second Installment
Betsy and friends escape frozen Virginia for a week of hunting in warmer climes. We bring you Installment Two of her daily blog, exclusive to Foxhunting Life.
(l-r) Whiskey Road Field Master Geri Rapp, Fairfax Hunt members Ray Moffett, and PetraProbably seventy-five riders in the field this morning from the Batesburg fixture. Whiskey Road hosted a stirrup cup and snack before the meet after which huntsman Joseph Hardiman moved off with the mixed English and Penn-Marydel pack, east towards the cow field adjacent to the fixture.
Hounds struck immediately, coyote, probably, a brace or possibly a leash, and split into two or three groups. Hardiman went with one group, Master/whipper-in Lynn Smith with another, and (seemed like) Master David Smith and the main field with still another.
Histories for Horsepeople
From ancient times to the recent past, most family histories were preserved by story-telling from generation to generation. Today, with families spread across continents, if not around the world, and no one living next to the old folks to even hear their stories, how are family histories to be preserved?
Karin Winegar has a solution. She provides a unique service which she calls “Histories for Horsepeople.” Karin writes and produces privately published family or hunt histories meant as special gifts for family, friends, business associates, and/or members. She describes herself as “sort of a private family scribe.”
Nation’s Top Horse Trainers Gather for Michael Richardson Benefit
I spent a grand week in Aiken, South Carolina recently. It was business first, with three book signings scheduled: one at the beautiful Willcox Hotel on Tuesday (Horsemen’s Night); Wednesday at Equine Divine, a lovely gift shop for all things equine; and Thursday in Camden at the Tack Room. It was a week to see old friends and make new friends. After three days of business, there was a day’s hunting with George and Jeannie Thomas, MFHs of the Why Worry Hounds. A Hunt Report of that day is in the works to be posted shortly.
I stayed with my friend Art Richardson, ex-MFH of the Wayne-Du Page Hunt in Illinois. Art and wife Judy leave the cold weather behind every year and spend the winter months in Aiken. Art hunts with the Aiken packs and brings his two grand-daughters, Mackenzie and Virginia, to visit and hunt with him as often as possible. Life is good for us.
Well…most of us. For Art’s son Michael, life could be better. Michael is a horseman and was a foxhunter in his younger years. At the age of twenty, Michael was involved in an automobile accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. That’s not the current problem, though.
Remembering Cliff Hunt
Clifford Hunt, a genuine old horseman and a passionate foxhunter, passed away on December 2, 2010 at age eighty-four. I can’t begin to tally the number of individuals whose lives this man changed. He was a teacher who created many dedicated foxhunters. He was a hosteller, and, with his wife and partner Laura, he provided visiting foxhunters with bed, meals, hirelings, and transport at his well-known Hunting Box in Boyce, Virginia for twenty-six years (1978–2004). Sportsmen came to The Hunting Box from Canada and all the northern states to experience foxhunting in Virginia. Many loved it so much they moved here.