foxhunting in ireland
Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point Attracts American Visitors
The Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point Races in County Wexford, Ireland are probably the last point-to-point bank races still run in Ireland. Traditionally, point-to-points featured members’ and farmers’ races that were run over natural fences such as the double bank fence in the photograph. Now most Irish point-to-points are run over standard chase fences. Martha C. Wadsworth, Ann Morss, and Sarah Batzing-Cole, all from the Genessee Valley Hunt (NY), had traveled to Ireland for the wedding of Island Foxhounds huntsman Mark Ollard to Clare Lambert. While there, the American trio took in the Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point races and also rode with the Premier Harrier Hounds in the Saint Patrrick’s Day Parade in Cashel, County Tipperary. Prior to the wedding, Martha hunted with the Killinick Harriers, the Premier Harriers, the Island Foxhounds, and the County Clare Hounds. In the photo are (l-r) Ann Morss, Jack Lambert, Emer Mullins, Martha C. Wadsworth, and Sarah Batzing-Cole. Ann Morss and Martha Wadsworth are whippers-in at the Genessee Valley Hunt; Jack Lambert, 79, father of the bride, is a well-known Irish Draught Horse stallion master and breeder; he hunts his five stallions with the Killinick Harriers. Emer Mullins is the author’s wife. Sarah Batzing-Cole is a dairy farmer in the Genessee Valley. Posted April 27, 2011
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The Fox’s Morning & Other Stories
The Fox's Morning & Other Stories, W.H. DeCourcy Wright, edited by Ann L. McIntosh, illustrated by Peggy Kauffman, The Elkridge-Harford Hunt, Maryland, 2010, 106 pages, $33.00, available from Ann L. McIntosh, 3810 Beatty Road, Monkton, MD 21111
W.H. DeCourcy Wright suffered a fatal fall from his horse while foxhunting on February 3, 1951. The horse stepped in a groundhog hole, throwing his rider heavily and breaking his neck. For years after that, Wassie Ball, another larger-than-life personage from the distant mists of Elkridge Harford Hunt Club history, albeit from a slightly more recent era than Mr. Wright, would thrill local youngsters by showing them that exact groundhog hole and then poking around in the loose dirt and stones surrounding the hole to find tiny shards of glass, ostensibly from the deceased foxhunter’s spectacles.
For my part, other than having a vague knowledge that DeCourcy Wright was one of the defining personages from the glory days of our hunt club before and after The War, and having an exact knowledge of which groundhog hole brought about his demise, I knew little about him.
Little, that is, until his grand-daughter Ann McIntosh left in my mailbox the collection of his writings that comprise this book. It turns out that this is one of the freshest, brightest, most brilliant and original collection of "sporting" pieces I have ever read. By the way, "sporting" is intended to be descriptive, not limiting. This is wonderful writing, period.
