Foxhunting Enhances School Curriculum in Aiken
Walter Cheatham, MFH of the Edisto River Hounds in Aiken, South Carolina is a ninth and tenth grade history and science teacher at Mead Hall Episcopal School there. A proponent of interactive cross curriculum teaching away from the classroom, Cheatham and a like-minded English teacher, Donna DeTroye, took twelve students on a field trip to […]
Cheshire Centennial Meet at Brooklawn
Cheshire Honorary Whipper-In Paddy Neilson, Huntsman Ivan Dowling, and professional whipper-in Stephanie Boyer at Brooklawn / Noel Mullins photo
Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA), founded in 1912, are celebrating their Centennial this season. W. Plunkett Stewart, a Philadelphia banker, set out to find the perfect hunting country and settled on the rolling hills, rich pastureland and extensive woods around Unionville. As what in modern terms could be classed as a committed environmentalist, he purchased thousands of acres of land and, before reselling, amended deeds to restrict development and nurture conservancy, clean water, and natural habitat. As a result of his efforts and the culture of conservation he passed on, the Cheshire hunting country today boasts thirty square miles and twenty-six thousand acres free from ribbon residential and commercial development that has allowed foxhunting and National Hunt racing to thrive.
Phantasmagorial New Zealand
Central Otago Hunt, South Island, New Zealand
First of two installments by national award-winning journalist and author Karin Winegar.
Yes, they jump wire.
Wire and mostly wire fences, three to four feet high, five or six taut strands with a top strand, often barbed, is what contains New Zealand’s thirty million sheep, defines its vast stations, and renders rides thrilling for outsiders.
No one—at least not the Kiwis—thinks anything of it.
Kiwi horses, harrier hounds, and riders just barrel cheerfully along in a landscape that resembles (depending on the hunt country and the season) Provence, Africa, Montana, Ireland, California, or Norway. And given the size of New Zealand’s population—only 4.4 million—there are lots of horses, hounds, and riders.
Seven Years Later: Has Britain’s Hunting Act Failed?
That’s the view of Barney White-Spunner, Executive Chairman of the Countryside Alliance. “Hunting remains in good heart…and support is strong,” he wrote in the Alliance’s latest newsletter. After seven years under the law, White-Spunner claims that eighty-six percent of all hunts in England have the same number or more members and most feel higher or […]
New Age Hunting Journal
Throughout the history of foxhunting, many Masters, huntsmen, and even field members have kept hunting journals. These accounts generally include the date, meeting place, names of hunting staff, weather and scenting conditions, and other factual details. Then, depending on the writer’s bent and talent, there may be textual descriptions of runs, actions of specific hounds, and even artistic renditions of special moments. Such journals have provided us with valuable historic information as well as stirring tales of the great hunts of yesteryear.
It came home to me only recently that most of us today carry in our pocket a resource that revolutionizes the traditional hunting journal: the smart phone.
The Golden Age of Hunting?
The Finish by Henry Alken
Foxhunters often evoke the nineteenth century as the belle-époque of English foxhunting. This may have to do with the extensive documentation provided by the famous artists and writers of the time. The efforts of Nimrod, Alken, and friends immortalized an age of rollicking runs across open countryside, dashing horsemen and women, and fine stout foxes flying across hill and dale.
Whilst The Golden Age as it is known has long since provided a benchmark of foxhunting excellence and excitement, we note that today’s foxhunters are blessed with some decided advantages.
Hunting and Fishing in ID, KY, NE, and WY Now Protected by Constitutional Amendment
Voters in Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Wyoming overwhelmingly passed amendments to their state constitutions on election day protecting their rights to hunt and fish. The National Rifle Association has been pushing this amendment state by state as a preemptive strike against attacks on hunting by animal rights activism. Thirteen states had already passed such constitutional […]
Two Families with Five Generations in the Genesee Valley Field
The Genesee Valley Hunt (NY) can boast of two families still hunting in the fifth generation. It’s no surprise that the Wadsworth family is one. After all, it was Major W. Austin Wadsworth who established the hunt in 1876. Three generations of the Wadsworth family are hunting today—Martha Wadsworth, MFH, Marion Thorne, MFH, and Piper […]
Otho Paget’s Memories of the Shires Re-Published
Melton Mobray Midnight Steeplechase of 1890Captain Otho Paget hunted six days a week with the Quorn, Cottesmore, and Belvoir Foxhounds during some of foxhunting’s golden years—the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. His hunting reports, under the pseudonym Q, were published by The Field, Horse and Hound, and other publications. A collection of the reports was published by Methuen in 1920 in an edition titled Memories of the Shires.
Gaining Confidence Outside the Comfort Zone with Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan sets exercises to benefit horses and riders of all levels. / Alys Emson photo
For the second consecutive year, Chris Ryan, MFH of the Scarteen Black and Tans in Ireland crossed the Atlantic to impart some of his knowledge and experience to participants in the Woodford Hounds Hunt Clinic held over the Labor Day weekend at the kennels in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Chris has been Master of the Scarteen since 1987, and the hounds have been in the trusted care of the Ryan family for over 350 years.
The clinic was held for three days with divisions for the open horse and rider as well as for green horses and for hilltoppers over the three-day period. Overwhelmingly, the results were positive. Chris’s teaching style leaves one a more positive, confident rider. He pushes and pushes and gets results. He even had some of the participants jumping wire, after explaining that we must be prepared to jump what is encountered in the hunting field.