Tell Me a Story: My First Foxhunt
Karen Myers photoIn my last blog, “How I Came to Go Foxhunting,” I told my story, and readers gave us some good stories in return. (See the Comments section after the blog and our Facebook page.) The next logical step in this tell-me-a-story series is “My First Foxhunt.” What do we remember aside from that kaleidoscopic blur of new images and sensations? Once again, I’ll tell you my story, then you can tell us yours.
The things that stick in my mind from my first foxhunt forty-five years ago, surprisingly, have little to do with foxhunting. Hounds? I’m sure there was a pack of foxhounds involved, but they certainly don’t stand out in my mind. As I explained in my last blog, I came to hunting through a love of horses.
Like most first-time foxhunters, I suppose I was primarily concerned with complying with the bewildering rules of hunting etiquette and with keeping me and my horse out of trouble. There are, however, two things I do remember about that day with perfect clarity: (1) romance and (2) the late J. Quincy Adams, MFH.
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Donald Maley Is New Whipper-In at Potomac
Don, Sara and Alice Maley at the Virginia Foxhound Show / Karen Kandra Wenzel photoDonald Maley, an experienced honorary whipper-in with several Virginia hunts, has joined the ranks of the professionals. He will whip-in to the Potomac Hunt (MD) foxhounds starting this season. Maley, a farrier, has whipped-in to Oliver and Michael Brown at Rappahannock, […]
A Fox Away
FHL features poems by the old masters every now and again. This one will raise the hair on the back of your neck!
There are many splendid moments ‘twixt the cradle and the grave
When a man may reach to rapture, but the one that I would crave
Is the moment when a whimper in a crash of music merges
And four hundred hooves are beating like the thunder of the surges
And the pack comes out of covert like the curving of a wave.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel Is Grand Champion at Canadian Foxhound Show
Canadian Grand Champion Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 / Paul Wilson photoA lovely English bitch—a veteran of five hunting seasons—was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Foxhound Show at the London Hunt and Country Club on June 11, 2011. To emerge as Best in Show with that accumulated mileage is quite an achievement. There had to be a story here, so I looked up her pedigree.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 is descended from all modern English on the sire’s side and fell hound bloodlines on the dam’s side. The answer to her achievement was there, but I didn’t put two-and-two together until I talked to huntsman Steve Clifton.
How I Came to Go Foxhunting
Most of us didn’t wake up one morning and say to ourselves, “I think I’ll go foxhunting today.” It just doesn’t happen that way. Some come to the hunting field through long-time family experience. Others are encouraged by a friend. For others—you romantics—it’s the fulfillment of a dream.
Surely there are other reasons which only you can tell, so here’s your chance. This is the first in a series of upcoming blogs that were suggested by Steve Price, a member of FHL’s Panel of Experts. The series will be rooted in one of the most enchanting sentences in the English language: “Tell me a story.”
I’ll tell you mine. Then you can tell us yours.
Rockview Harriers Show Includes Both Scent and Sight Hounds
Lurchers in flapper race chasing the lureThe annual Rockview Harriers Working Terrier, Hound and Lurcher Show in County Kilkenny, Ireland enjoyed a large turnout with working dog enthusiasts traveling from all over the country. The show drew representatives from England and Wales as well.
Amwell Valley Heythrop Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
Amwell Valley Heythrop is shown by huntsman Steve Farrin and whipper-in Lauren Podraza. / Karen Myers photo
Amwell Valley Heythrop 2008, an outstanding example of the modern English foxhound, was judged Grand Champion at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show on Saturday, June 2. Heythrop arrived at the Amwell Valley Hounds kennels as a puppy, along with his entire litte, from huntsman Martyn Blackmore at the Loudoun West Hunt.
What Do Foxhunters Do in the Summertime?
Jim Wofford photoWe all rue the end of the foxhunting season in March. And now that the point-to-point season has ended and the final hound show of the year is only a few days away, what to do until September?
Well, after crying over the season’s end, we all seem to find a lot to do. Sometimes it’s just the same old things that produce the familiar rhythm of the year’s cycle. I’m always anxious to get my tomato plants in and toil away for what sometimes results in a rewarding harvest and other times ends in a tangle of limp and barren vines. No matter. I do it again the following year with renewed hope.
Foxhunters Wilson and Gunnell Wed in Middleburg
Photograph by Middleburg Photo
Wendi Wilson and Nelson Gunnell were married at Banbury Cross Farm, the Gunnell family farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on Saturday evening, May 28. The ceremony took place in the garden—a fairy tale setting midst blooming spring flowers under a perfect blue sky with a pond sparkling in the distance. The bride arrived in an antique white horse drawn carriage driven by her hometown friend, Tommy Lee, who later whisked the couple away after the vows were completed.