Why This Foxhunter Cares About Horseracing
Karen L. Myers photo
Over the past couple of months we have run a few News items about the Triple Crown season, kicked off just last Saturday by the Kentucky Derby. We wrote about Uncle Mo, who many in the Thoroughbred industry hoped would be a legitimate Triple Crown contender and breathe new life into the industry. We wrote about Rosie Napravnik who with nearly one thousand wins to her credit hoped to be the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby. True, this isn’t foxhunting, and the question arises whether or not I should be publishing these stories in Foxhunting Life. Why do I?
My answer is because that’s where our great horses come from. The Thoroughbred is the elite athlete of the equine world, and many of our field hunters are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, Thoroughbred crosses, or have Thoroughbred bloodlines in their foundation stock.
If when you take to the field you care at all about grace, generosity, and/or athleticism, you have to thank those bloodlines and those beautiful dreamers—the breeders, trainers, owners, and jocks—who commit their lives, their fortunes, and all their energies to the mostly unforgiving quest of producing a better racehorse. And except for one happy outcome last Saturday, weren’t the hopes of many of those beautiful dreamers cruelly dashed?
Foxhunting and Polo: A Sporting Crossover in Aiken
The Tallyho Cup (foxhunters and polo mallets) and Polo Saturday (polo players and hounds) debuted in Aiken, South Carolina this season, reaffirming the traditional Aiken bond between foxhunting and polo. The two sports have been entwined in Aiken since the early 1900s, when all the great polo names of the day—Hitchcock, Knox, Bostwick, Corey, and others—played polo in Aiken and rode to hounds as well.
Polo Saturday
In keeping with this historic tradition, Linda Knox McLean, MFH sent out an open invitation to all of Aiken’s polo players to cap with the Aiken Hounds on their polo ponies while wearing their polo gear. Dubbed Polo Saturday, the day was the brainchild of Theresa King, who hunts with the Aiken Hounds and plays polo on her foxhunter.
Blue Ridge, Camden, Old Dominion Make Staff Changes
Chad Wilkes moves from Camden to Blue Ridge / Karen Myers photo By common agreement among hunts and professional hunt staff, April 30/May 1 is the long-accepted transition date for hunt staff changes. In a round robin of moves, the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA), Camden Hunt (SC), and Old Dominion Hounds (VA) all connected and […]
Steve Currey Is New Kennel Huntsman at Arapahoe
The Potomac Hunt (MD) hosted a farewell reception April 21, 2011 for professional whipper-in Steve Currey and his wife Kelley. Currey, who has whipped-in to Potomac huntsman Larry Pitts for ten years, takes up his new position as kennel huntsman and first whipper-in at the Arapahoe Hunt (CO). Potomac Joint-Masters Skip and Vicki Crawford give […]
Foxhunting Amateur Rider Wins Irish Grand National
The value of the foxhunter’s riding experience was well demonstrated on April 6 when Ward Union Staghounds hunt follower and amateur rider Nina Carberry won the 250,000 Euro ($350,000) 3 miles 5 furlong Irish Grand National on a horse named Organisedconfusion at Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath. She prevailed against top National Hunt jockeys, including Ruby Walsh and recently crowned sixteen-times British Champion Jockey A.P. McCoy.
Lakeland Hunting Memories
Do you know what “Forester’s Corn” is? (I’d be exceedingly impressed if you did!)
In the Lake District of northern England, during the eighteenth century, a custom by that name was practiced in which the bailiff kept dogs for the hunting and destroying of foxes and other vermin. The bailiff in the neighborhood of Patterdale received forty quarts of oats from every tenant for providing this service.
This little bit of hunting history was but one small gem gleaned from a story in a wonderful website we just discovered—Lakeland Hunting Memories—which I particularly commend to you. Whenever we find a worthy site we add it to our “Links We Like” directory (see left-hand column on the Home Page). This site, all about hunting in the Lake District of northern England, is beautifully written and sensitively presented by Ron Black in Cumbria, UK.
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 […]
The Keen Foxhunter’s Miscellany
The Keen Foxhunter’s Miscellany, Peter Holt, Quiller Publishing, 2010, 224 pages, illustrated, available on AmazonHere’s a book about foxhunting by a man who never hunted. Peter Holt’s wife, however, is a Master of Foxhounds, so the poor fellow has probably heard more about hunting than he ever wanted to know.
The book is a quirky collection of literary quotes, short reports, historical oddities, profiles of hunting eccentrics—no story longer than two pages.
Notwithstanding Holt’s lack of hunting experience, this is a very funny book. Admittedly, my sense of humor is sometimes weird, so here are a couple of samples. You decide.
Federal Judge Protects Hunting on Public Lands
Sportsmen won a major courtroom battle when Federal Judge James S. Gwin in Columbus, Ohio denied a lawsuit seeking to close hunting on fifty refuges within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by the Fund for Animals, which later merged with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The […]
Regional Correspondents Are Bringing More News
In a recent blog I discussed our intention to expand coverage across the foxhunting world by establishing a network of regional correspondents. We want to publish more news about people and hunts—new Masters, changes in hunt staff, marriages, births, deaths, illnesses—indeed any news that others in our fraternity of foxhunters would want to know.
We want news not only about Masters and staff, but about foxhunters’ accomplishments and milestones as well. Did a foxhunter’s horse win the Kentucky Derby or the Grand National? Was a foxhunter named Horseman of the Year? Win a Pulitzer Prize? Write a best-selling book?
So far, six regional correspondents are in place: Ian Anderson, ex-MFH of the Ashford Valley Hounds (UK); Denya Massey Clarke (ON); Noel Mullins, County Dublin, Ireland; C. Thompson Pardoe, MFH of the Goshen Hunt (MD); Becky Thayer (SC); and Martha Woodham (GA). We’re thrilled to have each of these talented individuals feeding current news from their regions to readers around the foxhunting world through Foxhunting Life.