Huntsman
Piedmont Fox Hounds in a Season
Piedmont Fox Hounds favorite photographer Tiffany Dillon Keen submitted her favorite shots of the 2024-2025 season.
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Black Coyote Visits Belle Meade Hunt and Tennessee Valley Hunt
In early February, the members of Belle Meade Hunt in Thompson, Georgia hosted their annual joint meet with Tennessee Valley Hunt (Knoxville, Tennessee). Shortly after a winter storm that dumped snow all over the Deep South, this weekend had warmed up enough to waive coats. Here is the hunt report from Nicole Smith who was carrying the horn for Belle Meade that day.
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Black Coyote Visits Belle Meade Hunt and Tennessee Valley Hunt
In early February, the members of Belle Meade Hunt in Thompson, Georgia hosted their annual joint meet with Tennessee Valley Hunt (Knoxville, Tennessee). Shortly after a winter storm that dumped snow all over the Deep South, this weekend had warmed up enough to waive coats. Here is the hunt report from Nicole Smith who was carrying the horn for Belle Meade that day.
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Piedmont Fox Hounds in a Season
Piedmont Fox Hounds favorite photographer Tiffany Dillon Keen submitted her favorite shots of the 2024-2025 season.
Read More
Casting Hounds at a Loss
Norman Fine examines what happens when hounds find a loss on the line.
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Frederick George Getty 1941-2024
Frederick George Getty, the long-serving senior Master and Huntsman for Middlebrook Hounds in Middlebrook, Virginia, has passed away.
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Casting Hounds at a Loss
Norman Fine examines what happens when hounds find a loss on the line.
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Loose Foxhounds: Leave ’em or Secure ’em?
"Lost Hound" by Jane Gaston: illustration from the book of the same name by Robert AshcomWhat should we do when we see foxhounds in our yard or loose in the country? Our options are (1) try to capture and secure them in a kennel or horse stall and call the huntsman, (2) put them in our vehicle and drive them to the kennel, (3) call the huntsman or the kennelman, tell them what we saw, and leave it in his/her hands, or (4) do nothing.
It’s a conundrum because each of the above answers can be correct, depending on the circumstances. Has the pack been hunting from a meet in the vicinity? How far away are the kennels? Are there busy highways between hounds and kennels? Between hounds and the meet? Are hounds moving with a purpose or just nosing around? Is a hound injured?
When a Fox Barks
Evie Good queried Foxhunting Life about her recent experience with a local fox.
“Can someone explain why a fox would bark repeatedly at me?” she asked. “We heard it barking last night close to the house. We found it barking at the dog this morning. When it saw me it ran to the nearby pasture, but stopped and barked some more. Finally, the fox turned and ran out of sight.
We asked two members of our Panel of Experts—Marty Wood, MFH and huntsman Hugh Robards, ex-MFH—for their opinion on this fox’s behavior.
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH: A Huntsman Like No Other
Captain Ronnie Wallace with hounds while Master of the Heythrop / Oil portrait by Michael Lyne
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH was the undisputed dean of British foxhunting and a frequent and popular visitor to the U.S. He was a genius in the art of venery and in his uncanny breeding sense. He was arguably the English breeder most influential in the development of today’s modern English foxhound.
It’s been thirteen years since Captain Wallace died in an automobile accident at age eighty-two, yet whenever hunting conversation turns to amazing feats of hound work performed by a superb huntsman, I’m reminded of an astonishing story that illustrates Wallace’s supremacy.
