Kinross Farm
Neil Morris Is MFH at Orange County
Neil Morris hunting a stakes-winning hurdle horse at Orange County / Douglas Lees photoNeil Morris is a new Master of the Orange County Hounds (VA). Morris joins current Masters John Coles and Malcolm Matheson in leading this, one of the most prominent hunts in the country.
“I’m so happy to have him,” said Coles. “Neil can do anything in this job that anyone could want. He’s a great guy, a great horseman...he’s made to order ”
Better known perhaps for his association with winning race horses he has trained for Kinross Farm, such as Grade I Stakes winner Sur La Tete; Virginia Gold Cup winner Miles Ahead; and Virginia-bred Researcher with winnings in the seven figures, Morris is at the same time an avid foxhunter. He hunts his steeplechase horses regularly and credits that time off in the field with providing the bottomless stamina his horses so often display on the race course.
Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point
Zoe Valvo and Questioning win the Junior Field Master's Chase. Douglas Lees photoThe Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point races were held Saturday, March 12 under lovely spring skies...for a change! Despite the rains of the previous week, Woodley Farm’s limestone soil drained well and the mature turf held up to make the going as perfect as the weather.
Zoe Valvo on Questioning won the Junior Field Master's Chase in the Horse Division, and Kellie Witte won the Pony Division easily on Annabelle.
Poplar Grange: Hunting Country Preserved
Poplar Grange is the happy outcome of a potential problem: loss of hunting country to the Piedmont Fox Hounds and unwanted development next to Zohar Ben-Dov’s Kinross Farm.
In 2007 Ben-Dov learned belatedly that more than a hundred acres to his north had been sold almost as it came on the market, and, most worrisome, to a developer.
