Adopt-a-Kid
You’ve come a long way, kid! / Karen L. Myers photoThe average age of active foxhunters continues to rise. Where are the youngsters? we ask. Pointing to all the “usual suspects”—risk aversion, social media addiction (living vicariously rather than actively), animal rights activism—is…well…pointless. Social change continues to be part of mankind’s evolutionary process. What can we do pro-actively? is more to the point.
The MFHA has periodically urged hunts to reach out to nearby Pony Clubs, and many of these efforts have been successful. The Live Oak Challenge sponsored by MFHs Marty and Daphne Wood has introduced numerous young riders to foxhunting by offering financial incentives to the winning Pony Clubs. The Guide to Establishing a Foxhunting Camp written by Joyce Fendley, MFH provides a cookbook approach to running a summer day camp for any hunt wishing to reach out to children. (The booklet is available from the MFHA.)
Hunts can do these things, but there is something we as ordinary members of the field can do. We can adopt-a-kid.
Live Oak Wins Grand Championship at Virginia. Again.
Live Oak Fable 2010, shown by huntsman Charles Montgomery, is Grand Champion at Virginia. / Janet Hitchen photoFor the second straight year a live Oak English hound was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show. Last year it was Live Oak Maximus 2009, a dog hound; this year it was Live Oak Fable 2010, a first-year bitch.
“That’s the most unexpected win we’ve ever had,” said Live Oak Joint-Master Daphne Wood.
The Virginia Foxhound Show: Hounds and Sunshine!
The sun blazed, but the mature trees gracing Morven Park provided shade, and the multi-colored hospitality tents above the show rings offered cooling drink and refreshment. It was a happy throng that milled back and forth all day, watching hounds and browsing the vendor stands.
In the Foxhunting Life booth, our free drawing for Lizi Ruch’s lovely set of four hound puppy plates was a big hit. By day’s end we had a bowlful of names from which to pick, and the winner is….Barbara McKee from Leesburg!
Southern Hound Show
Grand Champion Fox River Valley Nightcap 2009 / Jim Meads photoBlessed with perfect weather, the fifth annual Southern Hound show (“Stars of the South!”) was held on April 9 in Monticello, Florida. Having been prevented from attending in 2010 by volcanic ash over Europe, Judge Martin Scott, ex MFH Vale of the White Horse and photographer Jim Meads were on hand this year to enjoy seeing quite a few truly quality hounds being presented. Mr. Scott was ably assisted by co-judge Mr. J.W.Y. Martin, MFH, Green Spring Valley Hounds. The apprentice judge was Mrs. George Thomas, MFH, Why Worry Hounds.
Full Cry Largo Wins Top Honors at Belle Meade
Full Cry Largo, hunting back home, just after being judged top hound at the Belle Meade Foxhound Performance Trials. She still carries her number 17, which was painted on her for the competition. Adrian Jennings photoFull Cry Largo was judged top hound at the Belle Meade Foxhound Performance Trials held in Thomson, Georgia on February 25 and 26. Belle Meade Lifeguard was runner-up to Largo, and, with three hounds in the top ten, Belle Meade took top honors among the hunts. For complete results, click here.
“Largo’s story is a great testament to how hunts and huntsman can work together to help each other out and find the right fit for hounds,” says David Hyman, MFH and huntsman of the Full Cry Hounds (AL). “It’s truly a unique fraternity.”
Farmington Hunt and J.B. Birdsall Honored for Conservation Success
J.B. Birdsall (holding trophy) is flanked by the Farmington Masters (l-r) Carol Easter, Pat Butterfield, and Joy Crompton. Cheryl Microutsicos photo
The Farmington Hunt and J.B. Birdsall received the 2011 Hunting Habitat Conservation Award at the MFHA Annual Meeting in New York City on Friday January 28.
Each year with each recipient of this award we witness yet another testament to the role of foxhunting in the preservation of open space. Arguably no other sporting culture has done as much to preserve land and natural habitat.
But, it often takes a leader, an individual driving force, to establish a culture of conservation within an organization. J.B. Birdsall—longtime foxhunter, landowner, and hunt member—provided that passion, commitment, and leadership for the Farmington Hunt to become a force for open space conservation in their hunting country.
Foxhunting Forever
Last month FHL published Ema Klugman’s winning entry in the United States Pony Club annual Hildegard Neill Ritchie Joys of Foxhunting Writing Contest for 2010. Her excellent poem Foxhunt has since passed from the Home Page, but can be found under the Horse and Hound drop-down menu by clicking on Literature.
This month, we bring you Maria Filsinger’s well-written entry, Foxhunting Forever, which was awarded second place in this year’s contest. As one of the contest judges, I liked how Maria tied age to youth as it relates to the continuum of foxhunting.
Leica: Horse of a Lifetime
Leica was a remarkable horse whose career took her from incorrigible youngster with a vicious buck to an impressive third-place finish at age twenty-four in the grueling MFHA Centennial Field Hunter Championship. She was still hunting and showing at age twenty-seven, when she had to be humanely euthanized as the result of a pasture injury.
With her bloodlines and dazzling good looks, Leica was primed to be an outstanding dressage horse. An imported bay with touches of white, she was registered Hanoverian (by Lindberg, out of St. Pr. Kari) who was also entered in the main stud book of the RPSI (Rheinland Pfalz Saar International) and Holsteiner registries.
But after abuse from trainers who pushed her too far too fast, Leica had other ideas, says owner Julie Whitlock McKee of Grantville, Georgia. McKee acquired the hard-headed mare at age four after the trainers gave up on her. The pair did not get off to an auspicious start, with Leica rearing the first time McKee threw a leg over her. Rearing and bucking would become a regular occurrence.
Overqualified Judges Abound at Blue Ridge Puppy Show
May 31, 2010
It wasn’t enough that Linda Armbrust, MFH had secured two of the world’s foremost judges—Nigel Peel, MFH of the North Cotswold (UK) and C. Martin Wood III, MFH of the Live Oak Hounds (FL)—to judge the Blue Ridge Hunt Puppy Show. She and her judges got together and stunned spectators at ringside when she invited a special panel of venerable Masters to judge the final Championship Class of the day.
Blue Ridge Mortimer Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
June 6, 2010
Blue Ridge Mortimer 2009 (Crawley and Horsham Morpeth 2005 ex Blue Ridge Crocus 2006) was judged Champion English Foxhound and ultimately Grand Champion of the Show at Bryn Mawr on Saturday, June 5. Mortimer goes back in tail-male to Marty and Daphne Wood’s renowned Live Oak Drummer 1989, but the bloodlines had to cross the Atlantic twice before winding up in the Blue Ridge kennels.