Meath Foxhounds
Ward Union Hosts Showjumping Royalty
Kacey-Lou Carberry, 12, jumps ditch and bank cleanly off the road on a competent coloured cob on loan from Master Stephen O'Connor's family. / Catherine Power photo
Tuesday, December 2, 2021, was a gala day in Co. Meath, Ireland. Not only were the usual crack Ward Union jockeys out, but also in the field was a group of world-class showjumpers.
Shane Breen, Joint-Master of the Scarteen Black and Tans and a member of the Irish National Showjumping team, had arranged for a group of showjumpers to experience the mystique and magic of hunting in Ireland, in general, and with the Ward Union, in particular. Team Ireland was just back from Portugal, where they had emerged victorious in the Nations Cup finals the week before.
Irish Foxhunter Sets Side Saddle High Jump Records
Susan Oakes establishes new side saddle record for jumping triple bar at six feet, four-and-a-half inches from ground level. / Noel Mullins photo
Susan Oakes—Joint-Master of the Grallagh Harriers and the organizer of last year’s international ladies’ side saddle hunt with the Meath Foxhounds—set two side saddle high jump world records at the Irish National Sports Center on October 24, 2013.
Oakes jumped six feet, eight inches over a puissance wall, breaking her own record of five feet which she established just this summer at the RDS Dublin Horse Show. Then she established a world record of six feet, four-and-a-half inches for jumping a triple bar from ground level.
A world record of six feet, six inches for the triple bar set in Australia in 1915 still stands unbroken, but that record was established by jumping off a ramp. Foxhunting Life reported on Oakes’s attempt to break that record last year and also reported on the international ladies’ side saddle hunt that Oakes organized at the Meath last year. Fifty ladies from nine countries including the U.S. participated in that elegant affair.
Meath Foxhounds Host International Ladies’ Side Saddle Hunt
Side saddle meet organizer Susan Oakes with her stallion, SIEC Atlas, at The Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim before the meet
The Ladies Side Saddle Hunt at Boyerstown, County Meath in Ireland was the brainchild of the Meath Foxhounds Masters and side saddle enthusiast Susan Oakes who is the current British side saddle high jump record holder at five-feet-nine-inches. (At Aintree last year Susan just rolled the top pole in her attempt at the world record of six-feet-six-inches.)
The meet, or was it a Ladies Gathering, was a world record turnout of lady side saddle riders seen in any hunt country. Up to fifty ladies from Ireland, USA, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Sweden, and Belgium descended on County Meath, and what an impact they made. It was like a scene from the last century when ladies still rode side saddle, with high standards of hunting dress, style, and elegance.
Meath Foxhounds Sweep Championships at Irish National Hound Show
Champion Bitch Meath Patsy shown by whipper-in Barry Finnegan (l) and huntsman Kenny Henry (r). Meath MFH Norman Williamson receives the trophy from George Chapman, MFH of the Island Foxhounds and chairman of the Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association.Stradbally Hall the home of the Cosby family in County Laois, Ireland was steeped in Mediterranean type sunshine for the National Hound Show. Refreshments were available for the spectators and hunt staff, but of equal importance were the strategically placed buckets of water available for the hounds. Organised by show chairman David Lalor, Master of the County Laois Foxhounds, and the committees of the foxhounds, harriers and beagles associations, it had to be one of the largest number of entries in many years.
The judges in the foxhound classes were Charlie Shirley-Bevan, MFH and huntsman of the Mid Devon, and Anthony Sandeman, MFH of the Crawley and Horsham, who has judged also at Peterborough and at the Virginia Hound Show at Morven Park in the USA.
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.
