Junior Field Hunter Championships Just Keep Growing
(l-r) Lauren Gibson and Landmark Cracker Jack, winner of the Hilltopper Division; Iona Pillion; and Douglas Wise-Stuart, MFH / Liz Callar photoThe tenth annual Junior North American Field Hunter Championship competition is in the offing with this year’s finals scheduled for Sunday, November 4, 2012 at the Radnor Hunt in Chester County, Pennsylvania. What started in Virginia has now spread to neighboring mid-Atlantic states and the number of participating hunts continues to grow.
More than a competition, the main purposes are to expose foxhunters eighteen years of age and younger to a variety of hunting countries, to instill in their young minds the importance of open space preservation if our sport is to continue beyond their lifetimes, and to stress suitability of mount to rider. The concept was hatched ten years ago by Douglas Wise-Stuart, MFH and Iona Pillion, both renowned for their junior foxhunting programs.
Loving His Summer Job
Junior whipper-in Buzzy Fisher / Elisabeth Harpham photoJunior whipper-in Buzzy Fisher (12) has been working with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds this summer. He rides to the kennels by himself each morning to help staff with morning chores, then walks out on hound exercise. Buzzy’s parents—Drs. Phoebe and Rush Fisher—arrive by trailer with horses and ponies […]
The Griffon Vendeen: Another Basset Altogether
James Scharnberg, Master and huntsman of the Skycastle French Hounds (PA), walks out his Griffon Vendeen bassets. / Noel Mullins photo
The day following the 112th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, which I traveled from my native Ireland to witness, I accompanied advertising executive/sportsman Eli Silberman to visit the Skycastle French Hounds—a pack of Griffon Vendeen Bassets—at their kennels on White Acres Farm in Downingown, Pennsylvania.
Peter Patrick, Lord Hemphill, ex-MFH
Peter Patrick, the Fifth Baron Hemphill, passed away on Friday, April 6, 2012 at the Galway Clinic after a short illness. He and his wife Lady Anne Hemphill are well-known to many North American sportsmen and women who have hunted with the Galway Blazers. His father, the Fourth Baron, married his mother Emily Sears in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
Lord Hemphill was an exceptional individual—charming, entertaining, and a great friend to the Galway Blazers where he served as Joint-Master in the heyday of hunting in Ireland. He made his estate, Tulira Castle, regularly available to the hunt. American film director John Huston was a fellow Joint-Master when he lived at St Clerans not far from Athenry. The two men hunted and socialised together with their respective wives, Toni and Lady Anne, the latter serving as Field Master of the Blazers for many years. They all sailed frequently in Galway Bay with many of the prominent visiting Hollywood film stars, often visiting the Aran Islands where a sing-song was always on the agenda at a local hostelry!
Who Is This?
This portrait along with the question of the subject’s identity was posted on our Facebook page to provide an entertaining and informative way of featuring iconic figures in American foxhunting.
Paula Nelson was first with the correct answer, and if she will contact us with her address she will receive a gift from Foxhunting Life. David Amos provided the right answer just two minutes later. Also Lauren Giannini and Jesse Welsh got it right—all four within the space of an hour.
9th Annual Junior Field Hunter Championship Is Bigger than Ever
Emily Digney and Mr. Goodbar, Farmington Hunt, were Champion, 13 and Over.With more than two hundred entries, organizers Douglas Wise, MFH Old Dominion Hounds (VA), and Iona Pillion, Blue Ridge Hunt (VA), were thrilled to observe that the 2011 Junior North American Field Hunter Championship drew the biggest fields to date in the nine years of this unique trial. The program listed twenty-one finalists in Hilltoppers, twenty-two in First Field 12 & Under, and twenty-one in First Field 13 & Over. On November 6, 2011, trailers from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia gathered in the heart of the Warrenton Hunt country for what is turning into a huge event that bodes well for the future of foxhunting.
Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Makes Strong Showing at Penn National Hunt Night
Steven Hayes led the Cheshire riders to a strong showing on Hunt Night at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg on October 17, 2011. Hayes won the Field Hunter Class for riders over thirty-five years of age and the Gentlemen’s Hunter under Saddle Class, riding Clever, owned by Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA). Hayes […]
Raja: Story of a Racehorse
Raja: Story of a Racehorse, Anne Hambleton, Old Bow Publishing, 2011, 250 pages, illustrated by Peggy Kaufmann, $14.95The fictional adventures and travails of a well-bred Thoroughbred foal are chronicled from the early days by his dam’s side to a Grade 1 Stakes win, to the jumpers in the “A” circuit, to the New York City Mounted Police, to foxhunting with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds, to the Blue Ridge Hunt point-to-point, and finally to the Maryland Hunt Cup. As a foal, Raja is cursed with a phobia for lightning—the recurring source of his many troubles along the way in achieving his potential.
This may be Anne Hambleton’s first novel, but she has had plenty of practice honing her writing skills in the business side of her life. On the equine side, Hambleton is a horsewoman who knows all the disciplines intimately, and Raja’s adventures unfold believably and with authority. The characters in the story—both animal and human—are well-crafted, and we care about them.
Juniors Will Vie in Ninth Annual Field Hunter Championships
The meets have been announced for the Junior North American Field Hunter Championships in 2011. For fifty bucks, juniors eighteen-and-under can hunt with other juniors in new surroundings and experience camaraderie; competition; and a variety of hunting countries, foxhound types, and hunt staffs. It’s both fun and educational.
On Keeping Children in the Hunting Field
Karen Myers photoOne of my recent blogs was titled “Adopt-a-Kid.” It talked about how individual field members can help bring children to the hunting field. Elisabeth Harpham from Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds suggested through the Comments box that we check out what her hunt is doing in Unionville, Pennsylvania. We asked her to tell us, and she did. See her article following this blog.
In addition to the traditional junior activities sponsored by most hunts, the Cheshire Masters recognized that the challenge doesn’t end with simply getting children into the field. You need to offer them enough excitement and incentive to keep them there. Evidently they succeeded, because Elisabeth tells us that in the past six or eight years they have seen a huge increase in the number of children actively hunting.