Huntsmen on the Move: 2015
Huntsman Jordan Hicks moves from the Tryon Hounds to the Piedmont Fox Hounds / Erik Olsen photoAs we approach the close of the 2014/2015 foxhunting season, here’s our report on thirteen hunts that have either hired or will require a new huntsman for next season. We have already featured personal close-ups of three of the migrating huntsmen—Guy Allman, Brian Kiely, and Graham Buston—and we plan to bring you more.
We invite readers to fill us in on any moves that we’ve missed. We also invite you to send us a personal profile on any of these huntsmen that we can publish as a feature article. Or, just send us the information, and we’ll write the story. Use the “Contact Us” link that appears at the bottom of every screen to communicate directly with me, and be sure to include your phone number.
What follows is foxhunting’s version of musical chairs.
Brian Kiely Is New Huntsman at Potomac
Brian Kiely and the Myopia foxhounds / Ashley Hill photo
Brian Kiely knows he will have big boots to fill when Larry Pitts, huntsman for the Potomac Hunt (MD), retires after thirty-five seasons there. Brian spent a weekend recently with the Potomac Masters, had a chance to hunt with Larry, and accepted the position of huntsman starting next season.
“The way Larry conducted himself, the way the hounds related to him, was poetry,” said Brian. “It was a fabulous experience just to watch him.”
“I remember seeing Larry some years ago at the Virginia Foxhound Show,” Brian continued. “Hounds from hunts all over were arriving at the kennels…nervous…running off…and there was Larry, calmly walking his pack through all the confusion, without a care.”
Peter Hitchen MFH (1938–2015)
Vicky Moon photo, circa 1980s
Peter Hitchen, MFH, died January 12, 2015 from complications stemming from injuries sustained in a fall in the hunting field a month earlier. He was seventy-six. At the time of his passing, Peter was serving in his twenty-seventh season as Joint-Master of the Potomac Hunt (MD).
Peter was born in England but didn’t start foxhunting until he emigrated to the U.S. in 1962. After settling in the Washington, D.C. area, Peter was introduced to the sport by a friend. He also met his bride-to-be, Nancy Tilton Orme of Leesburg, Virginia, who also encouraged his involvement with hunting to hounds at The Loudoun Hunt.
From that time on, Peter never let anything interfere with his maturing love of and passion for foxhunting. After many seasons of whipping-in at the New Market/Middletown Valley Hounds (MD) and later at The Potomac Hunt, Peter joined Irvin L. (Skip) Crawford as Joint-Master of Potomac in 1987. With huntsman, Larry Pitts, they oversaw the development of what is unquestionably one of the premier packs of American foxhounds in the United States, giving good sport to their members and garnering championships and grand championships at the hound shows year after year.
My First Opening Meet
One of the quiet moments in Carla Lake’s first Opening Meet
My first Opening Meet has been about a year in the making, and I can hardly believe I’m here. By here, I mean standing on top of a log, cursing my horse, who, instead of standing quietly for me to remount, has decided to leap over the log while I try to stay calm and not burst into tears.
It’s been a trying weekend so far.
My borrowed horse, Seven Up, is completely sick of me after I spent a total of six hours Friday night and Saturday morning grooming the living bejezus out of him. Up to this point, I never had to braid for any kind of equestrian event, so on Friday night I arrive at the barn around 6:30, brush and bathe him, and separate his mane into little sections.
The Penn-Marydel Is Grand Champion at Virginia and Bryn Mawr
Joan Jones presents the Grand Championship Trophy for Golden’s Bridge Phoenix to huntsman Ciaran Murphy. / Liz Callar photoFor the second time* in history, a Penn-Marydel foxhound was judged Grand Champion of the Virginia Foxhound Show. The William W. Brainard, Jr. Perpetual Cup was presented to Golden’s Bridge Phoenix 2012 at Morven Park in Leesburg on Sunday, May 25, 2014. Golden’s Bridge huntsman Ciaran Murphy showed the Champion.
The following weekend, for the first time in foxhound history, the same Penn-Marydel repeated his stunning Virginia victory by being judged Grand Champion of Show at Bryn Mawr.
The Penn-Marydel as a breed is justifiably loved by its admirers for a number of reasons—nose, voice, biddability—none of which includes a reputation as the standard for foxhound beauty. Yet Golden’s Bridge Phoenix prevailed over the usual suspects so often in the Virginia lineup for the final class of the day: Live Oak Hounds (FL), Midland Foxhounds (GA), and Potomac Hunt (MD). At Bryn Mawr, Phoenix topped the other breed champions from the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA), Potomac Hunt, and GreenSpring Valley Hounds (MD).
Maryland’s Un-Entered Hounds Have Annual Coming Out Party
Mount Carmel Onyx was Best Penn-Marydel foxhound. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
For once in the thirty-nine-year history of the Maryland Foxhound Club’s annual puppy show, the weather-gods cooperated. On a marvelously sunny day, supporters of twelve foxhound packs and seven foot hound packs met on the lawn of Tim and Vicki Shaw’s lovely home to show the products of their breeding programs. The show is restricted to unentered hounds as well as the stallion hounds and brood bitches that produced these hounds.
With one ring devoted to foxhounds and another devoted to foot hounds, Jeff Blue, MFH of Middleburg Hunt (VA) and Bob Dougherty, MB of Hidden Meadows beagles and ex-MFH and huntsman of the Plum Run Hunt (PA) had a full day of judging to do. A total of 141 foxhounds were entered and 73 foot hounds went through the rings. In the only combined class of the day, nineteen young fox and rabbit hunters paraded before both judges in a really tough junior handler class. No doubt Masters Blue and Dougherty worked their hardest to pin that class!
Professional Huntsmen Are the Heart and Soul of Foxhunting
Huntsman Larry Pitts with the foxhounds of the Potomac Hunt (MD) / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
Professional huntsman Larry Pitts was recognized at the recent MFHA Staff Seminar held in Lexington, Kentucky, April 12 to 13, 2014. After a dinner for the two hundred attendees, Larry was presented with the annual Ian Milne Award for his exceptional contributions to the sport of foxhunting.
While the sport of foxhunting may, as many say, revolve around the foxhound, I suggest that the heart and soul of our sport is the professional huntsman. Professionals like Larry preserve the superlative foxhound bloodlines for breeding, and they maintain the standards for the care and training of hounds in kennel and the handling of hounds in the field. All hunts—whether high-octane or small farmer’s pack—and all huntsmen—whether professional or amateur—benefit from their breeding acumen and their examples of practice.
Here is a real-life example of how the professional huntsman exerts his or her influence upon our sport in kennels far beyond his own. Epp Wilson, MFH and huntsman of the Belle Meade Hunt (GA), reached back to his teen years and his first meeting with Larry Pitts in this vignette.
Southern Hospitality Conquers Winter Weather at Belle Meade
The author (right) with (l-r) Field Master Jean Derrick and Master and huntsman Epp Wilson at the final meet
Snow may have crippled Atlanta, but the few inches that fell in Thomson, Georgia during Belle Meade’s second annual “Gone Away with the Wind” Hunt Week (January 26 to February 2, 2014) did little to dampen the great foxhunting and lavish southern hospitality. The first day we arrived was warm and sunny, a welcome respite from a frozen Maryland. I was returning for a second awesome adventure with Belle Meade Hunt and had encouraged two more of my fellow Marlborough Hunt members to come down. Jayne Koester and her amateur-radio enthusiast husband Fred enlivened their trip by talking to all the Ham radio operators near Interstate 95 as they drove south. Following them was Gwen Alred, a member of both Marlborough and Potomac Hunt clubs, who also decided getting out of a frigid Maryland was a good idea.
Monday at 3:00 pm, after warm greetings from our southern hosts and welcoming remarks from MFHs Epp Wilson, Charlie Lewis, and Gary Wilkes, we quickly trotted across the road from the kennels and moved across open cattle fields. I was riding first flight behind my good friend, Belle Meade Field Master Jean Derrick, and it felt wonderful to be cantering across soft ground in informal ratcatcher attire!
How They Do It at Belle Meade
Epp Wilson, MFH and huntsman of the Belle Meade Hunt brings hounds to the first draw to kick off “Gone Away with the Wind” Hunt Week. Whippers-in Lucy Bell (left) and Natalie Gilmore flank the pack. / Lauren R. Giannini photo
“We have arranged to have ten coyotes on standby for your hunting pleasure today,” announced Joint-MFH Charlie Lewis as he welcomed guests to the opening meet of Belle Meade’s “Gone Away with the Wind” Hunt Week. It was Monday, January 27, 2014 in Thomson, Georgia. The footing was perfect and the sun was shining.
The following day it snowed, closing schools, paralyzing the Atlanta area, and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. The Belle Meade hosts were resilient, however, improvising substitute activities for members and guests for the very few events that had to be modified.
Hunt Week guests had come from the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA), Bull Run Hunt (VA), Golden’s Bridge Hounds (NY), Marlborough Hunt (MD), Millbrook Hunt (NY), Montreal Hunt (PQ), Moore County Hounds (NC), the Potomac Hunt (MD), Toronto and North York Hunt (ON), and the Whiskey Road Hounds (SC).
The Meet
The Belle Meade hounds typically meet at three o’clock in the afternoon. In the warmish environs of north Georgia, Senior Master and huntsman Epp Wilson likes to hunt as temperatures are dropping and scent is improving. Of course it often results in riders hacking back in the dark, and even jumping fences after sunset—an adventure in its own right for many followers!
Potomac Dapper Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
Potomac huntsman Larry Pitts (standing) with Allen Forney and
Potomac Dapper 2011, Grand Champion Foxhound at Bryn
Mawr / Anne Davies photoAlthough a Potomac Crossbred foxhound—Potomac Dapper 2011—happened to be judged Grand Champion at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show on June 1, 2013, Potomac huntsman Larry Pitts wants you to understand that he doesn’t breed Crossbred hounds.
“We don’t breed Crossbred to Crossbred,” said Pitts, who maintains one of the few pure American packs in the country for the Potomac Hunt (MD). “We breed an American hound to an English hound or to a Penn-Marydel as an outcross. We keep just two or three puppies, and we breed to the best one.”
Pitts breeds successive generations of his selected Crossbreds back to American hounds until the litters can be registered in the American Stud Book. American hound breeders need to outcross in order to maintain hybrid vigor, because the gene pool of American hounds is small.