Irish Foxhunter Will Attempt Side Saddle High Jump Record
Susan Oakes and saddle, the provenance of which includes the training of ceremonial horses for Queen Elizabeth IILongtime foxhunter Susan Oakes will attempt to set a new world record for the side saddle high jump at Aintree’s Annual National Show on July 28, 2012. The record of six feet, six inches was set by Mrs. Esther M. Stace at the Royal Sydney Easter Show, Australia, in 1915.
Susan Oakes hails from County Meath, where her parents Clare and Oliver and her sister Elizabeth are all involved in horses. Since childhood she has pony clubbed and hunted with the Meath Foxhounds, Tara Harriers and the Ward Union Staghounds, often riding side saddle. She also campaigns her point-to-point horses Parson’s Pistol and O’Muircheartaigh. She is also a show judge of hunters and side saddle, and an accomplished show rider winning the first ever coloured horse class at the RDS with Cisco Kid, and the coloured cob class with Crowboy JJ.
Old Dominion Hounds Point-to-Point
After winning three consecutive Amateur/Novice Hurdle Races and placing second in four starts, Annie Yeager and Mischief wind up in the turf at Old Dominion.The Amateur/Novice Hurdle team of Annie Yeager and her brilliant gray horse Mischief experienced a frightening moment at the Old Dominion Point-to-Point on Saturday, April 7, 2012 at Ben Venue Farm in Flint Hill, Virginia. With three consecutive wins and a second place finish in four starts in the division, Mischief went down with Yeager, who was airlifted from the course.
The good news is that the horse is fine, and Yeager was released from the hospital the following day with a concussion and a broken collar bone. Those who witnessed the fall close up, including this reporter, expected a far worse outcome, and that expectation clouded the rest of the day’s racing.
Orange County Hounds Point-to-Point
Open Hurdle winner Old Timer and Chris Read (right) lead Robert Walsh on Better Than Ever.The Orange County Hounds Point-to-Point Races were held at Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, Virginia on Sunday, April 1, 2012. Trainer Neil Morris made the most of his home turf by saddling both the win and place horses in the Open Hurdle Race. Kinross Farm’s Old Timer ridden by Chris Read jumped to the lead at the last fence and beat second-place finisher Humdinger to the wire by two lengths.
Morven Park: Hound Show In; Steeplechase Out
Morven Park and its lovely grounds in Leesburg, Virginia are familiar to many foxhunters. The former estate of the late Governor Westmoreland Davis has been home for many years to the Virginia Foxhound Show, meets of the Loudoun West Hunt, and the Morven Park Steeplechases. The mansion has recently been refurbished—a major project taking several […]
O’Connor and Codd Battle for Top Rider in Ireland
The suspense continues as to who will win this season’s Irish Point-to-Point Riders Championship. Both Derek O’Connor and Jamie Codd have been alternating at the top of the table all season with O’Connor edging ahead last week with a season tally of 94 winners and Codd slipping slightly at 91. O’Connor is the leading Irish […]
Steeplechase Painting Is Best in Show in National Exhibition
Susan Smolensky, an artist we featured last December, has won Best in Show at the Women Artists of the West 41st National Juried Exhibition in Rockport, Texas. This was not a sporting art exhibition, but Smolensky’s dramatic steeplechase painting evidently captivated the judges.
Private Attack and Blythe Miller-Davies Formidable in Maryland
Blythe Miller-Davies on Private Attack is congratulated by husband Joe Davies after winning the Maryland Hunt Cup. Michael Wharton leads the winner.First the Grand National on April 23, then the Maryland Hunt Cup on April 30. Two winning performances for Blythe Miller-Davies and Private Attack. Yet the circumstances made it all the more dramatic.
Miller-Davies—former champion jump jock, mother, and trainer—had retired from riding races more than eight years ago. Mark Beecher was to ride Sportsmans Hall’s Private Attack in the Grand National for trainer Alicia Murphy, but was having visa problems in Ireland. Murphy turned to Miller-Davies, and the pair won by a neck.
Meanwhile, Miller-Davies had been training her husband’s horse Fort Henry which she had intended to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup one week later. The Grand National win changed those plans, and husband Joe Davies, a former three-time winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup, graciously scratched his horse so his wife could ride Private Attack in that race.
Hat Trick for Neil Morris at Old Dominion
Lake Placid and Matthew McCarron hold off Fantastic Foeand Jeff Murphy for the Open Hurdle win.Trainer Neil Morris scored a hat trick at the Old Dominion Point-to-Point races on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at Ben Venue Farm. Morris saddled three winners: Maiden Hurdle, Open Hurdle, and Open Timber.
Morris’s first two wins were the easy ones. In the Maiden Hurdle, Last Noble with Jacob Roberts aboard led the field all the way and won easily. In the Open Hurdle, Lake Placid with Matthew McCarron in the irons raced around the course on the lead, turned back a challenge by second place finisher Fantastic Foe, and won by four-and-a-half lengths.
Camden: A Mecca for Horses
Horses mean “business” in Camden, South Carolina. The area has been a mecca for horses and horse people at least as far back as the turn of the twentieth century, according to John Cushman, owner of The Tack Room in Camden. “Places such as Camden, Aiken, and Southern Pines (NC) became winter colonies before Florida […]