The Myopia Hunt

by Robert Cook

For those who have witnessed Myopia’s classic hunts that take place in May and the fall, the scenes call to mind classic paintings depicting as many as 80 riders dressed in red and white following a pack of more than 20 hounds across meadows and rolling hills.

Samantha Stevens, the Huntsman for Myopia, assumed her post earlier this year. She succeeded now retired Huntsman Phillip Headdon, and says he was a great teacher and mentor who enabled her to carry on the traditional hunt that dates back to Myopia’s founding in 1882.

There are two components that make for a successful hunt: access to the land and healthy, well-trained hounds. Stevens says Myopia puts a premium on both and goes to great lengths to preserve important relationships with private property landowners, Massachusetts state parks, Essex

County Trail Association and the Essex County Greenbelt to make it work.

An average hunt, which takes place three times a week in May and three times a week in September, October and November, can be up to 14 miles long, Stevens says. Their first spring roading meet was scheduled on April 29.

“We can go in any direction from Hamilton to West Newbury. There are some shorter days where the meet is just West Newbury or Hamilton, depending on the hunt and season,” says Stevens. “The hunt ends when we plan for it to end. We will choose a picturesque field or landowners’ property and have a tea to celebrate the adventure.”

Stevens said they have a whole system in place to notify the private landowners and make sure they have permission to use their land on specific dates. “In addition to being respectful of the footing, making sure we are not making a mess or leaving tracks in the mud, it’s the only way we can maintain such long hunts in such large territory — by fostering these very respectful relationships with the private landowners,“ says Stevens.

Stevens says that on Thanksgiving, the public can see the Myopia hunt at Appleton Farms, which is public property. “But we spend most of the three hours hunting mostly on private property,” she adds.

Stevens points out Myopia was originally founded as a hunt club for fox hunting. In recent years, they have switched to a drag hunt, which means the hunters do not kill any creature. A drag hunt allows every aspect of a traditional hunt to be maintained and enjoyed without negatively affecting the community, she says.

“We are not actually pursuing anything except for one of our teammates putting down a line of scent for our hounds to follow, and it is a specific scent that our hounds are trained to follow. It controls where the action happens,” says Stevens.

The line of scent allows the club to keep riders, the dogs, spectators and traffic safe. “If we are coming to a road crossing, we stop the line well back from the road so there are no hounds or horses bolting onto the road to impact traffic or getting hurt,” says Stevens.

If a landowner does not want them to hunt on a portion of their property, Stevens says they have to lay the line of scent accordingly.

“On a perfect day, the hounds follow the line exactly and everything goes to plan and everyone is happy,” says Stevens. The lines of scent provide the hounds with a homing beacon, she adds.

By laying down the line of scent properly, Stevens says they can also make sure it does not come too close to any spectators who gather at Appleton Park. That way people don’t accidentally walk across it and disturb it, she adds.

“We are working very hard in this coming year where there has been a lot of interest in observing the hunt, especially in the big meets, to make sure people know where they can stand and walk and not necessarily interfere with the hounds working,” Stevens explains.

This year, Stevens said the club will make use of social media to get the word out ahead of the Thanksgiving Day hunt. In the wake of the pandemic, Stevens says a greater number of people have moved into Ipswich and the Hamilton-Wenham area, and the club wants to do more educational outreach to help them understand more about the hunting meets and how they are conducted.

“By publicizing public places where people can watch, it really helps give people an idea where they won’t be in the way or be squished or disrupting the flow of the hounds,” says Stevens.

Stevens says she has been hunting off and on for 10 years and has been involved in equestrian hunting activities and carriage driving for 30 years. She is originally from Salem and now lives in Hamilton. Stevens also owns a farm in Ipswich, Cedar Tree Stables, on Topsfield Road.

The kennels for the hounds have two large rooms: one for the bitches and one for the dog hounds. Each room has a large, raised bed with cedar shavings. There is heat in both rooms in the wintertime and fans provide airflow and ventilation in the summer. Each of those opens into a concrete yard for each group of hounds, and beyond that there is a grass yard the hounds can use under supervision during the day.

Stevens says there are 13.5 couples, or 27 hounds in all. “Each year we aim to have at least one litter of puppies,” she adds. Stevens explains that some of the dogs will end up being part of the hunt based on their talents and trainability. “Those that are not will be re-homed to pet homes in the community,” she adds.

Stevens says Myopia Hunt Club is one of seven such clubs in New England. “It is a dying sport between landownership changes and open space. It is definitely a trial to maintain the territory we need for Myopia,” she observes. “But again, thanks to our very generous private landowners, we are able to maintain some of the best countryside, I think, for hunting around here.”