Covertside Spring 2015 by Emily Esterson

FOX VERSUS COYOTE• HUNT ON THE RANGE • MIDLAND CROSSBRED SUCCESS

THE MAGAZINE OF MOUNTED FOXHUNTING

SPRING 2015 • $5.00

sJ o h n C o l e s 2 015 s

“A Virginia Horseman Specializing in Virginia Horse Properties” HouND HALL

ruTLeDge

Custom Built English style stone/stucco 3-story home s5 Bedrooms, Large Master, In-law suite with separate entrance sSlate Roof, Game Room, Theatre, Study, Custom Kitchen, 4 Stone Fireplaces sExtensive Horse Facilities s18 Stall Barn s2 Stall Barn s14 Paddocks sLarge Ring. $6,500,000

The stately 128+ Acre Middleburg Virginia Country Estate offers a genteel lifestyle and majestic views. Handsome stone and clapboard manor home, 3 additional homes, 2 apartments, farm office, 6 barns, 45 stalls, indoor arena, all beautifully maintained and surrounded by the meticulously groomed grounds. $6,000,000

merrYcHASe

wiNDruSH

Magnificent 155 Acre Atoka Road Estate with gated entry opening into the private drive lined with mature trees. The charming historic manor home, c. 1827 backs to expansive views of fields and ponds. 4 tenant homes, 3 barns, indoor and outdoor riding arenas. Gently rolling pasture land with fenced paddocks and fields. $3,950,000

Magnificent country retreat on 41 acres with incredible privacy & beautiful views. The c.1850 manor home has been graciously expanded into a 7 bedroom home with separate entertaining venue & two-story office w/T-1 capability. Pool, tennis court, gardens, greenhouse, 5 car garage. $3,350,000

wHiTe rock fArm

goSLiNg

Overlooking a serene pond, this magnificent manor home is on 115 acres surrounded by thousands of protected acres and the Bull Run Mountains. This stunning home offers 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, 10’ ceilings, wide plank flooring, pool and geothermal heating and cooling. $2,395,000

18+ acres of mostly open and rolling land with the home sited perfectly with vast views from both front and back overlooking the pond, gardens and front fields. Cathedral ceilings, Master on the main floor, huge library/living room, private guest rooms, apartment on lower level w/own kitchen/entrance, sprawling deck w/awning. In OCH territory; VOF conservation easement. $2,095,000

LoNgwooD

624 acres with an exceptional Broodmare Barn built in 2003 with 32 stalls, a lovely 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath Tenant House, another 2 Bedroom Tenant House, 3 run-in sheds and hay barn. This is part of Spring Hill Farm. $5,029,543

foX DeN

Restored Farm House, c.1830 on 65 Private Acres near Middleburg. 3 porches add to the charm. Other features include pool, 4 stall barn with guest suite, 4 bay open equipment barn and 2 bay garage. Shared pond. VOF and PEC Easements do allow for two additional dwellings. $2,395,000

meeTiNg meADowS

OLD CARTERS MILL ROAD - Rare find. Just over 53 acres of prime Orange County Hunt country land with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains on one side and gently rolling, open hills on the other. All of the adjacent land is protected by conservation easements. $1,400,000

LAND

oAk THorPe

ALeSSio

RECTORTOWN: 107.76 acres Spectacular views from this highly desirable estate location within the Orange County Hunt Territory. Board fenced with frontage on Atoka Road and Rectortown Road. Stocked, approx. 4 acre, pond w/island, spring fed from tributary of Goose Creek. Open Space Easement allows for building of main dwelling, garage or barn with apt. and appropriate farm structures. Zoned RA. $1,250,000 Beautiful 4 bedroom, 5 bath home on over 50 acres with incredible views in all directions. Perfect for horse enthusiasts or great for enjoying country living. Elegant living spaces. Fencing, convertible barn, water features, lush gardens, covered porches and decks for outdoor entertaining and much more. ODH Territory. $1,345,000

NAKED MOUNTAIN - Delaplane, 276 acres of land on Naked Mountain. A true hunter's paradise! Mostly wooded, very private. Nice elevation, from 670 to 1,400. Kettle Run stream runs through, great opportunity for tax credits. $1,159,410

18 acres in the heart of OCH Territory with a lovely 5.5 Bedroom Italianate Style home in a beautiful setting. Formal and informal spaces, high ceilings, wonderful kitchen, expansive rec room, full basement, private pool, extensive landscaping and more. Property is in a VOF Open-Space easement. $1,199,000

Offers subject to errors, omissions, change of price or withdrawal without notice. Information contained herein is deemed reliable, but is not so warranted nor is it otherwise guaranteed.

(540) 270-0094 THOMAS AND TALBOT REAL ESTATE (540) 687-6500

Middleburg, Virginia 20118

www.Thomas-Talbot.com

SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1

Features 19 FOX VS COYOTE BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS A day in the life of two huntsmen and two different quarry.

28 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY BY CHRISTOPHER OAKFORD The Gloucester Hunt Club set the tone for many of today’s hunt traditions.

34 MIDDLEBURG PHOTO

Page 34

The evolution of the Midland type.

IN EACH ISSUE:

From the President p.2

MILESTONES News about clubs and members

THE FIXTURE Grand Canyon engages with those who manage rangeland.

ASK THE HUNTSMAN Drawing covert with Toronto and North York’s John Harrison.

From the Publisher p.4

THE MIDLAND CROSSBRED RECIPE BY MASON LAMPTON, MFH The Midland Foxhounds’ breeding program led to success in the field and the show ring.

MFHA News p.6

Last Run of the Day p.52

YOUNG ENTRY Cloudline Hounds’ Rex Gentry is an youth ambassador for the sport.

THE FIND Cool products specifically for foxhunters.

HOUNDS & HORSES Natural horsemanship’s place in hunt horse training.

THE LIBRARY “See You at Second Horses” by Barclay Rives

FARE & FLASK Bull Run Hunt serves up venison country sausage.

ON OUR COVER: Arapahoe Tango and Tart were born in July 2014. Their sire is Live Oak Falcon and their dam is Arapahoe Needle. PHOTO BY ZINA BALASH.

SPRING 2015 | 1

FROM THE PRESIDENT

The Sport of Giving

2 | COVERTSIDE

www.mfha.com

OFFICERS

Dr. John R. van Nagell, MFH • President Patrick A. Leahy, MFH • First Vice-President Leslie Crosby, MFH • Second Vice-President Joseph Kent, MFH • Secretary-Treasurer Lt. Col. Dennis J. Foster, ex-MFH • Executive Director

MFHA FOUNDATION

Dr. John R. van Nagell, MFH • Chairman PO Box 363, Millwood, VA 22646 (540) 955-5680

HUNT STAFF BENEFIT FOUNDATION Nancy Stahl, MFH • Chairman PO Box 363, Millwood, VA 22646 (540) 955-5680

COVERTSIDE EDITORIAL BOARD DAVE TRAXLER

ery few sports are more about giving than foxhunting. Some years ago, Arnold Garvey, then editor of Horse and Hound, made the trip from England to hunt coyotes with the Iroquois in Kentucky. During the hunt, Arnold turned to me and said, “You know, there is no greater gift one man can give another than to allow him to ride across his land.” When you think about it, that very gift defines foxhunting – a sport in which we are allowed to ride across hunt country, much of which we do not own, as guests of landowners, some of whom may not know us very well. As we complete another season enjoying this great sport, I hope our landowners know how much we appreciate their gift to us, and that they feel certain of our commitment to them throughout the year. Another principle of giving inherent in foxhunting provides the basis for genetic improvement of our hounds. Unlike Thoroughbred or other types of breeding, in which a stud fee is required to gain access to a specific bloodline, we are encouraged by fellow foxhunters to send a bitch to a particular stallion hound, or are given a puppy from a desired litter, simply by asking. We, in turn, have the opportunity to share our bloodlines with others. In this way, the gene pool of our pack is improved, and expenses are kept to a minimum. Similarly, when a new pack is started, hounds can be drafted from established hunts, immediately providing optimal bloodlines. As spring approaches, we all look forward to upcoming hound shows. These shows allow us to compare our hounds to those from other packs. Every effort is made to get the most knowledgeable judg-

MASTERS OF FOXHOUNDS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

es so that a fair evaluation is given to each hound. Equally important, hound shows provide a venue in which we are able to see old friends and discuss hunting topics of mutual interest. Although performance in the show ring is not always associated with performance in the field, there is a connection between form and function, and our entire sport applauds when a great champion, like last year’s Golden’s Bridge Phoenix, comes along. The MFHA is committed to supporting hound shows, and we hope you are planning to show your hounds this year. I look forward to seeing you there. All the best,

Dr. Jack van Nagell President, MFHA

Emily Esterson • Editor-in-Chief Dennis J. Foster, ex-MFH Dr. John R. van Nagell, MFH Patrick A. Leahy, MFH Leslie Crosby, MFH

DIRECTORS

Canada • Laurel Byrne, MFH Carolinas • Fred Berry, MFH Central • Arlene Taylor, MFH Great Plains • Dr. Luke Matranga, MFH Maryland-Delaware • Sheila Brown, MFH Midsouth • Orrin Ingram, MFH Midwest • Keith Gray, MFH New England • Dr. Terence Hook, MFH New York-New Jersey • Marion Thorne, MFH Northern Virginia-West Virginia • Tad Zimmerman, MFH Pacific • Terry Paine, MFH Pennsylvania • Russell B. Jones, Jr., ex-MFH Rocky Mountain • Mary Ewing, MFH Southern • Mercer Fearington, MFH Virginia • Bob Ferrer, MFH Western • John P. Dorrier Jr., MFH At Large • Daphne Wood, MFH At Large • Mason H. Lampton, MFH At Large • Dr. G. Marvin Beeman, MFH At Large • Ed Kelly, MFH

COVERTSIDE (ISSN 1547-4216) is published quarterly (February, May, August and November) by the Masters of Foxhounds Association 675 Lime Marl Lane, Berryville, VA 22611. Periodical Postage Paid at Winchester, VA 22601 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MFHA, PO Box 363, Millwood, VA 22646. COVERTSIDE READERS: Direct all correspondence to the same address. Tel: (540)955-5680. Website: www.mfha.com

PENNSYLVANIA’S FAMED HUNT COUNTRY

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

Taylor Made Farm sits on 31 acres in a great hunt location. The 4 BR, 3.2 BA main home has dramatic spaces & a stellar Master Suite. There is also a small barn, tennis court, and in-ground pool plus Unionville Schools! $2,389,900

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

Newlin Homes will build this 5,300 sq. ft. home on a 20.5 acre parcel surrounded by large estates in hunt country! Other floor plans available at variety of prices. $1,749,000

RADNOR HUNT COUNTRY

Private 20.28 acres & down a long lane is this 12 yr. old 5BR, 4.1BA home featuring grand Foyer, stunning Kitchen & fully finished lwr. lvl. Wonderful 5 stall barn/several pastures - hacking is boundless. Located near Marshallton. $1,099,500

NEW PRICE!

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

Set on 74 acre, the charming c.1806, 5BR, 4.1BA home retains an antique patina but has an addition with new Kitchen, Family Room & Master Suite. Great 6 stall barn. $2,250,00

NEW LISTING!

BIRCHRUN HUNT

Set on a quiet road in Chester Springs, you must see this 4BR, 3.1BA well-maintained & updated home on 10.44 acres w/2BR Cottage & stunning 4 stall barn. Large ring & several paddocks. $1,275,000

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

On 61+ park-like acres, Fineskinde Farm is like owning your own preserve! 4BR, 2.1BA main house (c.1700 with later additions), great stone barn and several rental units. $999,999

NEW LISTING!

AVON GROVE

Set on 21.5 acres, the home has been totally updated with new roof, windows, siding, Kitchen, Baths, heating system, septic system & the list goes on! There’s a 6 stall barn, outbuildings & several paddocks. $825,000

NEW LISTING!

RADNOR HUNT

Fantastic 5BR, 4.2BA home with absolutely stellar appointments! New gourmet Kitchen, new Baths, new flooring, new geothermal system, in-ground pool! Next to Ridley Creek Park & GV schools! Call Holly for additional details. $1,590,000

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

Deerhaven Farm offers exceptional privacy, great location in “Tuesday Country” and surrounded by large, protected estates. On 30 acres, there is a 4BR, 2.1 BA home, 6 stall barn, a lighted ring and easement allows for an indoor. $1,220,000

CHESHIRE HUNT COUNTRY

Greenmore Farm enjoys one of the most phenomenal views in the county! Current living quarters is over the 6 stall barn consisting of 3BR, BA and high end spaces! Build your dream home and enjoy the view! $925,000

NEW LISTING!

UPPER UWCHLAN TOWNSHIP

You MUST SEE this stunning antique stone farmhouse, tenant house and stone barn on 15.7 acres near Marsh Creek State Park and Brandywine Creek! On 2 parcels. $699,000

UPPER UWCHLAN

This charming 4BR, 2.1BA home enjoys wonderful views over the Black Horse Creek & sits on a large 4 acre lot. Stunning Kitchen & wonderful outdoor spaces to take in the views. Detached barn & Garage. $650,000

FROM THE PUBLISHER

SPRING 2015 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/PUBLISHER EMILY ESTERSON publisher@covertside.net 505-553-2671

Spring Fever

ART DIRECTOR GLENNA STOCKS production@covertside.net

EDITORIAL

4 | COVERTSIDE

JOANN DELANEY

ud, puppies, horses shedding hair all over your clothes, hound show preparation, horse show planning: Spring is peeking around the mountains of gray slushy snow, trying to make her appearance. Even though we will miss hunt season, there is still a lot to do. There are hound shows for which to prepare and young horses to start and introduce to hounds. Spring is a good time to take a little break and reflect. It’s also a good time to recruit young members into your club, by doing foxhunting demos at local horse shows, inviting pony club kids on a hunt club trail ride, or asking the local 4H club to drop by the kennels and play with the puppies (always a hit). Cloudline’s Rex Gentry is an example of how a young person can be an ambassador for your hunt (see page 18). If you’ve never been to a hound show, make it a goal to go to one this spring. Until I took over the editorship of Covertside, I had never been to one and had only the vaguest idea about how they worked and why they are important. Now, I go to Virginia every year. As Nigel Peel, MFH of the North Cotswold in the UK, said in his talk to MFHA members at the annual meeting (see page 6), “It is the relationship between work and good looks.” As you’ll read, developing a pack of hounds means developing a similarity of conformation and

movement. In our article about Crossbreds (page 34), Midland’s Mason Lampton walks readers through his and Ben Hardaway’s long-term efforts to develop a Midland “type” — an effort that has been very successful. He discusses hounds winning in the show ring, and also excelling in hunting. In addition to horses, hounds, and history (for those of you who love foxhunting history, check out the story on page 28), we’re trying something new this issue: We’ll be curating some of the neatest products developed that are interesting to foxhunters. Let us know what you think of this column, called The Find, and found on page 50. As always, your submissions, ideas, and comments are always welcome! Kick on!

ASSOCIATE EDITOR KATY CARTER katy@covertside.net

CONTRIBUTING

WRITERS

GLENYE CAIN OAKFORD CHRISTOPHER OAKFORD SUSAN HOFFMAN

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING SALES MANAGER CHERYL MICROUTSICOS sales@covertside.net 434-664-7057 PENNSYLVANIA/MID-ATLANTIC KATHY DRESS kdress@ptd.net NORTHEAST SPENCER MOORE spencer@covertside.net EVENTS HOPE LYNNE GRAVES events@covertside.net

Emily Esterson Editor-in-Chief/Publisher

Covertside is the official publication of the Masters of Foxhounds Association Published by E-Squared Editorial Services LLC 2329 Lakeview Rd. SW Albuquerque, NM 87105 Telephone: 505-553-2671 Web Address: www.ecovertside.net www.mfha.com

Platinum Sponsor

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MFHA NEWS

ship between conformation and

and biddable, have speed and

 THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

performance in the show ring and

stamina, but without drive they

ANNOUNCED that Col. Foster

performance and stamina in the

have no courage, and courage

will retire the end of January

hunting field. In order for hounds

is key to catching the quarry. He

2017. The board has been con-

to run together, Peel explained,

has seen all of these attributes in

sidering relocating the offices of

they must be similar in stature

packs that win prizes at the best

the MFHA, MFHA Foundation and

and conformation. The breed-

hound shows. For those wishing

HSBF around the same time the

ing of a good pack of hounds

to improve their packs and make

executive director’s job change

takes a long time, and when Peel

them more uniform, Peel encour-

takes place. President van Nagell

began at the North Cotswold

ages Masters to write a resume

appointed a committee chaired

in 1988, his pack was all shapes

of all stallion hounds in your pack

by the MFHA 1st VP, Tony Leahy,

and sizes. “They hunted, but not

going back 50 years. Once you’ve

to explore possible locations

together,” he said. To hunt as a

studied the pedigrees, you’ll see

and other considerations for the

pack, hounds must have speed,

the patterns emerging. Peel be-

move. The goal is to choose a

pace and stamina — but probably

lieves that both drive and riot are

location that is central to hunting,

most important is “fox sense” and

hereditary, so if you have a hound

convenient to a major airport,

 NIGEL PEEL, MFH, NORTH

that takes time. To develop his

that likes to “hunt whatever

and has the facilities and zon-

COTSWOLD, was the keynote

breeding, Peel concentrated on

comes out of the cover,” you may

ing to host educational events

speaker at the annual meeting of

bitches — he has ten tail female

not want to breed that one.

and meetings. Locations under

the Masters of Foxhounds Associ-

lines in the kennels now. “I believe

ation. A speaker with understated

the strength of a kennels comes

breeding and then showing a

Kentucky and Georgia. The com-

wit and an encyclopedic knowl-

from the bitches,” he told Country

pack of hounds is a “lengthy busi-

mittee will carefully consider

edge of hounds, hound breeding,

Life magazine, in a recent article.

ness,” Peel said. “Improve what

whether a move is necessary, and

hound show judging and hunting,

For Peel, hounds must have

you’ve got by using the best of

if so, choose the best location

what you want to get it right.”

with input from the membership.

Peel discussed the relation-

6 | COVERTSIDE

drive — they should be steady

To sum up, both successfully

consideration include Virginia,

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MFHA NEWS

 THE MFHA PUBLISHES

Hounds. The hunt has put 12,000

many educational documents.

acres in permanent easement.

It recently completed a review

The hunt received a hand-

and update of almost all of its

painted trophy and a check for

guidebooks, including “The Guide

$5000 donated by Mr. and Mrs.

to Being a Master of Foxhounds,”

C. Martin Wood III. The deadline

“The Code of Hunting Practices,”

for the 2016 award is October 2,

“MFHA Guidebook & Rules” and

2015. Read about Green Spring’s

“Guidelines for Developing a Plan

efforts in the summer edition of

to Manage Anti-Hunting Dem-

Covertside.

onstrations.” The booklets have been printed and will be mailed to

 THE MFHA BOARD elected

all Master with their dues bills in

two new officers. Fred Berry,

February. “The Kennel Notebook”

Master of the Sedgefield Hunt,

is also being updated, and a new

will replace Linda McLean

publication specifically about field

of Aiken Hounds as Carolina

hunters, is under development.

district director. McLean’s term has expired. Terry Paine, Master

 TWO NEW HUNTS AND

of the Santa Fe West Hills Hunt

THEIR MASTERS were entered

replaces Paul McEnroe as Pacific

into the membership roles. The

district director. McEnroe re-

Headwaters Hounds, located in

signed for health reasons.

Salida, Colorado, and the Red Oak Foxhounds in Virginia were both

 MISTY MORNING HOUNDS in

registered. Bruce Johnson and

Gainesville, Florida, will be hosting

Gordon Scheiman were elected

a drag seminar this spring. It is

to membership. They are Masters

scheduled for April 24-26. Also,

of the Headwaters Hounds. Al-

the MFHA Foundation will be

lison Brown, MFH, is also Master

hosting another whipper-in semi-

of Headwaters, and is ex-MFH of

nar at the Virginia Hound Show

Ft. Carson, which disbanded last

on Saturday, May 23, 2015. The

year. Theresa and Harry Miller

seminar will be held at the Morven

were elected to membership for

Park Carriage House Museum

the Red Oak Foxhounds. Also, Tim

in the morning. Visit the MFHA

Miller and William Dreger were

website for more information. In

voted in to membership. They are

the afternoon, the Huntsman Hall

Masters of the Miami Valley Hunt.

of Fame will hold its convocation. The National Horn Blowing

 THE HUNTING HABITAT

Championship will take place at

CONSERVATION AWARD was

7:00 p.m. on the lawn in front of

presented to Green Spring Valley

the Morven Park mansion.

Daphne Wood with Green Spring Valley conservation award winners (l-r): Sheila Brown, Ned Halle, Franklin W. Foster, and George P. Mahoney.

8 | COVERTSIDE

BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN PROTECTIVE HEADWEAR MANUFACTURERS WREXHAM

MADE IN

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MILESTONES

The Meet

MFHA directors following the Iroquois hounds and Huntsman Lilla Mason, Lexington, Kentucky, on October 25, 2014.

(L to R) Tony Leahy, Dennis Foster, Jack van Nagell, Sheila Brown, Mary Ewing, Keith Gray, Lilla Mason, Marvin Beeman, Dinwiddie Lampton, Mason Lampton.

Autumn Meet

The MFHA board hunted in Lexington, Kentucky, with the Iroquois. PHOTOS BY DAVID TRAXLER

Huntsman Lilla Mason casts the Iroquois hounds at the hunt attended by MFHA directors, Lexington, Kentucky.

10 | COVERTSIDE

The Meet

Veterinary technician Tyler Robic and Live Oak Charter first bonded during the hound’s hospital stay.

LIVE OAK CHARTER, who escaped the 2014 Virginia Hound Show and remained elusive to capture for three months, has settled beautifully into his new home with Tyler Robic, the veterinary technician who cared for him during his hospital stay. Emaciated and covered in ticks, Charter was admitted to Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates in Purcellville, Virginia, with a broken jaw and severed tongue. It was uncertain how Charter’s jaw was broken, but it was clear that he needed special care to have any chance of recovery. The staff tried many different methods of feeding him: hand fed meatballs, feeding mush through a syringe and feeding him on the floor. Robic took care to establish a trusting relationship with Charter, who had also contracted the tick borne diseases lyme, anaplasmosis, and Ehrlichia during his time abroad. “I learned to approach him slowly, talking quietly while explaining what I was doing,” said Robic. “He is very attentive and intelligent and I feel that he understands a lot of what is going on around him.” After the surgery, with fixator in place in the hound’s jaw, Robic began taking Charter on long walks before and after his shifts, developing a keen understanding of the hound’s personality, likes (streams, the woods and bike paths) and dislikes (bicycles, stroll-

ers, trash cans, and basketballs, to name a few). After the fixator was removed and Charter was declared fit to leave the clinic, Robic was saddened at the thought of losing his good friend. After introducing his other dogs to Charter off leash in a gym and with encouragement from his colleagues, Robic phoned Live Oak MFH Daphne Wood to ask if she would consider allowing him to adopt Charter. Much to his surprise and excitement, Wood agreed to let Robic adopt Charter on the condition that he let Charter sleep in his bed, that he wouldn’t be crated, and that he not be let off the leash until he was trained to the invisible fence system. Even though Charter is now part of the family on a 100acre farm, the ever-vigilant Robic is aware of Charter’s very special needs. “Eating and drinking are a challenge for Charter so I have made special arrangements,” he explained. “He had some broken teeth removed, so I feed him ‘meatballs’ made of dry kibble with mashed sweet potato. He drinks out of a horse bucket by submerging his entire muzzle. “ The pair have become inseparable, hiking mountain trails and local conservation centers, Charter tethered to an extra-long leash that allows him to follow his nose a bit. Charter might be missing teeth, but he still chases tennis balls and plays with squeaker toys.

CYNTHIA DAILY

Live Oak Charter Settles into New Home

Equestrian Style...

from subway to saddle.

Berney Brothers Saddles handmade in Kildare Ireland

SPRING 2015 | 11

MILESTONES

HAMILTON FOX,

ex-MFH Wicomico Hunt Hamilton Fox, ex-MFH Wicomico Hunt (Md.), died November 26, 2013. He was 93 years old. Fox served in the US Navy during WWII, most notably participating in the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Fox practiced law for 50 years in Salisbury, Maryland, was twice elected Wicomico County state’s attorney and served as a Maryland delegate to the 1972 Democratic Convention. He also directed the commission charged with undertaking the desegregation of Wicomico County schools following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education. A lifelong foxhunter, Fox served as Master of Foxhounds for Wicomico Hunt from 1964-2004.

DAVID H. SEMMES,

DEEP RUN HUNT CLUB

LIZ CALLAR

WICOMICO HUNT

DOUGLAS LEES

Gone Away

PETER HITCHEN,

Joint MFH Potomac Hunt Enthusiastic Potomac Hunt (Md.) Joint MFH Peter Hitchen passed away January 12, 2015 from complications related to an injury sustained from a fall while hunting in December 2014. He was 76. A longtime steeplechase owner who served as the treasurer of the Maryland Steeplechase Association, Hitchen was born in England and served in the Royal Army before immigrating to the Washington, D.C. area in 1962. Peter was introduced to foxhunting through the Loudoun Hunt (Va.) while pursuing his undergraduate studies. He whipped-in to New MarketMiddletown Valley Hounds (Md.) before joining Irvin L. “Skip” Crawford as Joint Master of Potomac in 1987.

ex-MFH Old Dominion Hounds

DR. FRANCIS E. MCGEE JR.,

ex-MFH Deep Run Hunt Dr. Francis E. McGee Jr., ex-MFH, Deep Run Hunt (Va.), passed away October 27, 2014. Much of his work in medicine focused on helping those suffering from conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, migraine and seizure. In the 1970s, Frank purchased a Henrico County farm and moved his family out to the country. Restoring the farm was a family adventure and also permitted Frank to pursue his passion for foxhunting; he served as Joint Master of Foxhounds at Deep Run Hunt from 1992 to 2002 and was the club’s president between 1990 and 1992.

POTOMAC HUNT

12 | COVERTSIDE

After graduating from Princeton University, Semmes embarked upon a 41 year career in intellectual property law. He became known for his patent work on “black box” voice and data recorders used in commercial aircraft and the technology used in jockeys’ protective vests. Between 1969 and 1986, Semmes rode in over 100 races as an amateur jockey, and in 2008 was awarded the Francis Thornton Greene Award for his years of volunteer service to the steeplechase racing industry.

RICHARD S. WASHBURN,

MFH Shakerag Hounds Members of Shakerag Hounds (Ga.) lost a dear friend and superb Master when Dick Washburn passed away unexpectedly on December 23, 2014.

CORRECTION: The Winter issue of Covertside incorrectly identified a photo of Hamilton Fox, ex-MFH Wicomico Hunt, as Harry Semmes, ex-MFH Potomac Hunt, pictured at right.

David H. Semmes, longtime MFH of Old Dominion Hounds (Va.) died January 1, 2015 in Flint Hill, Virginia. He was 86 years old.

Dick was a member of Shakerag for almost 40 years, serving as a Master for nearly 12. He was a dedicated hunter and was profoundly devoted to the hounds.

BLACKBERRY ABROAD SEPTEMBER 2015

HIGHER BICKINGCOTT Nestled in the English countryside, Higher Bickingcott is a mid –17th century English country manor that lies in the heart of Exmoor hunt country. Fitted with 6 bedrooms, spacious halls and studies, traditional barns and stables, the manor offers the perfect location for enjoying a unique hunting adventure. Available for exclusive parties year round. Contact reservations@higherbickingcott.com for more information and reservations.

HOSTED BY THE AWARD WINNING BLACKBERRY FARM

Take a 7 Night Equestrian Adventure equipped and guided by local equestrians in the Exmoor area. Eight guests will enjoy gracious in-home dining with local hunt celebrities and will venture out to the finest tea rooms and pubs! Hunting days with Exmoor Foxhounds and the Devon and Somerset Staghounds will be customized to suit the group. Foot followers will be accompanied by local Exmoor sportsman. Accommodations are provided by Higher Bickingcott and a Relais & Chateaux resort. For more information, please contact reservations@blackberryfarm.com.

Holloa

New Market-Middletown Valley Hounds celebrated its 50th opening meet at Windward Farm, home of Katharine Byron, MFH.

KATHY BLANK

He also served the Atlanta Steeplechase as a member of the Board of Stewards and as Director of Racing. Dick cut an imposing figure as a Master. He was the genuine article with no pretense or artifice. His stoic, and sometimes even stern, exterior belied a most patient, kind and generous disposition. He loved encouraging new members and was always willing to explain every nuance of the hunt.

JEAN CARNET

New Market-Middletown Valley Hounds Celebrates 50th Opening Meet ON NOVEMBER 2, 2014, the New-Market Middletown Valley Hounds (Md.) celebrated

their 50th opening meet at Joint MFH Katharine Byron’s Windward Farm in Shepherd-

stown, West Virginia. The New Market Hounds, founded in 1964 by Gilmore Flautt, were merged with Middletown Valley Foxhounds in 1981 to form New Market-Middletown Valley, which hunts country in Maryland and West Virginia. While Mr. Flautt was not in attendance, spectators that day included several people who were at the first opening meet. “My parents hunted with New Market at its start, and now here I am!” said Byron. “We have a responsibility to take our 50 years and grow it forward.” SPRING 2015 | 13

MILESTONES

Holloa

Deep Run Hunt Receives District Conservation Award

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

DEEP RUN HUNT (ManakinSabot, Va.), was recognized by the Masters of Foxhounds Foundation for outstanding dedication to conservation in Virginia. Under the leadership of James E. “Red Dog” Covington, senior MFH, Deep Run has worked on easements in Fluvanna County for years. Mr. Covington personally purchased over 1,100 acres of at-risk properties and put the land in conservation easement. He has worked tirelessly with neighbors, which has resulted in over 3,600 acres of additional easements. Deep Run’s conservation committee works to educate its members and landowners about the importance of land and wildlife resources. The hunt has established a fund to purchase

Led by MFH James Covington, Deep Run Hunt Club’s conservation efforts were recognized by MFHA.

strategic parcels of land and the club will match member giving up to $50,000.

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THE FIXTURE Grand Canyon works diligently to establish and maintain excellent relations with the ranchers and cowboys who share their country.

Hunt, Hunt on the Range

Leave-no-trace hunting is a priority for Grand Canyon Hounds.

n the last issue of Covertside, we turned the lens of our conservation camera around and focused on the Amish as one example of a unique landowner with whom hunt clubs have to interact. This issue, we look west, where much of the land across which foxhunters travel is owned by a public entity and cowboys are still found on the range. In northern Arizona, the grasslands stretch out for miles upon miles. The cowboys still do much the same work as their 1880s counterparts did. It’s a living tradition, aided by modern technology that improves livestock operations and ensures that the land is being used in the best interests of the public. (Most ranches in the state hold grazing leases on public land; private holdings are often limited to little more than a section for ranch headquarters and shipping facilities.) This is Grand Canyon Hounds territory. Every Wednesday and Saturday during hunt season, hounds find and chase smart and elusive coyote across vast acreage

with few roads or fences, and even fewer people. Established ten years ago, the Grand Canyon Hounds initially hunted in the Coconino National Forest, public land dedicated to multiple uses including hunting. Grand Canyon soon discovered better opportunities to account for coyote on the open grasslands of ranch country. Establishing good relationships with the ranchers was then, and is now, a priority for MFH Paul Delaney and his hunt staff. Delaney explains, “The largest ranch we utilize, 750,000 acres or so, is open to all forms of hunting, and so we could technically go there without asking. We asked anyway, and the ranch manager simply told us to be careful and to not leave disturbances. He pointed out that soils on arid lands are very delicate.” So, Grand Canyon quickly learned to minimize their impact. Delaney says that includes “never parking in exactly the same place, never cleaning out trailers at a meet, not allowing off-road car

following and leaving gates as they were found.” Every year, Delaney checks each venue to ensure that there are no tire tracks left from the prior season. Another ranch Grand Canyon hunts is owned by a Native American tribe, and it too is open to all hunters, though signin is required at the headquarters. Delaney comments, “The owners are not involved in the ranching operation, so instead we established a good relationship with the cowboy who operates that part of their ranch. He married into a family of serious lion and bear hunters, so he likes what we do with the hounds.” Delaney says that ranch is particularly arid, and so another important Grand Canyon rule is never park near water, as cattle will then be reluctant to drink. Delaney and his hunt staff are careful to avoid ranch operations and leave cattle undisturbed. He explains, “We learn where they are gathering cattle, when they’re moving them to new pastures, and when they’re holding lots of

BY SUSAN HOFFMAN

cattle in small pastures, which happens when they are branding, sorting or shipping.” The ranch hands we run into are all first-class people,” comments Delaney. “They know we respect them and what they are doing. And, they respect hunting and hunters.” He says a part of one of the ranches is a quarter million acres, with only two gravel roads. “There are only two families and one or two single guys who live out there, so they seem to like it when they run into us,” he remarks. As in all good relationships, Grand Canyon tries to “give back” to thank the cowboys. Delaney says once or twice a year, the hunt will see something the cowboys haven’t, and call in to report it. And, every Christmas, the hunt gives out gift baskets at each of the camps the cowboys call home on the range. Susan Hoffman is a frequent Covertside contributor. She lives and hunts in Pennsylvania and is president of Susan Hoffman Associates, a marketing agency. SPRING 2015 | 15

ASK THE HUNTSMAN

Wind and Time

Toronto and North York Huntsman John Harrison explains why these elements are critical when drawing covert. BY KATY CARTER

Does the size and make-up of a covert affect the hounds’ ability to draw? If so, how? Breeding and handling have a

greater impact on a hound’s ability to draw any particular covert rather than the size and make-up of the covert.

Toronto and North York Hunt Huntsman John Harrison

CATHERINE DAVEY

N SPITE OF BEING bitten by the hunting bug at a young age, John Harrison tried his hand at several “proper jobs” before embarking on a hunt career. He first carried the horn for Toronto and North York Hunt (TNYH) but returned to his native England in 1996. Eighteen years later, he came back to TNYH, located 75 miles north of the bustling city of Toronto, to hunt the 20 ½ couple English foxhounds and 6 ½ couple Crossbreds. Founded in 1843, the pack holds the distinction of being the second oldest continuously run hunt in North America.

Any hound, properly bred, will draw any covert in his country as long as you give him the wind! Wind is vitally important as long as you make use of it. It enables the hounds to get their chosen quarry on its feet quicker, enables the pack to get together quicker and thus apply pressure, which ensures a better hunt.

How do you decide which covert to draw? Wind! In a perfect world, start downwind and draw into the wind; if your available draw is a circular one, hope the wind changes direction in your favor by the time you reach the top of your draw. We may have farming practices and stock moving to take into consideration. If we have to draw downwind all day to facilitate a farmer or landowner, then we have to do it. If I was lucky enough to have a choice of sure finds to choose from at the downwind end of the draw and I had a hard-riding field to cater to, then I would probably choose 16 | COVERTSIDE

the draw with the best line of entertainment for the mounted field.

How do you decide on your next move after hounds check? I have spent a long time hunting hounds, observing hounds and talking to people who are far better qualified than I am to answer this question. I also spent a fair amount of time believing I knew better than the hounds and they made a fool of me almost every time, but no more — because I do nothing. I do nothing even if I get a holloa or message of a view, for what sometimes feels like a lifetime. I like to give hounds time to sort it out themselves and not have their concentration broken. Katy Carter is the associate editor for Covertside and the editor of ecovertside.net. DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR A HUNTSMAN? WRITE KATY@COVERTSIDE.NET

Support Foxhunting Become an MFHA Subscribing Member!

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CoyoTe invasion• Phoenix Rising • foxhunTeRs Take on Mongolia

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YOUNG ENTRY

SUSANNAH WILLIAMS

The Third Generation

It took a special horse for Rex Gentry to follow in his mother’s footsteps. BY KATY CARTER

s part of a foxhunting family, Rex Gentry always liked hunting, but he wasn’t always into it. His grandparents founded the Cloudline Hounds 40 years ago in Celeste, Texas, and his mother, Susan Gentry, serves as Master of Foxhounds and huntsman. As the founder of one of the first packs to hunt coyote, Col. Denny, Rex’s grandfather, is something of a legend in western foxhunting, and although he no longer hunts, he is frequently with hounds at the kennel. A selfproclaimed hound guy, Rex first

Rex’s dedication is evident through his eﬀorts to identify and recruit young people to the sport. became involved with the daily care of the Cloudline hounds. That was until he met a horse named Zoltar who helped teach this young man from Texas tremendous courage and confidence riding first flight. There was a blistering fast and particularly long chase one 18 | COVERTSIDE

day. This was the magical kind of chase where horses and riders are following right behind the pack with the coyote in view, flying over fences from a full-out gallop. It was at the end of this heart-pumping, adrenaline-filled run that Rex found himself alone — the only member of the field still with the hounds— and knew he was hooked, both on hounds and hunting on horseback. Hunting was not only in his blood, but in his heart. Rex’s dedication is evident through his efforts to identify and recruit young people to the sport. As a high school student involved with several team sports, Future Farmers of America, and Boy Scouts, he uses the connections he makes through these organizations as opportunities to speak to people about hunting. “I talk to kids at school, sports events, rodeos, parades, car shows, and (riding) lessons about hunting,” he says. “I even talk to people at the local Sonic [Restaurant]. Our town is small, so kids are usually related to someone who is a landowner. “I like to encourage kids to be involved with the hounds,” Rex says. “Come and bring your horse, or you can lease a

Rex Gentry, the third Cloudline generation, found that the perfect horse (Zoltar) got him hooked on hunting.

horse; then come and do a hunt schooling where you learn hunt etiquette and practice in real hunt country.” Rex wasn’t always this outgoing. His mother says hunting has played a vital role in his personal development. “The interaction with a variety of quality people has completely helped bring him out socially and has made him happy,” Susan says. “My advice to parents

is to be patient and let it come on its own. It can be hard to do as a passionate parent, but it is worth it in the end!” Rex recognizes how hunting has the power to change people’s lives, including his own. “Hunting has made me more responsible. And having responsibility can be fun!” Katy Carter is associate editor for Covertside.

fox

VERSUS coyote Covertside follows two huntsmen on the job to get an inside look at two different quarry.

BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS

AUDIBERT PHOTO

SPRING 2015 | 19

TWO NATIVE SPECIES

It is widely believed that the introduction of the Eurasian red fox to the United States by colonial settlers makes the two animals on either side of the pond identical. But in fact, American red foxes are genetically distinct from their European cousins. Red foxes are native to northern and western parts of North America, thanks to the Bering land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska. In fact, native North American red foxes have been reproductively isolated from their European kin for about 400,000

Shakerag Hounds Huntsman John Eaton’s pack has adapted to hunting a variety of quarry but most commonly they hunt coyote.

20 | COVERTSIDE

KATIE BO WILLIAMS

OMETIME AFTER SEVEN on a drizzly Saturday, not far from Athens, Georgia, Shakerag Huntsman John Eaton frowned. Dapple hadn’t said a word that morning. Don’t ask him how she knows, but when he comes down to the kennels and the hound is screaming, scent will be good and they will have a good day. If he comes down and Dapple is quiet, it’s likely to be tough.

At a few minutes before nine, when Eaton mounted, Dapple still hadn’t had much to say. The pack streamed out onto the green by the kennels and two or three immediately threw their shoulders into the ground, grinding their necks into the red clay beneath. “Don’t bloody roll!” Eaton said, taking that as further evidence that it might be a difficult day to find. The Shakerag clubhouse is adorned with a variety of game that the pack hunts: both red and gray foxes and a diminutive bobcat. But by far and away, the hunt’s most common quarry is the coyote — the tough survivor and scavenger that makes up so much of the sport of American foxhunting. Over the doorway, a sleek black coyote stretches out in perpetual motion. And for U.K.-born Eaton, the game is a natural one: Eaton grew up stag-hunting in southwest England, and calls the red stag “as close to coyote as you can get,” running-wise. This, of course, is where the sport diverges wildly: running. Though riding after hounds is still referred to as “foxhunting,” clubs across the country define themselves by their primary quarry. “Fox or coyote?” “It’s mostly all coyote down there, isn’t it?” “They only hunt fox, don’t they?” And those two animals, most foxhunters will tell you, don’t run the same way.

Eaton has found the use of tracking collars indispensible when entering puppies into his pack.

years, according to a 2014 study from the University of California-Davis. Colonial settlers did import red foxes to the East Coast for the purposes of hunting them, but reds did not become common to the area until around the mid-1800s — and the success of the species wasn’t entirely the colonials’ doing. Early naturalists reported a southern migration of the native northerndwelling foxes, sparked in part by habitant changes created by the arrival of the European settlers. A 2012 Journal of Mammalogy study compared the mitochondrial DNA sequences of foxes from different populations in the United States, and concluded that while the foxes that came over at the behest of colonial hunters may have contributed to the gene pool, most of the ancestry of east-

ern red foxes is based in North America. He of the old Native American mythology, the coyote, is also native to the United States. Before the 1700s, the coyote was mostly confined to the prairies of central North America, and his great migration to the west and to the north and southeast occurred in three distinct waves. The first, from 1880 to 1930, saw the coyotes push west to California. The northern migration, from the early 1900s to 1950, arced through Canada and down into New York. The southern migration, from the 1940s into the present day, came up through Texas and Tennessee as far north as the Piedmont. All of that to say: Both fox and coyote are native to the United States, and both have done their fair share of encroaching

onto new and more fertile territories. Unlike the fox, however, the coyote has done a good deal more interbreeding with outside species. Because of that, unlike the modern fox, the coyote is in some areas actively evolving — and quickly, according to foxhunter and Wildlife Center of Virginia president and founder Ed Clark. While the smaller western coyote is fairly well established, in the east, cross-breeding has created two genetically distinct animals that are rapidly diverging. “From the southern route, there’s been a large contribution of domestic dog genes,” Clark said. “But in the northern tier as they come across the Great Lakes and Canada, the hybridization has been with the gray wolf. You’re getting a much larger animal SPRING 2015 | 21

ficial predation (say, government-sponsored bounties), she can produce as many as twelve pups. RIOT ON A COYOTE

and a much more formidable predator.” The result is a creature that, unlike the fox, has been vilified like perhaps no other sport animal. Even that bastion of coyote hunting in the east, Ben Hardaway, remarked in his memoir that while he has come to love the sport and challenge of hunting coyote, he doubts “we will ever come to love the coyote like we did the red fox.” Few tears have been shed for this much-

maligned animal, perhaps because he is so good at surviving. Despite what Ed Clark calls man’s “all-out war on them since the middle of the 19th century,” coyotes have thrived in the absence of larger predators. Coyotes can adjust the number of pups that they birth depending on the population density. In a territory at biological carrying capacity, a vixen might have two or three cubs a year. If the population is hit by arti-

Some 450 miles to the north of Georgia in Virginia, Keswick huntsman Tony Gammell heard one of his puppies squeal. A view by a whip confirmed what he suspected: riot on a coyote. During cub hunting, Gammell has a couple of oracles that he consults that help him determine whether a puppy is rioting. Their names are Saxon and Ranger. “We’ll be drawing along, and a hound can speak way down along in the wood and they’re just standing there,” Gammell said. “I know to shut it down straight away. The other hounds will run up and investigate and then come back [if it’s a riot]. I’d love to know how they know, but they bloody well know.” This, Gammell says, is what people mean when they say they are able to tell whether the pack is on fox or coyote based on cry. It’s not the cry of an individual hound, but the tenor of the overall pack’s voice: who is speaking and who is conspicuously silent. Keswick has made the decision to treat coyote as riot, something that makes them the outlier today. If Eaton has adapted to the game he has (and a game he loves), Gammell is the purist. He believes that going out with a pack of foxhounds to hunt coyote is a bit like being invited to a basketball game and finding out you’re watching football instead. Armed with the knowledge of where this particular coyote ran, Gammell dismounted and took his pack into an open field to walk them back and forth across the line. The trick, according to Gammell, is not to make hounds gun-shy of coyotes by being too hard on them, but rather to get them to ignore a line as uninteresting.

Keswick Hunt is one of a handful of packs that exclusively hunts the red fox. Huntsman Tony Gammell has developed strategies to discourage hounds from following a coyote line.

22 | COVERTSIDE

AUDIBERT PHOTO

On this particular day, Gammell had seen good sport in a country he generally considers to have a low population of foxes. His pack ran three separate foxes throughout the course of the day, including one that necessitated a hell-bent-for-leather ride by his first whip to stop the pack before they crossed Route 22. That, if you ask Gammell, gives the lie to the idea that a fox won’t give you a fast, far run. “When you’re hunting them, a fox will travel their country, where they feed, their territory,” Gammell said. “So when you have a high population, their territory will be smaller. But if you have a sparser population, their territory is going to be bigger.” And like the coyote, Gammell remarks, you can easily run them out of their territory, especially early in the season. A fox might be making his loop and be turned by a road whip, but because the hounds are right there, he gets turned again and finds himself in unfamiliar territory. “You can always tell when they’ve been

pushed out, because they do silly things,” Gammell said. “You can tell they don’t know where they’re going. A pushed-out fox will start making bends and running into farmyards, because he doesn’t know it’s there.” THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOX AND COYOTE

There are many commonly espoused theories about hunting coyote versus hunting fox, many of which can be explained by common sense. Some claim that coyotes carry a heavier stink, which Ed Clark brushes aside as a function of the relative size of the animal rather than a mistake of nature. Unlike a fox, a coyote can’t take refuge in an old log, making the run itself his first means of defense. As Gammell remarked, where the coyote goes, the hounds can go. This perhaps above all else is the biggest difference between fox and coyote, and like the scent he carries, can be explained by size alone. A large eastern coyote can reach 60 pounds — three times the size of a solid

dog fox, who has the luxury of being able to squirrel himself away in places where hounds can’t follow. Richard Clapham remembered in his “Foxes, Foxhounds and Foxhunting”: “I have known a fox to enter a coal-shed, and another climbed on the window sill of a cottage. Instances are recorded of foxes taking refuge in chimneys, and Lord Willoughby de Broke, in the Badminton Magazine (1923), tells of a fox which ran into a stable yard, climbed on the roof, and ensconced himself among the works of the stable clock.” Coyotes are often accused of running in a straight line, quickly drawing hounds out of territory through which they are permitted to hunt. This is true, Eaton and other huntsmen will tell you, for a visiting coyote. But an established animal — and coyotes have had enough time to become established even in areas in the Southeast where they are relatively new — will run large, arcing circles within his own territory, not dissimilar to a red fox. According to Hardaway, this is what permits the chase of

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coyote at all: “The coyote has homesteaded: he has defined his territory, raises his young, and feeds over a given range,” Hardaway writes. “Now, when he is pursued, he is most likely to stay in the country than to make a bee-line for the next state. During the breeding season, though, in January and February, you still get the visiting coyote, and if the pack gets to running this gentleman caller, you pray that the whips can get the pack stopped before they disappear into the bowels of the earth.” Coyotes are also sometimes denigrated as less intelligent than the red fox, but Eaton will quickly call foul on that. “If you get a coyote that doesn’t want to move, they are just as artful and cunning and full of tricks as a red fox,” Eaton said. He recollected watching a hunted coyote cross back and forth across a road several times to foil his own scent. One of the challenges for huntsmen like Eaton, who hunt both quarry, is to keep hounds accustomed to the fast work

of hunting coyote from over-running a fox line. The solution, according to Eaton, is a pack that includes a couple of slower hounds who will hunt steadily behind the faster lead hounds. Several of the other key differences in managing a pack for coyote versus fox hinge on technology. Eaton relies heavily on road whips and radios, especially in the dense coverts of northern Georgia. And when entering puppies on a game that ranges as widely as the coyote, tracking collars are indispensable. EVOLUTION OF THE SPORT

Eaton’s pack of Penn-Marydels and Crossbreds — Eaton’s ideal litter is three-quarter PennMarydel, one-quarter Crossbred — worked through the woods, sterns aloft and long Penn-Marydel ears fluttering. After hunting fruitlessly through several never-blank coverts, he was pleased to see the sun come out, thinking it might bring a change in the day. It did: Hounds found and chased a

beautiful blonde coyote the color of a golden retriever. Eaton managed to bring back together a split pack, and the day ended in success. As Clapham wrote, “There is really no rule to go by with regard to scent, so all we can do is to trust to luck, and, as an old huntsman friend of mine says, just keep on ‘never minding.’” The same might be said for coyotes and foxes. As the coyote continues to evolve, and packs with it, and as their impact on the fox population continues to influence the jobs of huntsmen like Gammell, the conversation about how best to hunt these two fascinating quarry will continue. Katie Bo Williams is a freelance journalist and editor based in Washington, D.C. A lifetime Virginia foxhunter, her work has been featured in racing publications such as the Saratoga Special and the Midatlantic Thoroughbred. She has also been a contributor to Discover, Nautilus and Twisted South.

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Leave a Legacy of Love. Never before has it been so important for foxhunters to look toward the horizon. By including the MfHa foundation in your will, trust or beneficiary designation, you can pass on your love of foxhunting and conservation to future generations.

I have included the MFHA Foundation in my will, trust, or by beneficiary designation.

Name: Address:

Please send me information about ways to leave a legacy. Phone: I would like to speak to someone about making a gift. Please call me.

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

The Skeptic’s Guide to Supplements

Don’t buy what you don’t need.

trip through the horse supplement aisle at your local tack store will reveal enough health claims to make your head spin. If you believe what’s written on the side of every bottle, you’d think these products could make sunshine come out your horse’s backside. It can’t all be true—or medically necessary. How do you tell the difference?

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Anyone selling an equine supplement can make nearly any outrageous claim and still sell their product legally. Talk to your vet about the sort of supplements, if any, that your horse may need based on his stage of life and activity level. It will make you a more confident shopper. 26 | COVERTSIDE

BY BY STEVEN ALLDAY, DVM

So before you buy, have a good, long conversation with your vet about what your horse’s caloric intake should be daily, based on his age, activity level and muscle mass. Use this as your guide for feed. Have him checked for vitamin or iron deficiencies. KNOW WHAT YOUR HORSE NEEDS DAILY

Active foxhunters deplete two things during their work — the fluid that cushions their joints, through repeated pounding; and their natural potassium and sodium, through sweat. In my personal, professional opinion, there’s not that many “extras” that an active horse needs daily. Admittedly, I’m more than a little biased

here, because I myself founded a supplement company that manufactures LubriSynHA, which is a hyaluronic acid supplement that helps horses replenish the fluid between their joints. I give LubriSynHA to all my horses, every day, regardless of their age or racing status. It prevents them from needing as many injections for pain, actively prevents injury, and keeps horses more flexible. I also believe you should supplement horses with an electrolyte solution — potassium and sodium — daily, to ward off conditions like “tying-up syndrome.” There are plenty of feed supplement companies that advocate giving your horse daily supplements that boost calories and vitamins/minerals beyond daily limits. Calorie supplementation will get you only

it comes to horse care. I believe a horse should have as few performance-enhancing injections as possible, and only take supplements only when they are medically proven, through double-blind studies, to work. You can call me old-fashioned if you want. I just call it good horse sense. This article was written by Dr. Steven C. Allday, DVM, vet to top equine athletes around the globe. He is also an entrepreneur, founding the company that manufactures LubriSynHA, one of the industry’s most widely used natural equine joint supplements, and Re-Borne, a whole, concentrated liquid bovine-colostrum-based feed supplement that helps horses develop lean muscle mass and bounce back quicker from adversity. For more information, visit www.lubrisyn.com or www.re-borne.com.

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Yes, but only under a vet’s direction. For instance, vitamin E, selenium, antioxidants and Morton’s Lite Salt are the prescribed cure for tying-up syndrome, which can cause widespread cramping and paralysis in horses. Horses who are coming back after severe malnutrition or are suffering from a debilitating condition like chronic arthritis can also benefit from supplements made from colostrum, which provides a super punch of much needed vitamins and minerals. My company makes one called Re-Borne, but there are other similar products. Your vet will have other recommendations for combinations of feed and vitamins to help a horse build up its stores again. Follow his advice specifically. Those who’ve read my columns before know that I am a bit of a naturalist when

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THE GLOUCESTER KENNELS were erected on the banks of the Delaware. They housed, at THE CLUB BEGAN

peak, 16 couple. The

MEETING at a coffee

huntsman was a

house at the corner

former slave named

of Front and Market

Natt who used his

Streets in Philadelphia

wages to buy his freedom.

THE HUNT WOULD OFTEN end up at the Death of the Fox Inn, located in Mount Royal, New Jersey.

Washington crossed the Delaware in 1776, but the Gloucester Fox Hunt Club did so ten years earlier. Although based in Philadelphia, the Gloucester club hunted the forests and swamps of southern New Jersey.

BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Modern day traditions mirror those of the first colonial club. BY CHRISTOPHER OAKFORD

S AN AVERAGE STUDENT OF HISTORY – very average, some might say – I had always assumed that the subscription pack – the model on which most of today’s hunts are based – was a 19th century English creation. So, it came as some surprise to learn that, in fact, the first such club for which we have any reliable records was founded in Pennsylvania in the middle of the 18th century. Does this mean that it is time to re-think the history of hunting? On October 29, 1766, twenty-seven local sportsmen assembled in the coffee house at the corner of Front and Market Streets in Philadelphia for the purpose of forming a foxhunt. Each man paid five pounds into the collective purse in order to “provide and keep a kennel of Fox Hounds,” and the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club was born.

WINTER 2014 | 29

THE LIBRARY COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA

BORN OF CUNNING The men who founded the club were mostly merchants and professionals from the city, and the idea for the club, according to W. Milnor’s “Memoirs of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club,” published in 1830, “originated as most of the pleasurable Institutions do, from accidental causes,” when they started to socialize with landowners and farmers from across the Delaware River in Gloucester County, New Jersey. The two groups began their interaction with reciprocal visits and dinner parties. But as Milnor made clear, “Elegant society was then somewhat limited,” and the country gentlemen were unable to match “the sumptuous variety of a city feast and its accompaniments in viands and wine.” So, cunning devils that they were, they decided to sharpen the appetites of their town-dwelling friends before dinner through some wholesome exercise. Or, as Milnor put it, “[they] could do something more exquisite, furnish on [their] own domains … good hounds, horses and a Fox hunt, to beget lively enjoyment before, and a lively appetite at the approaching repast.” The “occasional, unregulated private hunts” carried on for several years before the sportsmen of Philadelphia decided to create a more formal organization, which is why on the last Wednesday in October of 1766, the twenty-seven sportsmen found themselves in the Philadelphia Coffee House. The rules of their new society were simple. There was to be a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and four managers. 30 | COVERTSIDE

Collectively, they were responsible for seeing that “the dogs and the huntsman’s horse are well taken care of, and that the huntsman is attentive in keeping the kennel sweet and clean, and in otherwise attending to his duty.” However, it was the four managers who were, in effect, the prototypical Masters of Foxhounds and who arranged the times and locations of the meets. The annual subscription was four pounds.

The Gloucester Fox Hunting Club provides an excellent example of what hunting was like in both England and America in the latter half of the 18th century. The gentlemen of Philadelphia also added some unique twists to their hunting. Article XIII of the club rules stated: “The sportsman who first touches the fox after the dogs have caught him … shall be entitled to the brush, for which distinguished honor he shall present one dollar to the huntsman. The person taking the brush shall take his seat at dinner on the right of the presiding officer of the day.” On two days a week – Tuesdays and Fridays – between October and April the sportsmen of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club crossed the Delaware “to comb the forests, swamps, and farmlands of southern New Jersey with a pack bred from English foxhounds.” After the first year, the sport was limited to one day a week, which

The club first formed here, at a coffee house in Philidelphia. Many of the club’s early members were prominent early colonists who fought in the war.

Milnor accredited to the club’s guiding principal, voluptates commendat rarior usus, which can be translated as, “Pleasures may be heightened by a sparing use.” Possibly so, but the sportsmen of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club were not normally noted for their abstemiousness, and in most other matters chose not to stint themselves. Lavish dinners were held and the hunts ended with suspicious frequency at the doors of an inn or tavern. And according to Milnor, the Gloucester’s members “rarely sat down to the hunting dinner without the display of a Brush, frequently two or three were trophies of the morning’s chase.” They were also splendidly turned out, having devised a club uniform in 1774 consisting of “a dark brown cloth coatee with lappelled dragoon pockets [sic], white buttons and frocked sleeves, buff waistcoat and breeches, and a black velvet cap.” All of which sounds ridiculously smart when compared to today’s subfusc black Melton.

MILITARY ROOTS Although the club existed from 1766 to 1818, there was an understandable period of enforced inactivity between 1775 and 1780. Traditional wisdom has it that foxhunting provides an excellent preparation for war. In the case of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, that certainly seems to have been true. When the Philadelphia First Cavalry was founded, twenty-two members of the Gloucester enrolled in its ranks. And the club’s sportsmen had a profound effect on the course of American history. Many were close associates of George Washington who, despite their Quaker upbringings, fought in the Revolutionary War. One member, Major Samuel Nicholas, founded the United States Marine Corps (there is a suggestion that the Marines’ uniforms were modeled on the Gloucester Hunt’s livery), and others, such as Captain Samuel Morris and his brother Anthony, fought at Brandywine, Princeton, and Trenton. So, who were the members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, those rude disruptors of the conventional tale of foxhunting’s development? The club’s first huntsman was James Massey, who, as well as being charged with looking after the hounds, had an incentive to catch as many foxes as possible. A club rule stated: “At the death of every Fox, one of the company shall carry about a Cap, to collect what the company may please to give the huntsman.” The first president was Samuel Morris, Jr. In 1769, the members persuaded Morris to allow his slave, Natt, to replace Massey as huntsman. After several years, Natt saved enough from his pay to purchase his freedom, and, thereafter, he was regularly installed as “Knight of the Whip, and became master and commander of all the hounds.” Natt was given a salary of $50 per year, a house, a horse, and an assistant. Natt presided over the club’s kennel, “erected on the banks of the Delaware near the Point,” in which “twenty-two excellent dogs, in good order for hunting” were housed, though at its peak,

the club had sixteen couple of hounds. The club also had ten foxhound puppies that were “put out to be raised at various places.” The Gloucester’s pack’s hound names reflect the times, and contained a “Sweetlips,” a “Slouch,” and a “Toper,” not to forget the ubiquitous “Rover.” Samuel Morris remained as president until his death in 1812. When age and infirmity eventually prevented him from following the chase on horseback, he was driven by his faithful servant, Thompson, in a light carriage to observe the proceedings and, as Milnor explained: “On these joyous occasions, every kind indulgence was extended, every means used to gratify the venerable and much loved chief of the association. The hunting ground was selected where good roads intersected each other, and where the exciting music of the pack, almost constantly saluted the delighted ears of their followers, and where the clearings occasionally afforded the chance of a view.” Morris had also been “Governor of the old Schuylkill Fishing Company,” and, like the Schuylkill Fishing Company, which was founded in 1732, the Gloucester was a mixture of sporting and dining club. In fact, many members belonged Samuel Nicholas was Gloucester member to both institutions. and founder of the US But while the Schuylkill still exMarine Corps. ists — it is known today as State in Schuylkill, and is regarded by many as being the oldest gentlemen’s club in the English-speaking world, though that is contested by London’s Beefsteak Club — the Gloucester was not so lucky. “Deaths, resignations, and mercantile misfortunes” spelled the end for the first modern hunt. Samuel Morris was succeeded by Captain Charles Ross, but when he died at the young age of fortyfour, the victim of “an obstinate dysentery, contracted in China,” the club was disbanded and the “fine pack, bred from the best imported English Fox Hounds … were unkenneled and dispersed.” Thankfully, according to Milnor, “The distribution of the hounds … was judiciously made, chiefly among the sporting farmers of West New Jersey, and those belonging to individuals were returned to their masters.” When Milnor’s memoir was written in 1830, he recorded that the Gloucester’s hounds’ “valuable progeny may be seen roaming at this time in every part of New Jersey.” SPRING 2015 | 31

THE RITUAL REMAINS What does all of this show? For a start, I think, the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club provides an excellent example of what hunting was like in both England and America in the latter half of the 18th century. To quote Professor James Howe, an anthropologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose paper, Fox Hunting as Ritual, provides an excellent and succinct delineation of the evolution of foxhunting, “In the 18th century, fox hunting was more sedate than now, and emphasis fell more heavily on watching hounds follow a scent … the master of hounds and his companions would go out very early in the morning to pick up its scent, which could be quite cold if the fox had passed that way several hours before. Once the fox had been roused, the chase often proceeded slowly, since the fox generally had a full belly, and the hounds of that era scented better than they ran.” This corresponds exactly to the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club’s practice where members would rise before dawn to pursue their sport, crossing the Delaware by ferry and meeting for an early breakfast before starting the hunt. The Gloucester’s culture also illustrates how closely the two countries remained connected up to the outbreak of war. Many members

of the Gloucester were educated partly in England and are believed to have picked up the idea for their own club from watching London professionals and merchants hunting on the outskirts of the city. But to what extent can the gentlemen of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club be credited with creating the subscription pack, and hence the model for the modern hunt club? As is well known, there were organized hunts before 1766. In America, Lord Fairfax provided sport for George Washington in the 1750s, among others. In England, the Pytchley Hunt Club (founded by Earl Spencer in 1750) and the Tarporley Hunt Club (founded in 1762) are often credited with being the first subscribing hunts. But neither Fairfax nor Spencer could have been described as the founders of subscription packs. Fairfax hunted his own land and invited his friends to join him, using the sport as a system of patronage and political favor. Spencer’s club was exclusively aristocratic and barely a name on the list appears without a preceding title of some sort. On the face of it, the Tarporley, essentially contemporaneous with the Gloucester, has a better claim. However, it hunted hare for first few years of its existence. More intriguing are the London merchants’ clubs, on which the members of the Gloucester are supposed to have based their own hunt. Sadly, there are apparently no extant records to draw on regarding them. So, on balance, it does seem fair to say that the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club was the world’s first subscription pack, and that this very average student of history will have to review his assumptions. Mischievously, I would like to add one final caveat. In 1766, the members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club were, technically, still English, and would remain subjects of the Crown for another twenty years. Gloucester, Philadelphia, and the whole settlement in North America belonged to England, too. Of course, my American family and friends might seethe a little at this and mutter something about having one’s cake and eating it. All I can say in response is that in England, we are extremely fond of cake, and that – thankfully – the English can still claim credit for something in this world, no matter how vicariously. Christopher Oakford lives in Lexington, Ky., and is the author of the new book, “The Iroquois Hunt: A Bluegrass Foxhunting Tradition.” covertside_spring13_Layout 1 22/01/2013 20:48 Page 1

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MIDDLEBURG PHOTO

the

MIDLAND CROSSBRED RECIPE A Master shares his secrets to the success of the Midland Crossbred hounds.

BY MASON LAMPTON, MFH

have learned many lessons about breeding and hunting a Crossbred pack. Those nuggets of wisdom were gained from experience, good advice, and stern reprimands. I learned the basics growing up hunting with my grandfatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pack in Kentucky and Tennessee. My graduate degree was earned under the tutelage of Ben Hardaway, Master of the Midland Hounds from its founding in 1950 to today. My greatest reward is to see our Crossbred hounds in full cry traversing all different types of country, from the back of a fit Thoroughbred. I have hunted with Ben since 1970. I became Master in 1989 and took over as Senior Master in the early 1990s after Ben had a severe fall. Since the beginning, the Midland Fox Hounds have enjoyed an amazing reputation for their performance and their quality. I hope this article will give the reader an idea of how we have sustained that level of excellence.

Ken George showing the Midland hounds in the pack class in the 2014 Virginia Hound Show. Inset: Ben Hardaway with July Foxhound Irish â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;64 at Virginia Foxhound Show.

SPRING 2015 | 35

KLM IMAGES

Roxanne ’07 who at 8 years old, is still hunting up in the pack after three litters. She is shown here in Virginia by Robert Miller.

WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A CROSSBRED?

Crossbred hounds can be created from many different types of foxhounds (see sidebar for the MFHA definition). The Walker, Trigg, Bywater, Penn-Marydel and July are well-known American lines frequently found in the Crossbred. The English packs are lumped into English in their studbook as a single entity, but there are many different types as well. They come from Fell, Welsh, Stag, Low Country, Old English, Modern English bloodlines, to name a few. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Some of these lines include French bloodlines such as the Bleu de Gascogne and Poitevin. The idea of crossbreeding is not new: My grandfather, Mason Houghland, used Walker and Old English when I was a little boy. He 36 | COVERTSIDE

had a lovely pack that flew after foxes in Tennessee. When he organized the Hillsboro Hounds he had to make the hard-driving Walker hounds that performed as individuals join the pack. He crossed the Walkers with English to heighten his hounds’ performance as a pack that would work as a group. It did not occur to him to perpetuate a type through the Crossbred get. Therefore he did not achieve that creation of a type that Ben achieved at Midland. Ben broke the barrier and selectively bred hounds for their most useful traits. In this way, he developed the Midland type. The success of the breeding program is evident in the desirability of Midland bloodlines. Most of the packs in America have added Midland lineage as have many of the packs in England. Some packs in Ireland and Australia have Midland bloodlines. I don’t believe that any other hunt can make that claim.

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LESSONS IN HYBRID VIGOR AND TAIL LINES

I first arrived at the Midland kennels on Thanksgiving Day, 1970, to hunt at the invitation of Ben Hardaway. I was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. Henry Hooker, MFH of the Hillsboro Hounds, made the introduction. Though I was only 23, I had hunted all of my life with my father Dinwiddie Lampton and my grandfather Mason Houghland. At 18, I had hunted in Ireland with the renowned Lord Daresbury of the Limerick and Thady Ryan, Master of the Scarteen. I had heard that there was a hard-hunting man in Georgia who had a pack that would catch foxes. I was excited to see the pack and to hunt the country. We had a great day — it was most exciting even by Midland standards as the pack displayed great cry and drive. One Crossbred named Whiskey was outstanding that day. His get has permeated our bloodlines since that hunt. I knew that this pack was at the top of the game. I admit, I was also overwhelmed by Hardaway’s daughter, Mary Lu. We would marry a year later. That was a proper day’s hunting. I learned that Ben Hardaway’s pack evolved from three different types of foxhounds. The Crossbreds in the pack were a mix of July, 38 | COVERTSIDE

Penn-Marydel, and English Fell crosses. Ben chose these lines because he wanted hounds that would hunt without a huntsman’s help, as the forests prohibited him from being with them much of the time. Their cry and his whistle supplanted by his horn were the only connection between Ben and his hounds, yet they hunted as a fine-tuned pack. He believed in hybrid vigor and followed that concept to develop his Crossbreds. The three-way cross that is fundamental to the concept has long been practiced in many fields, including horticulture and ranching. The different lines that were introduced by crossing with a proven Midland line had the refreshing result of the reintroduction of hybrid vigor. The new get melds into the pack without destroying the core. This refreshing of the lines is a fundamental plank in developing a great Crossbred pack. Another key part of the equation is to maintain the tail male lines and tail female lines. That gives you a true continuity for your breeding program. I do not have a scientific reason for the success of this other than my own experience and that of Ben Hardaway’s. If you can maintain the bloodlines, they become the core commonality of the pack, as they share common ancestors and similar instincts.

each line. For Midland, the biddability and good conformation are attributes of the English while the nose and cry of the July are their outstanding attributes. The Penn-Marydel added nose, cry and biddability but needed the drive of the others not to mention the help in conformation. All lines have differing traits that make them superior performers. By melding them, you got the best of all three. THE JULY HOUNDS

The July types were big rangy hounds with the July coarse coats that differ from the Welsh in that they do not develop into a shag. The July will often be dark brown to fawn colored with a light flash of tan just behind his shoulder. This is in contrast to the tricolored hound, all white, spotted, black, or gray. Whiskey ’69 was an outstanding hound that Thanksgiving Day and for many days after. He was the product of Ben’s crosses. At the writing of this article, November 2014, 44 years later, I had the pleasure to walk at least twenty descendants from Whiskey still in our pack. His bloodline through his get has been introduced to England, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. Some of the other hounds hunting that Thanksgiving in 1970 were a mixed lot with some Penn-Marydel, some July, and a touch of English. This was before deer and coyotes had entered the country. The hounds were biddable and hard-hunting. THE ENGLISH HOUNDS

Rocket ’11, shown by Robert Miller and Neil Amatt, is the finest Midland type I have seen. He had a broken tail from a hunt which is a flaw, but he is still magnificent.

At present we have 10 male lines and 12 female lines that go back over 50 years as key lines in Midland. The number of these key lines allows us to have crosses within the pack that would not be too close. It does increase the number of hounds in the pack. As mentioned earlier, we have introduced new bloodlines from time to time to freshen the pack’s performance and remove the danger of inbreeding. There is some sound science that suggests that a dog has such a variety of genes to draw from that puppies from the same litter are barely related. We have all looked at a litter and pondered how they could vary to such a large degree. This genetic diversity allows a breeder to have closer crosses from generation to generation if he wants to develop a type. However, he must avoid the problems of breeding too close. When we have large litters, I will reduce the number to no more than two dogs and two bitches. The rest will be given away to other packs where they often perform brilliantly. We do not draft a hound because he is plain as long as he does his work. We will breed that hound to a better-looking hound as long as both hunt like demons. The effort is to improve the line if they hunt. The goal of any breeding program is to meld the best qualities of

Over the years we have drafted a hound to and from such English packs as College Valley North Northumberland, Taunton Vale Harriers, Cattistock, Meynell, Duke of Beaufort and the Bicester. These packs have been very influential in using Midland blood in England. These hounds are Modern English in their foundation, but vary sharply as to how they developed. In fact, the Modern English hound is an English Crossbred. He is a handsome animal that has been bred to overcome some of the weaknesses that existed in the Old English predecessor. He even has American blood in his genetic makeup, some of which came from the Midland Hounds. Although the Old English hound, as he is called, is still nurtured in some of the best packs in England, his popularity is secondary to the Modern English. Martin Letts, Master of the College Valley North Northumberland since 1964, is a noted English breeder. He incorporated the English Fell hound into his pack. The Fell hounds run over mountainsides with great intensity and have the brains to hunt without the intervention of a huntsman, as he could not stay with them in that country. Martin gave me a hound named Wager when I had just started hunting the Midland Fox Hounds as a gesture of friendship to Ben. Wager was an outstanding cross as he had tremendous drive, an incredible mouth, and lovely biddability. I put him to three Midland bitches with outstanding success. One bitch was a Crossbred that looked more Fell. Her name was Silver. The second one was very July in appearance, named Racy, and the other was a beautiful Midland type named Wicked. Wager put sense in the Fell Crossbred bitch that was great hunting but timid around people. He put biddability in the July without reducing her hunting drive and intensity, and the third bitch, Wicked, threw lovely hard-hitting get that we have bred the most over generations. Wager was very prepotent with all three crosses. And although none of the litters liked the show ring, they would hunt like demons. Their SPRING 2015 | 39

Definitions CROSSBRED:

the breed coefficient assigned

HYBRID VIGOR:

scendant from the founding

The MFHA defines the Cross-

to it is 0, rather than the calcu-

Animal or plant produced by

father or mother, e.g. mother,

bred thus: When determining

lated coefficient).

crossing two different breeds

daughter, granddaughter,

Breed coefficient from

and then crossing their get to

great granddaughter and so

whether or not a hound is

8-93 is considered Crossbred.

a third breed. We now consid-

on to the female bottom line

culate the breed coefficient by

Breed coefficient from

er the Midland hound a breed

of a pedigree in the same

adding together the breed co-

94-100 is considered English

and outcross it on English and

bloodline. The same applies to

efficients of the sire and dam

(since the hound is consid-

July breeds.

the top line of a male pedi-

and dividing by two. Breed

ered English, the breed coef-

coefficient from 1-7 is con-

ficient assigned to it is 100,

TAIL LINE:

grandson, great grandson,

sidered American (since the

rather than the calculated

The tail line is defined as a

and so on.

hound is considered American,

coefficient).

direct male or female de-

Crossbred you must first cal-

grandchildren were out on the same walk today as Whiskey’s descendants, happily trying to rob biscuits out of my pocket. They are superb hunting machines. The Modern English hound, a Crossbred of English lines, is magnificent, but many would suggest that he does not have the scenting capability or the cry that the July or Penn-Marydel possesses. I am sure that this statement will cause me bodily harm but I do believe it. The Modern English type does have great drive, stamina, and biddability. The good smart ones will drop behind a Crossbred until scent improves and then power ahead with incredible drive. These strengths steady the American hound, which is more independent but has great scenting and cry. By merging these strengths you get a high performance hound that wants to run hard and sing his song with every stride. MAKING THE MATCH

We have introduced new crosses of July blood to keep the great scenting and cry in the pack. Ben brought in a bitch, Calico Blondie ’95, from Wisconsin. She was not much to look at — she was small and weedy. She needed a stud with scope to add structure to her frame. We had a lovely hound named Stinger ’94 who was out of Secret ’91. Secret was the greatest hound I ever hunted. Stinger, like his mother, was magnificent, with 49 percent July bloodlines. He was a true Midland Crossbred with the English blood to include a line back to Taunton Vale Harriers. The Stinger and Blondie cross gave us a puppy I named July ’00. He was a great star and character with 75 percent July blood. This provided a whole new bloodline to freshen our July lines. Walking out hounds today, I can see many outstanding sons and daughters that went back to July and Secret. We began to lose the Penn-Marydel outcross over time, but Russell Jones, MFH, of the Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Pennsylvania, offered me a greatgrandson of Warrior, a descendant of Whiskey ’69, whom I had given to Jack McDonald, MFH of the London Hunt. This puppy had many lines, including Walker, English, Midland, and Penn-Marydel. As the sire was pure Penn-Marydel, I named the puppy Penn. He sired a great litter for me on a daughter of Import, a magnificent Midland Crossbred. As we attempt to maintain the concept of the three-way cross, we 40 | COVERTSIDE

gree reflecting the father, son,

have adopted the core Midland bloodlines as the dominant line to be freshened by the July, Fell, Harrier, and Modern English. There is a pinch of other lines to spice up the mix, including Lurchers, Poitevin, and Grand Bleu de Gascogne. All this comes together to create the Midland foxhound. A CONSISTENT PROGRAM

Since 1950, only two men have managed our breeding program. We have always had a focus on families, hybrid vigor and performance. Not all of my crosses work nor are all the litters beautiful. Some of the homeliest pups are incredible hunting hounds. Friends in neighboring packs will take some hounds and give us pups that may have our bloodlines. These packs may have preferences that differ from ours and have new bloodlines that are already mixed with our own. The Crossbred can be tilted to be more English or more American depending on the leaning of the breeder. A method of measuring the Crossbred is the percent of English blood as revealed in the MFHA Stud Book. We hover around a breed coefficient of 50 percent English as opposed to others, such as Live Oak that hover around 90 percent. Fox River Valley, Hillsboro and Mooreland each have their own secret sauce that is different from Midland but nonetheless they all are Crossbred packs. The look of the pack varies with the crosses. Some hounds will have rough Welsh coats, some July rough coats, some white smooth coats, and some will be blue ticked. The more American their percentage, the softer in nature they can be — though this can also apply to some English lines as well. Some foxhunters desire a balanced pack with one color and type. This fashion is represented by wonderful packs but that reduces their ability to implement hybrid vigor techniques. You must always be willing to introduce a new line. Sometimes a great line might have an individual that is not up to its heritage. This hound can be bred through one cross to a strong performer and the line revived. My patience will not allow the lack of performance to linger any longer than the second generation. I have been asked if the strength of a Crossbred line dies out after several generations. I can say without doubt that good lines are prepotent generation after generation. We have many families that prove my theory. I have only to go back to a bitch named Kate ’95. Her get has

MASON H. LAMPTON

This is the son of Rocket, Striker, unentered. He is as well named as he is striking. All of these hounds with the exception of Striker, who is unentered, hunt with incredible drive and cry and yet they have all won in the show ring. Rocket bellows out in a booming voice when he strikes a line. The pack flies to him, as they know he is right.

dominated our pack not only in the show ring but also in the field. Her get is now on its fifth generation and each generation has been spectacular. Whiskey, Wager, and July are all long dead and yet their contribution to great sport continues to this day. WHICH TO BREED?

The hounds you choose to breed must have intelligence, scenting ability, running gear, cry, and a fondness for the huntsman. Crazy behavior is intolerable. If you cannot catch the hound, you cannot hunt him where you want. Crooked legs donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hold up, nor do bad feet. Hare feet versus English feet are both good but splayed feet are an invitation for trouble. Short stuffy hounds that perform miracles in the field need a lover that is tall, lanky, and equally talented in his work. This cross will improve both of them. Not all crosses work nor do all the puppies in the litter meet your criteria. That being said, I have given away many a puppy that became a star. I gave Tony Leahy, MFH of Fox River Valley, a dog named Kestral that he bred successfully to a Modern English type that produced Kentucky who has been a great sire used by many. His cross expanded the horizon of the Midland base. Cry plays a huge part in our hunting, as we are in many large and thick forests that obscure the sight of the pack. The hounds I have named in this article had huge bawling mouths that would make you ride hard to follow them as they raced along. Acoustically, cry is always lessened in open country but it still is such a joy as it is an added dimension to hear hounds in full chorus. The Crossbred pack gives all hunt followers, be they walking, riding a bike, or mounted on a lovely horse, the thrill of a heart-pounding

race and the joy of great music. Crossbred hounds range in behavior from unsteady to brilliant. They must be socialized as puppies to get them acclimated to people. They must know their names as that is the first step in breaking them to the pack as well as keeping them from running riot. When you call their name they should stop and return to you. With that success, the battle to break them is at least half won. You must know what you like and breed the hounds to meet that profile. I love beautiful racy hounds that are well balanced while standing over a lot of ground. They must appear to be solid on all four corners with lovely necks and strong backs. They must have brains enough to discern what is riot and what is fair game. As they trot home from a ten-mile tear after a coyote, their sterns need to be up and their gaze at the huntsman must ask why are we going home. My discussion of the Crossbred hound is focused on the one Crossbred pack with which I am most familiar as opposed to a broad overview. I will leave you with one thought: You must breed your pack to your specifications. Ben Hardaway bred the pack to his demands (fig. 5) and I have followed suit over the last twenty years with very much the same design. Our hounds as a pack must hunt coyotes, foxes, and bobcats for the joy of the race. Their exertion requires nose, speed, drive, and cry. Mason Lampton was born in 1947 in Louisville, Kentucky to a foxhunting family. While serving in the army, he met his wife Mary Lu Hardaway and has enjoyed great foxhunting with his father-inlaw, Ben Hardaway. He is a past president of MFHA and has been a Master of the Midland Foxhounds since 1989. SPRING 2015 | 41

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42 | COVERTSIDE

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2015 HOUND SHOW SCHEDULE

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CANADIAN HOUND SHOW Ottawa Valley Hunt Kennels Saturday, June 6, 2015 Contact: Wendy Somerville w.somerville@rocketmail.com www.canadianfoxhoundshow.ca (905) 765-1221 (p) (905) 765-2323 (f)

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SPRING 2015 | 43

HOUNDS & HORSES Natural horsemanship trainer Roddy Strang uses a flag as pressure. When the horse is quiet, Strang releases that pressure as a reward.

respond to the herd leader’s commands, and even though you’re holding the reins, your horse may not agree that you’re the boss. What happens when you put up with these behaviors? At best, you ride around the problem (versus solving it) and you both survive to hunt another day. At worst, you, your horse or other horses, hounds and riders get hurt.

E.A.JACKSON/TWIN ARROWS PHOTOGRAPHY

EXPLAINING THE METHODOLOGY

Natural Horsemanship and the Hunt Horse

It’s not just for cowboys.

he phrase “natural horsemanship” elicits a strong reaction from some people. At one end of the spectrum, devotees endorse this training method as the most humane and effective way to create a confident and willing equine partner. At the other end, doubters criticize it as mere horse tricks and rope halters marketed as a profitable pyramid scheme. Much of the bad buzz comes from media

44 | COVERTSIDE

BY SUSAN HOFFMAN

coverage (some of which is inaccurate), marketing overload (caveat emptor) and box office publicity (both good and bad movies). Others are honestly confused about what natural horsemanship is, or how training in a round pen could possibly relate to foxhunting. In this Covertside article, we’ll describe natural horsemanship methodology and how it can help you train a safer, more obedient and reliable equine partner.

MY HORSE IS GREAT EXCEPT ...

“She’ll run with the field, but can’t be ridden away from her buddies. ... He won’t ride past cows. ... She’ll spook if she sees a flapping raincoat. ... If we check for too long, I’m gonna get bucked off.” Sound familiar? Your horse is not being bad; he or she is only behaving naturally. Equines are prey animals hardwired for self-preservation; it is better to run first and ask questions later! Plus, horses

Yes, we do ask a lot of a hunt horse, and what he encounters during a typical day’s hunt could easily blow his mind. That’s why natural horsemanship is “a natural” for foxhunting. By using your horse’s instinctual body language — the application and release of pressure — versus traditional punishment and coercion training methods, you build a more solid foundation that fosters his cooperation and trust. The process creates a horse with more confidence in himself and in you — a partner who more readily responds to what you ask of him. It’s as simple and as complicated as that. Covertside asked sought-after natural horsemanship trainer Roddy Strang to explain this in more detail. Strang grew up on a cattle ranch in Kansas, where he first learned to ride bareback. After graduating from college, his professional equestrian career took him from the polo fields of England and New Zealand to his Leap of Faith training facility in Kirkwood, Pennsylvania. Although most comfortable in blue jeans and

Integrity. Craftsmanship.

a cowboy hat, Roddy dons breeches and field boots each week during hunt season as a whipper-in for his local hunt club. Who better than Strang to explain how a training method made famous by American cowboys applies to the traditional English sport of foxhunting? Strang says natural horsemanship is all about basic communication. “The methodology creates a foundation in which the horse learns to think about ‘Where is the open door?’ It’s where the rider releases pressure.” He walks us through a typical training session. “In one of the first round pen exercises, the horse is at liberty and the human approaches him with a plastic bag attached to the end of a pole. That’s the pressure. The horse’s first reaction when the bag touches his body is to run away or kick at it, especially when the bag touches his back legs, flanks or throatlatch area. The horse isn’t being bad, he’s just trying to survive and the bag is behaving like a predator. The human touches the horse with the bag again and again. This takes patience and nonthreatening body language. The human is not hurting the horse, just asking him to think. At some point, the horse may accept the bag, even for a nanosecond, and he is rewarded by the human taking the bag away. That’s the release of pressure. We reward the horse for every ‘try,’ every acceptance of the bag. Eventually the horse accepts the bag anywhere on his body without startling or kicking.” Strang says this is the critical difference between natural horsemanship and other training methods. “We didn’t make

the horse stand quietly using punishment or by turning the session into a test of wills. We let him think about it, and he figured out he was rewarded for being quiet.” Typically, the sessions progress from bags to flags to tarps and other successively challenging objects underfoot and overhead. It’s impossible to train a horse to accept every possible scary object. Rather, the methodology itself encourages the horse to think, prepares him to learn, and gives him the tools to do so, just like kids in kindergarten playing with building blocks. THE HUNT HORSE EVERYONE WANTS

The round pen gives both human and horse a safe, contained place in which to work. Groundwork is followed by work under saddle, and as the horse progresses in its training, the sessions move outside of the round pen to the barnyard and, eventually, to the surrounding countryside. How, you may well ask, does any of this apply to foxhunting? After all, you’re probably not going to find an oversized yoga mat on a tractor path or a tire swinging directly over your head in the pines. Actually, you may encounter both of these, but for the sake of this article, let’s say you won’t. Again, Strang explains, “This type of training prepares your horse for his job by showing him where the open door is; the place where pressure is released. His ‘open door’ may be walking over the bridge, or leaving the group, or riding independently from the

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E.A. JACKSON/TWIN ARROWS PHOTOGRAPHY

because of us.” He, in turn, mentored Joe Wolter and Brian Neubert, who still conduct clinics nationwide. In the 1990s, the general public was introduced to natural horsemanship through Nicholas Evans’ novel, “The Horse Whisperer,” which was adapted for the movie of the same name starring Robert Redford. Monty Roberts’ book, “The Man Who Listens to Horses,” was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 58 weeks and has sold more than five million copies worldwide. Today, the natural horsemanship baton is carried by names more familiar to Generation X, like Dan “Buck” Brannaman, John Lyons and Pat Parelli. FINDING YOUR EXPERT

Working in a round pen, Strang demonstrates the application and release of pressure on a horse through the use of a plastic bag at the end of a pole.

field, or being patient at checks, or not kicking at the hound on his heels.” Every horse learns at a different pace, but whether it takes thirty days or three months, and no matter what the exercise, the reward is always the same: the release of pressure. It takes some skill to recognize and reward the “try,” which may start out with something as small as a relaxed ear. But eventually, and with persistent, repetitive training, the result will be a horse whose entire demeanor says, “Okay, partner, you trust me and I trust you, so let’s do this together.” You’ll be riding a more responsive horse that not only makes your hunt day more enjoyable, it makes everyone’s 46 | COVERTSIDE

day more fun because you’re the horse/rider duo everyone can count on to behave in the field or to work in a staff position. WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Some critics claim this methodology is nothing new, and in this case they’re absolutely correct. The training philosophy dates back to ancient Greece. Xenophon (c. 430 – 354 BC) emphasized operant conditioning and reassurance over punishment. Classical dressage trainers in the 1600s also advocated gentle training methods, using body language to more effectively communicate with horses. The modern-day, U.S. natural horsemanship movement

owes much of its popularity to contemporary cowboys from the western and northwestern states. They recognized the merits of working with the horse’s nature versus the more conventional and confrontational “show ’em who’s boss” method. The avowed leaders of this movement were brothers Tom and Bill Dorrance. They rocketed from relative obscurity to star status after the New York Times dubbed Tom the “patron saint of horses.” The Dorrances were a major influence on the legendary Ray Hunt, who was quoted as saying, “The human is so busy working on the horse that he doesn’t allow the horse to learn. The horse usually gets the job done in spite of us, not

If you’d like to find a natural horsemanship trainer for your young or green horse, or even for your older or problem horse, ask other equine professionals you respect for a recommendation. Unfortunately, there is no universally recognized certification for natural horsemanship trainers, so ask your barn manager, riding instructor or veterinarian about trainers skilled in this discipline. You can also go online and look for clinicians coming to your area. Many skills can be learned by watching videos on websites and DVDs. Your goal should be to understand how and when to apply and release pressure using a variety of successive exercises. It’s a methodology that may totally transform the way you communicate with and train your horse, but it’s only natural. Susan Hoffman is a freelance writer and frequent Covertside contributor.

LIBRARY

LEIGH DORAN

Author and foxhunter Barclay Rives tells an engaging and amusing tale in his latest book, “See You at Second Horses”.

American Moxie

In his latest book, author Barclay Rives reflects on hunting abroad. REVIEW BY KATY CARTER

n his native Virginia, Barclay Rives has been known to hunt with Keswick in the morning and serve as an honorary whipper-in to Bull Run in the afternoon, so the fact that he hunted with nine packs in ten days during a trip across the pond is not out of character. Rives has written for In and Around Horse Country and Virginia Horseman and he is the author of “William Cabell Rives: A Country to Serve,” “The 100 Year History of the Keswick Hunt Club,” and “A History of Grace Church.” In his recent work, “See You at Second Horses,” Rives channels his extensive background and writing experience to deliver

an enchanting and entertaining chronicle of his adventures hunting in the pre-ban United Kingdom in 1999 and then four years later in Ireland. “The Americans” (Rives and his intrepid traveling companions, Grosvenor and Rosemarie Merle-Smith, Masters of the Tennessee Valley Hunt in Walland, Tennessee) hunted with packs dating to the 1700s, including the Quorn, Cottesmore, and the Fernie, adding a day on foot with the High Peak Harriers for good measure. When they jumped enormous hedges at high speed, Rives took care to heed the advice of a friend who demonstrated the correct technique by crouching down with his hands

and arms extended into an imaginary mane. “Put your hands up here and smell the pot roast,” he said. Rives learned just what makes a good hunt horse. He also learned what does not make a good hunt horse. He made tremendous saves. He fell off. He followed hounds through stunning countryside landscapes and storybook villages and hacked back to the meet under the light of the moon. He swapped stories with the locals and even learned the origins of the expression “paint the town red.” Rives’ account of his Irish undertaking is just as splendid to read as the account of his trip to the United Kingdom, only slightly more interesting because he survived. “Grosvenor said… that no matter how exciting it got in England, we always thought we would come out alive,” he writes. Armed with his Uncle George’s whip and his father’s St. Christopher money clip for luck, Rives leaped over ditches, up and down banks, over wire of every type, and plowed through mud and wind and rain. His boots filled with water after a swim in a stream, but he managed to keep all of his teeth and the bloody lip healed just fine. “See you at Second Horses” will leave some readers feeling inspired to conduct their own overseas exploits, feeling wholly exhausted, sore, and

SEE YOU AT SECOND HORSES

By Barclay Rives Atelerix Press, 288 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003 184 pp., $25.00, paperback

Also by Barclay Rives:

WILLIAM CABELL RIVES: A COUNTRY TO SERVE Atelerix Press, 288 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003 384 pp.

gratified, yearning only for a hot shower, a roaring fireplace, and a whiskey. Katy Carter is the associate editor for Covertside and the editor for ecovertside.net. SPRING 2015 | 47

FARE & FLASK

MICHAEL STERN

from BULL RUN HUNT, Rapidan, VA

Landowner Mary McConnell’s Summer Duck Wood is 1500 acres of wildlife and gardens, and much of the breakfast fixings came from produce and meats harvested on the property.

TASTE OF THE SEASON BY MICHAEL STERN

“W

hat are we going to do today?” called out Master Mike Long — the question that heralds every one of Bull Run’s thrice-weekly hunts into the Virginia Piedmont. Under a brilliant blue November sky, assembled riders called back in unison: “Have fun!” And off they went. Wind whipped over pastures, autumn leaves swirled afoot, and red fox eluded hounds in full cry. It was a morning sure to rouse appetite — a good thing, because returning hunters were greeted with an awe-inspiring buffet of Old Dominion fare. The host was landowner Mary McConnell, whose resi-

Summer Duck Wood is home to a herd of rare Choctaw and Cherokee horses, some of whom also hunt.

Michael Stern has co-authored over forty books about American food and popular culture. He created roadfood.com and is heard weekly on Public Radio’s “The Splendid Table”.

MICHAEL STERN

48 | COVERTSIDE

dence, Summer Duck Wood, is 1500 acres of wildlife and gardens. It also is home to a prepotent pack of American setters and a herd of rare Choctaw and Cherokee horses, some of which were ridden in the day’s hunt. “They have huge hearts; they go forever,” Mary exulted. “They have a strong human affiliation. They are what horses are supposed to be.” In concert with chef and cultural anthropologist Sarah Womack and former Bull Run Hunt President Adrianna Waddy (herself a legendary party-giver),

Mary was pleased to offer her place as a fixture. “This property is meant to be shared,” she said, adding that breakfast was an opportunity to celebrate rare breeds championed by the Livestock Conservancy Board of which she is a member. Ossabaw Island hogs, descended from feral pigs released by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, yield what Mary unequivocally describes as “the best ham I have ever eaten.” Chef Sarah cooked it wrapped in hay. “You mean like horses eat!?” a junior club member gleefully exclaimed. Not quite. Botanical Timothy, laced with herbs, gives the ham a grassy note. Summer Duck Wood china also bore succotash with hominy, heirloom

squash salad, oyster Madeleine casserole, rabbit and wild mushroom pies, persimmon and black walnut pudding, and heirloom apple crisp. Biscuits were offered with condiments that Sarah makes from fruits she picks and puts up throughout the year: rosemary pickled cherries, spiced crabapples, blackberry-apricot preserves, double-grape jam, and jam made from greengage plums and Tupelo honey. To wed biscuits and preserves, Sarah churned cultured butter using cream from Jersey cattle. “Why churn your own?” someone asked. She replied with a question that has but one correct answer: “Do you want butter that is intensely buttery?” Because the theme of the meal was “The Spirit of the Hunt,” honoring the season and the place, an especially noteworthy dish was venison sausage made from deer taken on the property. It was succulent and sweet, singing of autumn in the country — a recipe, Sarah suggests, that is a natural for all who love to hunt.

the recipe

VENISON COUNTRY SAUSAGE Side this with small roasted potatoes, biscuits, buckwheat pancakes, or any other rustic starch. “It would also be great with colcannon or bubble & squeak,” Sarah adds. Her recipe makes about two pounds. Note that the sausage mix should be refrigerated at least overnight before cooking.

IN A LARGE MIXING BOWL, COMBINE:

• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

• 1 pound chilled ground venison

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon maple syrup

• 1 pound chilled ground heritage pork

• 1/4 cup cold water

• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt • 2 teaspoons ground black pepper (Sarah uses Kampot pepper that she brings back from Cambodia. “It has a lovely floral flavor and is less hot than Tellicherry.”) • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped almost to a powder, or 1 teaspoon dried • 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram chopped almost to a powder, or 1/2 teaspoon dried • 1 teaspoon fresh savory chopped almost to a powder, or 1/2 teaspoon dried MICHAEL STERN

Chef Sarah’s fresh venison sausage and biscuits.

• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger • Tiny pinch of ground clove • Few gratings nutmeg

Mix all ingredients except the water by hand until they are well blended. Add the water and mix again. Take a walnut-sized bit and fry it gently in a skillet to taste for seasoning, then adjust to taste if necessary. Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly to the surface of the mixture and refrigerate overnight or up to two days to let the flavor develop. To cook, heat a dry skillet over medium-low heat and pinch off walnut-sized balls of the sausage mixture. Gently pat them flat (this is preferable to flattening them with a spatula, as less juiciness is lost) and fry as many patties as can loosely fit in your skillet until lightly brown and crisp on the outside. Serve hot.

SPRING 2015 | 49

THE FIND

INGLESA LEATHER BELT PRICE: $64.95

LILO Collections introduces fresh new colors for spring and summer in its popular “Inglesa” leather belt and signature spur buckle design. Made in Spain from supple Spanish vaqueta leather, this classic belt offers a pop of color to your breeches or jeans. The vibrant colors shown are tomato, tangerine, sky blue and pink but this lovely belt is also available in black, chocolate, ivory, tan and grey. Find them at Franklin Horse Supply: www.franklinhorse.com

KNIX WEAR PRICE: $20-$30

Finally, performance underwear designed with the female rider’s needs in mind! Each pair — bikini, boy-short or thong — is made with moisture wicking fabric, built-in quick-dry anti-microbial technology, and a seamless, bonded finish that keeps them in place as you move in and out of the saddle. Ride in ultimate comfort and with no panty lines! Find them at Franklin Horse Supply www.franklinhorse.com

50 | COVERTSIDE

PAK-A-ROO DUSTER PRICE: $131.99

Lightweight and warm! Yes, that’s what you get with the Outback Pak-a-Roo wind-proof, waterproof and breathable duster. This versatile black duster also features a drawstring waistband, a hood large enough for a riding helmet, zipper pockets, and it can pack up into its own compartment. A must-have for every foxhunter! Find it at: Tri-County Feed, Finds, Etc., Horse Country, or visit www.outbacktrading.com/finda retailer/ for the location nearest you.

Huntsman Required Competitive Salary with Housing

CONTACT:

Position Available May 1, 2015

Alastair Strachan, MFH Astrachan@trebnet.com

EGLINTON AND CALEDON HUNT

16966 McLaughlin Rd, Caledon, Ontario, Canada L7K 1T4 416-346-9500 • www.eglintoncaledonhunt.com

Unique Handmade Heirloom Quality Jewelry

www.shinybycharlotte.com

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GUMLEAF WELLINGTON BOOTS PRICE: $205

These European, handmade from natural rubber, “wellies” have non-slip, deep tread soles and will make you want to jump in every puddle you pass. They are designed with extra cushioning and are a pleasure for children and adults to wear all day, every day. Choose from several colors and styles, to include the best-selling Gumleaf Viking, with wider calves to accommodate both boot socks and tucked jeans! Find them at Butler Outdoor Gear www.ButlerOG.com SPRING 2015 | 51

LAST RUN OF THE DAY Photograph by Lynn McGugan Photography

Leash Law The photo was taken at the start of the meet of the Moore County Hounds on January 24 at Weymouth - the original home of novelist James Boyd. When he came from Pennsylvania, he brought a pack of hounds which became Moore County Hounds in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The pack is celebrating its 100th birthday and the home is now a cultural center. —LYNN MCGUGAN

EDITOR’S NOTE: Do you have a photo, story or essay to share with Covertside? Send high-resolution, 300 dpi photographs or essays to editor@covertside.net, or snail mail to Covertside, 2329 Lakeview Rd. SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105 52 | COVERTSIDE

THE CLOSEST EQUESTRIAN COMMUNITY TO DOWNTOWN AIKEN

Rolling hills and scenic trails make up the varied terrain at Tod’s Hill – a new equestrian haven just six miles from downtown Aiken. With its proximity to the lures of Laurens Street, it’s the first equestrian community in Aiken that offers the land you desire, without ending up living in your car.

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115 NORTH 21ST STREET PURCELLVILLE VA | 10 E. WASHINGTON STREET MIDDLEBURG, VA