High Powered Equestrians
Joy Crompton (’78), Joint MFH, Farmington Hunt, loaned 34 | Covertside
Collection of Katrina Becker, Class of 1948
“Leaping Fox and Quail,” a bronze by the late Eve Prime Fout, to the Foxcroft exhibition. A founding member of the AAEA, Fout turned to sculpting when glaucoma interfered with her painting. An accomplished rider and trainer, she was also a force to be reckoned with in terms of land conservation and worked indefatigably for 20 years with the Piedmont Environmental Council to ensure that future generations of enthusiasts would have open land for foxhunting and pony club. “Mom was a fierce protector of the countryside and a firm believer in young people and educating them to appreciate what we have in Middleburg and the surrounding areas,” says Virginia Fout. “Doug, Nina and I grew up on the back of a horse and foxhunting was something we did. It was part of our makeup. Now, being older and having a child of my own, I realize just how fortunate we were to have this in our lives.” Fout’s daughter, Nina (’77), U.S. eventing team medalist at the 2000 Olympics, said, “I had a choice of going where I wanted, but my mother was pretty set on Foxcroft and really hoped that I would go there. My mother always wanted to go to Foxcroft, but Miss Charlotte would not allow her. She said, because my mother was so horsey, that she was afraid my mother would graduate with a mane and a tail!” Nina fulfilled her mother’s Foxcroft yearning and immersed herself in team sports — field hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis — as well as riding horses at home and at school. “We had fantastic instructors, fantastic seasoned school horses, and wonderful working staff — really great horsemen. The riding program was wellrounded, not just foxhunting, but also eventing and showing. We even did a volunteer
The National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Va., celebrates Foxcroft’s Centennial with the exhibition “The Art of Women and the Sporting Life” until August 24. For information: www.nsl.org For more information about Foxcroft, please visit: www.foxcroft.org
Private Collection
when she could no longer ride to hounds. Hannum served from 1945 until 2003 as Master of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds and worked tirelessly for land conservation in southeast Pennsylvania. “I was definitely a Fox, like my mother Nancy Hannum,” said Carol Hannum Davidson (’64). “They keep the team in the family — you are very loyal to your Fox or Hound team in the intramural competition. Foxcroft was very competitive and we always wanted to do our personal best. “Foxhunting was very much a part of my life and it still is,” says Davidson. “It’s the only non-competitive sport in the world — it’s all about the fox, hounds, horses and country — a neighborly and community endeavor. I care very much about foxhunting and land conservation. My life has been all about foxhunting, but I stepped back quite a bit at the end of my mother’s time as Master. Why it didn’t kill her to step down I don’t know, but she was quite a lady and had that Foxcroft spirit behind her. “I grew up in my mother’s shadow — she was a very strong person,” she adds. “I remember one particular piece of property she was trying to save. She wrote a rather harsh letter to this man, and I said, ‘Mother, you catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar.’ I went and talked to the man. Then, my mother wrote him another letter and said, ‘rather than be a heel, why don’t you be a hero and put this land under easement?’ — and he did. I don’t have any titles with the hunt, but I nudge a lot. The hunt is a very strong factor in land conservation — that’s really important. We have to save the land or there ain’t going to be no more of it no more!”
Going Well, 1987, Heather St. Clair Davis, artist.