Lady Masters Panel Draws a Crowd at the National Sporting Library and Museum

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Katy Carter

It was standing room only on Saturday, May 23, 2015 as the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, VA hosted The Dynamic Role of Lady Masters: A Foxhunting Roundtable. The lack of available seats was a testament to the interest in, and support of, women’s roles in North American foxhunting, as women vastly outnumber men in the modern hunt field. Yet, while the population of women Masters of Foxhounds has grown steadily over the last thirty years, the number of women Masters is decidedly not in proportion to the number of women foxhunters.

Co-chaired by Vivienne Warren of Orange County Hounds (VA) and Penny Denegre, MFH Middleburg Hunt (VA), the panel featured Masters Daphne Wood (Live Oak Hounds, FL), Joyce Fendley (Casanova Hunt, VA), Denegre, Marion Thorne (Genesee Valley Hunt, NY), and Lynn Lloyd (Red Rocks Hounds, NV) and was moderated by former MFHA President and current MFH of the London Hunt (Ontario), Dr. John McDonald.

Ragtime B&B Caters to Hunt Country Travelers

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Leslie Threlkeld

Pat Pierce never had any intentions to run a bed and breakfast or to raise a herd of sheep. Yet every day, she saddles up her horse and leads the sheep out to graze. She logs trees and cuts wood for the furnace to heat the house and the wood stove to cook. She also tends to her guests, who range from musicians and artists to foxhunters and their horses.

The Ragtime Bed, Barn and Breakfast sits on 160 acres in the heart of Camargo Hunt country in Northern Kentucky. Being far from the road, it is peaceful and quiet. Green rolling hills dotted with grazing sheep and horses make up the spectacular views through large glass windows.

Field Hunter Championships Crown a Great Week in Virginia Hunt Country

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Marcia Brody

Liz Callar photoThe 2014 Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championship, held September 29 - October 4, 2014 in the heart of Virginia's hunt country, celebrated fox hunting at its best. Seventy-four competitors, representing 23 hunts in 9 different states, travelled as far as 1000 miles with horses in tow for the North American Championship extravaganza of sport and social activities.

Though it was a competition of individuals, there was an unanimous, collective joy, in the opportunity to enjoy sport in such a glorious environment, to make new friends, and to simply share in the experience of the week. Organizers and hosts went above and beyond -- offering terrific sport, sumptuous tailgates, and opening homes, gardens, and institutions such as the National Sporting Library and Museum for their foxhunting colleagues.

Christy Clagett and Saba Rock Are Ready to Roll at Thoroughbred Makeover

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Katy Carter

Courtesy Retired Racehorse ProjectChristy Clagett, MFH Marlborough Hunt, is no stranger to training ex-racehorses for the hunt field. She runs her own racing operation at Larking Hill Training Center in Harwood, Maryland, and through the years has turned a seemingly infinite number of hopeless racehorses into happy hunters. The difference this time is that her newest project, Saba Rock (Van Nistelrooy- Sabina, Coxs Ridge), will not just lead the field at Marlborough one day, but he will strut his stuff at the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover: Marketplace and Symposium at Pimlico Racecourse October 4 and 5, 2014.  

A strapping 16.3 chestnut gelding foaled in West Virginia in 2006, Saba hit the board only four times in 17 starts and earned $24, 047; a paltry sum considering he was an $85,000 yearling. Clagett has known Saba from the beginning. She started him in his racing career and in May of this year began his training for hunting.

e-Covertside: You have retrained numerous Thoroughbred for hunting. What is your normal routine in preparing a horse to hunt? Did you do anything differently with Saba knowing he will be performing at Pimlico in October?

Christy: I am doing what I usually do: riding through the woods and streams, opening and closing gates, moving jump riders up and down with my hunting whip. As a Master, I don’t crack my whip, but we have been practicing cracking for the event at Pimlico. Saba goes cross country three days a week for fitness and we started jumping a while back; I don’t jump in a ring, I go straight to jumping over logs following behind a seasoned horse. He has also started hilltopping with one of my employees in the tack while I lead the first field.

Sight Unseen

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Emily Esterson

Gretchen Bickel photoThanks to the Retired Racehorse Project, a Georgia foxhunter now has two superstar off the track Thoroughbreds that are hunting with the Live Oak in Monticello, Fla.

Gretchen Bickel, of Thomasville, Ga., bought a horse sight-unseen off the Internet last fall. Thanks to some savvy marketing on the part of Gate to Great Thoroughbreds, an outfit in Newell, South Dakota, that retrains OTTBs, Gretchen fell in love with Swingin’ Slew. Dale Simanton, Gate-to-Great’s owner and trainer, was also a participant in the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover. Simanton and his marketing agent, Heather Benson of Back Forty Marketing, were posting updates on Slew, and Drake’s Dancer (aka Duck), another OTTB Simanton was training, on Facebook and on RRP’s website.