The Masters Ball by Anne-Marie Lacy, 2012, Indigo-Inc Publishing, 206 pages, $25.00From the elegance of the annual fete in New York to a hair-raising ride at closing meet, author Anne-Marie Lacy takes the reader on mad gallop in The Masters Ball, a light-hearted murder mystery with a charming ghost.

The author, who has hunted for seventeen years, drew upon her experiences in the field with the Mooreland Hunt (AL), the Hillsboro Hounds (TN), and the characters she met along the way for her first book. The astute reader will recognize a few larger-than-life, real-life Masters who were Lacy’s inspiration for her characters.

Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing by Patrick Smithwick, Chesapeake Book Company, 2012, 360 pages, $30.00If you can avoid disabling injury, horseback riding is a sport that many enjoy for a lifetime. All of us have heard anecdotal tales of people who ride—and even foxhunt—up into their seventies and eighties.

With Baby Boomers aging, those stories will become more prevalent, although many of us may be opting for the dressage arena instead of the hunt meet...or the race track.

Author Patrick Smithwick decided to meet growing older head on. He challenged himself at age forty-six to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, a four-mile timber race over twenty-two solidly built fences that are not for the faint of heart. It is the world’s stiffest timber race.

Mrs. Knox -Illustration by E. Somerville“‘He's sleeping at Tory Lodge,’ said Mrs. Knox.  ‘He's cubbing at Drumvoortneen, and he has to start early.  He tried to torment me into allowing him to keep the hounds in the yard here this season, but I had the pleasure of telling him that old as I might be, I still retained possession of my hearing, my sense of smell, and, to a certain extent, of my wits.’

‘I should have thought,’ I said discreetly, ‘that Tory Lodge was more in the middle of his country.’

‘Undoubtedly,’ replied Flurry's grandmother; ‘but it is not in the middle of my straw, my meal, my buttermilk, my firewood, and anything else of mine that can be pilfered for the uses of a kennel!’  She concluded with a chuckle that might have been uttered by a scald-crow.” -Excerpt from "The Finger of Mrs. Knox"

Foxhunting Life is pleased to bring you downloads of short stories by some of our favorite sporting authors. These works are in the public domain and may be downloaded by you, enjoyed, copied, and shared as you see fit.

The Mardale Church in happy times

Ready for demoloition

Here are the final chapters of The Mardale Hunt by Ron Black. Through the courtesy of the author, Foxhunting Life has brought you the entire book in installments, with an invitation to download each installment to your computer.

Generations of Ron Black’s family have followed the Ullswater foxhounds at the Mardale Shepherds Meet both before the flood and after. The demolition of the ancient village, the relocation of the villagers, and the construction of a new Dun Bull Hotel and a new church were wrenching changes for inhabitants and hunting visitors alike.

Ron’s life underwent its own wrenching change when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. A side effect of his medication produced insomnia, and, with more waking hours to fill, he decided to collect all the history of this famous meet—records of the hunts, the many songs written and sung at the Dun Bull in tribute to huntsman Joe Bowman, and the story of the Manchester Water Project as it affected the lives of this community of sheep farmers. We hope you have enjoyed it.

In the course of bringing these downloads to you, we had a happy idea for the future. Please see Norm Fine’s Blog (above) for details!

Connect with the author by clicking here.

(To access downloads of previous installments, click here.)

Posted February 22, 2012