Nick Hartung and houndsThis has been a difficult year for Goshen Hounds (MD) and its members. We have lost four men closely associated with us: former huntsman Nicholas Hartung, board member Bruce Sieling, ex-MFH Hansen Watkins, and, most recently, Irving Victor Marken Abb.

John Pickering, one of Irish foxhunting’s witty raconteurs and colorful characters, passed away recently in his adopted town of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. In his career he hunted the East Down Foxhounds, the Golden Vale Foxhounds, the Oriel Harriers, and was whipper-in and huntsman to the legendary Master of the Bermingham and North Galway Foxhounds, the late Lady Molly Cusack-Smith.

I first met him when he was hunting the Oriel Harriers in the 1980s. At a meet north of Dundalk, in County Louth, hounds put a fox away from  Bell’s Covert, but he only ran a couple of hundred yards before going to ground in an earth in the middle of a field. To make matters worse his best hound Heckler was down in the earth with only his stern in view. Pickering sat casually back in the saddle and remarked, “I think I will have to take that hound to a shrink.”

“Why”, I asked, to which Pickering replied, “Because he thinks he’s a bloody terrier!”

Douglas Lees photoFoxhunting lost one of its most notable Masters of Foxhounds with the passing of James L. Young, age seventy, on Friday evening, May 25, 2012.

Urbane, articulate, literate, trim and handsome both on and off the horse, Jimmy Young did everything with a flair, whether leading his field, presiding over the Virginia Foxhound Club Show, writing or speaking on his favorite topic---foxhunting as a noble art form.

Peter Patrick, the Fifth Baron Hemphill, passed away on Friday, April 6, 2012 at the Galway Clinic after a short illness. He and his wife Lady Anne Hemphill are well-known to many North American sportsmen and women who have hunted with the Galway Blazers. His father, the Fourth Baron, married his mother Emily Sears in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Lord Hemphill was an exceptional individual—charming, entertaining, and a great friend to the Galway Blazers where he served as Joint-Master in the heyday of hunting in Ireland. He made his estate, Tulira Castle, regularly available to the hunt. American film director John Huston was a fellow Joint-Master when he lived at St Clerans not far from Athenry. The two men hunted and socialised together with their respective wives, Toni and Lady Anne, the latter serving as Field Master of the Blazers for many years. They all sailed frequently in Galway Bay with many of the prominent visiting Hollywood film stars, often visiting the Aran Islands where a sing-song was always on the agenda at a local hostelry!

Michele Doucette photoDonald V. Little, MFH of the Myopia Hunt in Hamilton, Massachusetts, died on February 29, 2012, three days after a fall from his horse while competing in the Masters Classic at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida.

Don was in his seventies—an all-around sportsman with interests in foxhunting, polo, show jumping, Thoroughbred racing, and sailing. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he lived most of his life on Boston’s North Shore, foxhunting and playing polo at the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton. He also enjoyed hunting with the Piedmont Fox Hounds in Virginia—a hunt with close family ties to Myopia.

When photo-journalist Noel Mullins attended the Clifden Pony Show in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland this summer, he immediately missed seeing  his photographer friend Des McCheane. Mullins learned sadly that Des had passed away the previous week—a loss surely for Des’s family, friends, and for Irish country sport, but a rich historical legacy left behind.