Foxhunting Life with Horse and Hound

Huntsman Robert Howarth has been working his way south. He will carry the horn at the Blue Ridge Hunt in Virginia this year, arriving after a season hunting hounds at the Myopia Hunt in Massachusetts and before that the Hamilton Hunt in Ontario. Howarth will succeed Dennis Downing, now completing his eleventh season at Blue Ridge.

British-born Howarth started his professional hunt career as whipper-in at the Belvoir at age sixteen. After two seasons at the Belvoir he moved on, as is the custom of those in hunt service in England, and whipped-in at several other hunts for the next fifteen years.

He then went to the Holderness as huntsman and carried the horn there for eleven seasons. After twenty-seven seasons of hunt service in England, Howarth emigrated to Canada to hunt hounds at the Hamilton Hunt and then moved on to Myopia.

Howarth, who is steeped in the breeding of the Old English foxhound from his experiences at the Belvoir and the Holderness, will take over a pack of modern English and modern English-American crosses bred for the past eleven years by Blue Ridge Master Linda Armbrust.

Blue Ridge is still seeking to hire a professional whipper-in for the 2012-2013 season.

Posted January 6, 2012

Helen Laverack photo

Myopia's hunt kennel with its weathered shingles on Boston's North Shore evokes old New England.Robert Howarth is the new professional huntsman at the venerable Myopia Hunt located on Boston’s North Shore. Robert, originally from England and the Holderness Hunt, arrived at Myopia from the Hamilton Hunt in Ontario. He brought with him Liberty, an Old English foxhound which he bred whilst at the Holderness. I recently visited Robert and got to see Liberty again whom I walked as a puppy.

During my visit, I thoroughly enjoyed helping in Myopia's prestigious hunt kennel, with its red and cream decor, chandelier, and hounds peacefully resting in their lodges to the sound of the classical music!

The new huntsman for the Hamilton Hunt (ON) is Robert Howarth, son of a Derbyshire dairy farmer. Robert went on his first hunt at the age of seven, when his mother took him a-pony with a lead rein. Within a year he was riding on his own, never missing a Saturday hunt.