Foxhunting Life with Horse and Hound

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!

This portrait along with the question of the subject’s identity was posted on our Facebook page to provide an entertaining and informative way of featuring iconic figures in American foxhunting.

Paula Nelson was first with the correct answer, and if she will contact us with her address she will receive a gift from Foxhunting Life. David Amos provided the right answer just two minutes later. Also Lauren Giannini and Jesse Welsh got it right—all four within the space of an hour.

Emily Digney and Mr. Goodbar, Farmington Hunt, were Champion, 13 and Over.With more than two hundred entries, organizers Douglas Wise, MFH Old Dominion Hounds (VA), and Iona Pillion, Blue Ridge Hunt (VA), were thrilled to observe that the 2011 Junior North American Field Hunter Championship drew the biggest fields to date in the nine years of this unique trial. The program listed twenty-one finalists in Hilltoppers, twenty-two in First Field 12 & Under, and twenty-one in First Field 13 & Over. On November 6, 2011, trailers from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia gathered in the heart of the Warrenton Hunt country for what is turning into a huge event that bodes well for the future of foxhunting.

Steven Hayes led the Cheshire riders to a strong showing on Hunt Night at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg on October 17, 2011. Hayes won the Field Hunter Class for riders over thirty-five years of age and the Gentlemen’s Hunter under Saddle Class, riding Clever, owned by Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds (PA).

Hayes then teamed up with fellow Cheshire members Cindy Buchanan, DMV and Joy Slater and led his team to win the highly competitive Hunt Teams Class. Nine hunts sent up to two teams each to participate in the event.

Posted October 20, 2011

(l-r) Steven Hayes, Cindy Buchanan, DMV, and Joy Slater jumping the last fence abreast and winning the Hunt Team Class at Penn National. / Al Cook photo

Raja: Story of a Racehorse, Anne Hambleton, Old Bow Publishing, 2011, 250 pages, illustrated by Peggy Kaufmann, $14.95The fictional adventures and travails of a well-bred Thoroughbred foal are chronicled from the early days by his dam’s side to a Grade 1 Stakes win, to the jumpers in the “A” circuit, to the New York City Mounted Police, to foxhunting with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds, to the Blue Ridge Hunt point-to-point, and finally to the Maryland Hunt Cup. As a foal, Raja is cursed with a phobia for lightning—the recurring source of his many troubles along the way in achieving his potential.

This may be Anne Hambleton’s first novel, but she has had plenty of practice honing her writing skills in the business side of her life. On the equine side, Hambleton is a horsewoman who knows all the disciplines intimately, and Raja’s adventures unfold believably and with authority. The characters in the story—both animal and human—are well-crafted, and we care about them.