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Photo By Gretchen Pelham
Anyone who follows foxhunting in England knows that the sport has been under assault for decades. Illegal for 17 years, its successor, trail hunting, took a big blow last year following the hacking of an online meeting of the MFHA.
by Keith Simpson Photography
The New Forest Hounds in England has converted its foxhound pack to bloodhounds for the 2022-2023 season. The hunt club uses the historic New Forest, a national park consisting of over 71,000 acres in southern England.
TRYON, NC (June 20, 2022)— The Tryon Hounds is proud to present the Trip Hoffman Memorial Riding Scholarship for fox hunting enthusiasts in Polk, Henderson, Rutherford, Spartanburg, and Greenville counties for the 2022-2023 hunt season. Fox hunting has been a part of the areas culture for nearly one-hundred years and enjoyed by equestrian enthusiasts who appreciate the sport and tradition. This scholarship helps ensure the sports place within the community for future generations by assisting with membership dues.
I have respected Norman Fine for so many years, and when he offered me Foxhunting Life, I jumped at the chance. I started my foxhunting career late in life, about 20 years ago. I discovered that I loved the thrill of the chase, the challenge of the ride, the history of the sport, and the communion with the outdoors. Most especially, I love to travel to other hunts. And I love to write and photograph those trips. I’ve been taking at least one cross country trip a year to foxhunt.
Last year, a senior UK foxhunter and board member of the British MFHA, Mark Hankinson, was found guilty in Westminster Magistrates' Court of contravening the despised Hunting Act of 2004. He was also ordered to pay the court £3,500 in fine and fee. The deputy chief Magistrate concluded that he was "clearly encouraging the mirage of trail laying to act as cover for old-fashioned illegal hunting."
The case involved the question of whether or not Hankinson, in a webinar seen by about one hundred hunt leaders, promoted ways for hunts to covertly hunt illegally by making it appear they were trail hunting.
This year, a court heard his appeal and considered whether Hankinson's words were intentionally encouraging an offense. The court decided to the contrary, reversed the original verdict, and Hankinson was adjudged not guilty.
Hankinson explained he was referring to the practice of laying dummy trails to fool saboteurs.
The author in informal cubhunting attire / Nancy Kleck photoTraditional foxhunting attire is important to me, but I’m not a fanatic.
Why is it important? Respect...for three hundred years of sport, art, literature, and the men and women who had the passion, energy, and intellect to formulate and leave us one of the most exhilarating activities known to man. For these reasons it pains me to see the concepts of appropriate attire ignored in many hunting fields today.
There is good reason to dress modestly and uniformly. Foxhunting is about the hounds and the quarry; it’s not a stage for man or horse. Its dress code can be described as stratified uniformity—stratified between staff, Master, and field so we can quickly identify who’s who in the heat of battle, and uniformity so that we all maintain our modest place in the overall scheme of the sport.
Why, on the other hand, am I not fanatical about correct hunting attire? Because there is no single truth.
It was the first hunt of the 2016 – 2017 season for the Tennessee Valley Hunt in East Tennessee. I never saw this coyote come out of the corn. I had been listening to the hounds just ROAR around in that corn for an hour, when I saw this beautiful tweed coat against that landscape. I wanted to get photos of the coat with the Cumberland Mountains behind it, so I took a burst of about 5 photos. I never saw the coyote through the lens as I took the photographs of the coat. Unbeknownst to me, the coyote had photo bombed the shot.
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