Newly appointed Old Chatham MFH Jef Murdock tells how it feels to hunt hounds for the very first time. / Nancy Kleck photoOn a recent Saturday the Old Chatham Hunt (NY) had a rare hunting day. Hounds ran their first coyote hard for an hour before huntsman and staff had to stop them from going into country where it was difficult to follow. Hounds then found another coyote and ran it through their wooded country in fine voice for another forty-five minutes to finish an excellent day of hunting. What’s remarkable about that? one might ask. Nothing, except that the huntsman had never hunted a pack of hounds before in his life until that day.
At the end of last season, Old Chatham members made some difficult and controversial organizational changes in an effort to improve their sport. A new huntsman—Tommy Hopkins—was named, and a new Master—Jef Murdock—was appointed. Hopkins had been whipping-in for years and was familiar with the hounds, but Murdock, though he’d been following hounds as a field member for years, was better known for his skiing acumen—he owns the popular Butternut ski area in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts—than for his prowess with foxhounds.
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It is our policy to publish Comments that are civil in tone and signed by the legitimate authors of those Comments. We are willing to publish controversial comments because there is more than one side to every story, but we will not publish Comments that are mean-spirited or that make personal attacks on individuals. For the good of our sport, I believe this to be a sound policy.
As the article states, The Old Chatham Hunt has recently gone through a controversial reorganization. Many hunts have experienced similar situations. It is always a difficult time because the membership becomes fractured—some on one side of the issues, some on the other. Life may have its ups and downs, but *Foxhunting Life* will not provide a platform for disgruntled individuals to make personal attacks.
I wish you good sport.
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