What Fox Hunting Taught Me About Showing

What Fox Hunting Taught Me About Showing

I’m not a special snowflake, but I do think I have a slightly unique edge to my experience with the horse world.  When I was riding as a kid, I primarily fox hunted before doing any serious showing.

It seems most kids grow up in the show ring on ponies or school masters, but I grew up on hunter paces and eventually fox hunting.  When I finally did start showing, there was so much to learn.  I didn’t know anything about ring etiquette, but I knew a decent amount about horsemanship.

hunt13

If you can’t laugh at yourself from time to time, don’t even bother riding.

Hunting made me pretty humble.  One day I fell off into a muddy ditch in front of all the staff members.  Muddy and damp, I got back on only to have to dismount later to help a junior rider.  When I dismounted, my horse got away from me and took off towards the 1st flight of riders.  I had to do the walk of shame all the way back to the same staff members who saw me fall in the morning, only to have them hand me back my horse and ask how I managed to fall off twice in one day.  Showing is really no different – if you can’t laugh at the strange and silly things that happen, you’ll drive yourself crazy.

hunt11

The horse first, always.

Our hunts typically lasted around 3 hours.  The season was from the first weekend in November to early March, so it was usually quite cold and often rainy in eastern North Carolina.  When you headed back to the trailer, you were often dog tired (since it was a two hour drive and horses had to be fed before loading) and uncomfortable.  Each hunt had a “breakfast” (more like lunch) that different members provided, and we knew that once we were done a delicious, hot meal awaited us.  Still, the most important aspect with being done with the hunt was taking care of your horse.  Cooling off, putting on an irish knit, making sure their legs were clean, offering water and giving hay… nobody was “done” until your horse was happily munching hay with even breaths and a proper body temperature.  With showing, it doesn’t matter how tired I am or how mad I may be at my horse… his needs come before mine.  That’s just how it is.

hunt5
We are on the far left

Tradition is a part of horsemanship.

Fox hunting is deeply rooted in tradition.  There are rules about not passing the huntsman or staff member leading your field.  Rules about attire.  We can ride over here because this farm owner gave us permission, but we have to stay out of that field because they haven’t harvested the crops yet.  You know the original velvet Charles Owen helmets with the cute little bow?  I wasn’t allowed to wear those, because the tails of the bow were pointing down.  In fox hunting, only professional staff members have their bows pointing down on their helmet.  Fun euro coats with decorative collars?  I hate them for the hunters.  In fox hunting, to have a decorative collar you had to earn that by being a member in good standing with the hunt.  It was called “earning your colors” and it typically happened after a year or two of actively hunting, following the rules and paying your dues.  I know hunter/jumpers may seem arbitrary sometimes, but the tradition is deeply rooted and I think it’s worthy of respect.

hunt2

Hurry up and wait isn’t just in the show ring.

One big gripe that eventers and dressage people have about hunter/jumper shows is the hurry up and wait… but maybe that’s because of fox hunting?  I joke, but there was so much hurry up and wait in my hunt club.  Hurry!  The fox is on the move!  Run run run!  Oh wait, we lost the scent/can’t find a scent/have to get a hound off a bear/have to get rid of these deer hunting dogs.  Wait wait wait.  Yes, there’s a lot of galloping… but there’s also a lot of standing and waiting 🙂

hunt6

Money talks, but it doesn’t always say something good about you.

Several members of my hunt were extremely wealthy, and several members lived in a trailer and had simple, well trained horses and functional clothes.  This is not to say the less wealthy were better – there’s nothing wrong with being rich and spending your money on horses.  Just try to make your money say good things about you. If you have the money for a really nice horse, that’s great – but taking a dressage warmblood superstar into the hunt field when it’s not conditioned and turned out with gleaming white polo wraps (which are not gleaming and a safety hazard after 30 minutes hunting) is not necessarily saying good things.  Having nice things is better than executing things nicely.

hunt8

There are on cloud 9 high moments in riding, but don’t get addicted to them.

Few things are as thrilling as galloping in an open field with a group of horses.  It’s a high not often repeated, but I think we have similar feelings of invincibility and grandeur with a clean run over a big course of jumps.  Still, some hunts are slow without much sense.  Those rides, you need to be patient and wait with the hounds… there may be some cantering but no jaw dropping gallop.  That’s okay!  With showing, sometimes we need to take a schooling round.  Sometimes we trot in the lines to get our horse’s rideability better.  It can’t be one constant string of high moment to next high moment.

hunt3

Honestly, I learned too much from fox hunting to sum up in one post.  Some of the best experiences of my equestrian life were in those cotton fields of North Carolina.  Have any of you ever hunted?

34 thoughts on “What Fox Hunting Taught Me About Showing

  1. I love love fox hunting. It excites and terrifies me at the same time! I haven’t been in years since my thoroughbred is retired 🙁 I went with the Mecklenburg Hounds and Yadkin Vally Hounds in NC.

      1. I used to hunt with Triangle Hunt. The hunt split as many do and fell by the wayside. two of the Senior masters now live near Farmville now and still ride but have switched to carriage driving. I think we’re getting older and the banesa bit more brittle. I saw your pictures posted and thought I recognized Linda Sewall’s picture on her mount I believe is “Green Onion”.

  2. My pony club was invited to hunt with various hunt clubs in the Nashville area and I always went! I loved everything about it- the galloping and jumping, the camaraderie, the tradition! I’m hoping to go hunting out here in Oklahoma this fall. 🙂

  3. I’ve always wanted to go! I can’t decide if my TB would go for foxhunting or not. He’s a gentleman, and loves his conditioning trail rides, but isn’t okay with water crossings. 🙂

  4. I haven’t been hunting yet but have been invited to this fall by some members of the local club. VERY excited to suit up and ride a seasoned fox hunter! Will definitely read all rules though before heading out.

  5. I haven’t but i did have friends take Kika out & she loved it. Horses learn so much from hunting i think it is an invaluablr part of theit growing up process in ireland and the experiences they have while hunting stands to them in many situations later in life. Riding & behaving as part of a group, as you say standing around and waiting, staying behi d the whip & learning manners. Sadly Nancy came here before she got to experience the joys of it, however she is so level headed I’m not sure hunting would have had the same effect on her as it did on fiery Kika 😉

  6. i want to fox hunt so badly – reading this post and posts at wyvern oaks makes me jealous lol. but on the other hand, it seems kind of intimidating to me… maybe starting out with some hunter paces or paper chases is a little more realistic for me haha

  7. I LOVE hunting. LOVE it! Unfortunately, I’m not all that keen on the social aspect of it… which is why I haven’t ever bothered to officially join a hunt. O’s been hunting and she was excellent at it, and I hunted with P when she was sounder… oh man so fun!!

  8. I love this post. I’m so nervous about getting back in the real show ring next weekend. Fox hunting sounds like a lot of fun. I’d love to try it sometime. Doing my first hunter pace was incredibly amazing and I hope to do it on my own horse sometime soon.

  9. Never have hunted. But have enjoyed Rita Mae Brown’s “Sister Jane” mystery series about a hunt in Virginia. (First book is “Outfoxed”)

  10. I have hunted a few times and I worked for a hunting barn for several years. When I hunted I was not impressed, the horses were out of shape and looked like shit and the riders rode the fur right off of them. The hunt barn I worked for was much different though, the horses were very well kept and cared for. I always found hunting sort of boring, but I think that is the hunting culture here in Ontario.

    I was lucky enough to go hunting in Ireland when I was working there, and that was an experience in itself lol

  11. Every year I say I am going to try the guest hunt at the local hunt club (they hunt coyote), but never make it. One of these days I want to give it a go!

  12. LOVE this post. We’ve had this conversation dearie! :-> I love hunting and really want to do it again. Even if I just start out hill-topping. I’ve hunted with Woodbrook in Washington state, and the Red Rock Hounds in Nevada (on BLM land where the wild horses follow the hunt 🙂 and in England (sadly I don’t remember the name of the hunt, it was in the Cotswolds) ~ soooo much fun and I love feeling like I’m in a 19th century painting 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.