next generation of fox hunters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/02/22/feature/can-a-new-generation-save-fox-hunting/

Thank you for posting this. In this day, it is hard to find experiences where you can really gallop hell on leather, but here we are.
On a side note, it is my understanding, and this may be wrong but Mr. Hardaway told me, red foxes are indiginous to very northern North America. Red foxes are here in the US because they were imported.
i can remember an exciting hunt with a teen gal who excersizes our horses and she is an eventer. We were on a long run and a big ugly ditch appeared out of nowhere and the horses took it in stride. Her eyes were big and she exclaimed “This is real cross country!”

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This article scares me. I worry about its far reaching impact on the general public. From the last summarizing paragraph “Its hard to think of a sport more out of step with this era than the elite pastime of foxhunting …” I think anyone w an interest in the future of foxhunting should keep an eye on the comments at washingtonpost.com/magazine and write calm and educated responses to any PETA esque ideas and activists. Thank you for your help with this fellow foxhunters !

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well, comments like this aren’t that helpful, either:

Drag hunting is okay if that is all you have…but it is not real. Broken necks are the risk we pay for our sport…just as concussions are for football players. You do know that adrenaline is a very powerful drug? Fear is fun, frankly. (I suspect this may be why the fox once it has learned we are not really a danger, comes to seek out the hunters. Life is so narrow, so safe, so completely vanilla! LIVE!

(maybe i’m just cynical, having had a classmate who came off her horse and broke her neck and died. i guess i just don’t see the romance in it. (which is also why i cringe at those “missed it mondays” emails i get from coth.))

Quote from the article:

It’s hard to think of a sport more out of step with this era than the elite pastime of fox hunting,

I was thinking something a lot like this while watching the Olympics these past two weeks. The Olympics, too, are an elite pastime, limited to the few youngsters who can not only afford to travel the world in pursuit of their sports, but can afford to pay for the gear, to visit resorts where they can ski, snowboard, etc. – they are a privileged elite for the most part.

Sure, no animals are injured in the making of the Olympics, but in the context of elite pastimes out of step with the rest of America, the Olympics rank right up there with fox hunting.

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The cost of a lift ticket at ski resorts is astronomical. For the price of my membership in fox hunting I could ski for a grand total of 8 days. Skiing is an elite sport.

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The comments are really depressing. Lots of comments about how pretentious we are and how foxes suffer. Clearly a case of people having strong oppinions based on no knowledge or experience. Very sad. We absolutely love the locals and go out of our way to be friendly and inclusive. Comments about how the hounds are cruelly kept in a pen are really off base. Maybe a VA problem?

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The article was bizarre and I wish it wasn’t published. The comments about slavery seemed so oddly tied on. The fact is these former plantations have been sold on and on since the end of slavery, broken up and turned in to sub divisions. Fox hunters and other riders have been saving these large land holdings. Clearly this close minded city slicker doesn’t get why that matters.

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Obviously we should only have horses demonstrate their abilities in controlled environments and not get out and enjoy the natural beauty of our countryside.

I am sad for what the hunter classes will become if real fox hunts keep declining. Already I have seen a trend of “get a huge horse and make them trot at a glacial pace”.

That REALLY aggravated me too. I actually own a hound that was at a KY shelter. She was a clearly abused hunting dog. She is desensitized to gun fire but terrified of everything else and had physical evidence of past abuse. So abuse of hunting dogs is very near and dear to my heart. Fox hunters are typically competent equestrians and practice good animal husbandry. The abused and neglected hounds in shelters are from the guy with a shotgun and a 6 pack who cycles through dogs every year.

We’ve all seen the paintings of the hunters who keep their favorite hounds in the house. Fox hunters are by and large good to their hounds.

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