Foxhunters

There are two ways of fox hunting in the U. S. One is the elegant English style of riding to hounds. You gallop over a paneled countryside, jumping fences and ditches in breathless pursuit of a pack of hounds that are in breathless pursuit of a fugitive fox. The other is a strictly native procedure, evolved in the mountain country of the south. You sit on a fence, following the unaccompanied chase by ear.

Riding to hounds is just a silly Eastern idea to generations of U. S. rustics. To them M.F.H. is only a series of initials.

But country foxhunters pay as much as $1,000 for a Kentucky-bred foxhound.

They stage most of their hunts at night, racing hound against hound. From a fireside circle on a hilltop, owners get a vicarious thrill recognizing the voices of their beloved hounds echoing and reechoing, as they cry the fox in the dark distance.

Once a year, a grand get-together of U. S. foxhunters (hilltoppers and hunt-club members alike) is held--under the auspices of the National Foxhunters' Association--for the purpose of holding field trials, a hound show and horse show. At Winchester, Ky. last week swank Eastern socialites, sombreroed Texas ranchers, rich Oklahoma Indians and Kentucky hillbillies met on common ground at the 45th annual foxhunters' jamboree. Competitions were open to any foxhunter who had paid his $5 membership fee to the national association.

There were two field-trial events: the three-day Chase Futurity, a test for foxhounds under two years old. and the three-day All-Age Stake, considered the national championship.

At daybreak each morning, 100 to 200 of the country's best-bred foxhounds, with identification numbers painted on their sides, lined up at the casting ground, their handlers behind them. At a signal from the purple-coated Master of Hounds, they were unleashed, followed by nine judges on horseback and, five minutes later, some 200 riders on mounts ranging from expensive hunters to plow-galled plugs.

Left behind on a bluegrass slope were 3,000 to 5,000 spectators who hoped to catch a glimpse of the chase in the ravine beneath.

Each day's hunt lasted five hours. Contestants were scored on hunting (trying to pick up a trail); trailing; speed and driving (racing against one another in the chase); endurance. Misbehaviors which meant disqualification: "babbling" (barking to the extent of interfering with the chase); "loafing"' (showing no inclination to hunt); "running cunning" (failing to work fairly on a trail). Hounds sometimes run over 35 miles in five hours.

After six days of exciting chases, during which more than 25 foxes were run to cover, the judges named Jack Trouble, owned by Finley & Douglas of York, S. C., winner of the Chase Futurity, picked Hawkeye Stacey, owned by Arch Stacey of Jackson, Ky., as winner of the All-Age.

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