Congratulations to the Winners of the 2008 Hildegard Neill Ritchie Foxhunting Writing Contest!

The annual Hildegard Neill Ritchie Writing Contest is open to all D- or C-rated Pony Club members. The first place winner receives a $200 check, the second place winner receives a $100 check, and the third place winner receives a $50 check.

The contest award is from a memorial fund established by friends of Mrs. Ritchie, who was a long-time Pony Club supporter and volunteer. She founded the Colorado Springs Pony Club in 1958 and was its District Commissioner for 30 years. She was Regional Supervisor of the Colorado (now Rocky Mountain) region for 12 years and hosted regional Pony Club camps on her ranch for 20 plus years. She served several terms as a USPC Governor and received the USPC Founders Award in 1989.  The judges for this year's contest were Dr. Rita Mae Brown, MFH, Cindy Piper, MFH,  and Norm Fine. The results were:

First Place:  Angela Parn, 14 a D-3 member of Horse Sense Pony Club "The Log on Top of the Hill"

Second Place:  Sara Margaret (Maggie) Tally, 9 a D-1 member of Moore County Pony Club, "Cee Bar's Foxhunt"

Third Place:  Hank Watson, 11 a D-2 member of Eno Triangle Pony Club, "Ellen and Her Own Elite Eight"

 Other entries included:  Virginia Gravelle, Laura Autrey McCray and Melanie Watson.

 Click here to read the winning essays.

Click here to see previous year's winners.

 
Following are the winners of the 2006/2007 Challenge and the prize money the club will receive:
 
First Place
North Star Pony Club - Northern Lakes Region who hunted with Long Lake Hounds Hunt

Second Place
Elkridge-Harford Hunt Pony Club - Maryland Region who hunted with Elkridge-Harford Hunt

Third Place

Two Rivers Pony Club - Northern Lakes Region who hunted with Long Lake Hounds Hunt

Fourth Place

Sundance Pony Club- Cimarron Region who hunted with Harvard Fox Hounds

We would like to extend a very big Thank You to all of the Hunts who so graciously opened their doors to Pony Club members and their families and made their foxhunting experience so memorable.
  
The MFHA web site has lots of timely information about foxhunting that might be of interest to all Pony Club members. For additional Foxhunting publications, check out the USPC Bookstore, which can be accessed from the front page of the web site at www.ponyclub.org.
 
The Live Oak Hounds USPC Foxhunting Challenge Award was made possible through the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. C. Martin Wood III, Jt. MFHs of the Live Oak Hounds.

Click here to see previous year's winners.

International Foxhunting Exchange 2008: Great Britain

by Claudia Romeo, Old Chatham Pony Club

It occurred to me somewhere between galloping down Britain's oldest racecourse and hunting on white cliffs above the English Channel with my new friends, that the 2008 International Foxhunting Exchange was the experience of a lifetime. For 10 days, fellow Pony Club team members from the US, Ireland, and England met for days of hunting, beagling, kennel tours, riding, and touring famous yards. The American Team was made up of four members Lela Hannagan C-3 from Maryland, Megan Wright C-3 from Ohio, Elissa Gerard B from South Carolina, and me, Claudia Romeo C-3 from New York. Our team chaperone was Rob Kornacki from Kansas. There were twelve of us plus three chaperones on the exchange, which started in York and ended in the Dorset area. Throughout the exchange, I had the chance to hunt with the Middleton and Holderness hunts up north and the South Dorset and Wilton hunts while in the south of England as well as beagling with the Hunsley Beacon Beagles. Although our perfect weather meant poor scenting conditions for many of the days, we had some runs and the stunning countryside kept us all entertained. Unfortunately, the only famous (or infamous) English hedges we got to jump were out hacking in between hunting days, but there were many tiger traps and post-and-rail fences to jump while out hunting. Our mounts were all very well behaved and the host families were extremely generous. Oddly enough, three out of the four different horses I rode were gray mare cobs and the fourth was a very pleasant bay thoroughbred gelding. While on the exchange, we also had many opportunities to socialize with the exchange members from other countries. We had several dinners together and also attended the Middleton Hunt Ball. In order to increase relations and friendships between countries, we did not stay with our own team, but lived with a member from either England or Ireland while with the host families. While there, we were treated to many meals of the local cuisine, which mainly consisted of pigeon, pies, pheasant, and the ever present beef stew. The beef stew became something of a running joke by the end of the exchange because of its popularity. We were also surprised at the number of pheasants that live in the fields and woods of northern England. Out hunting, we would scare up hundreds, and an unfortunate incident ended up with a pheasant in the grill of the organizer's lorry. We dubbed this unlucky bird "Phil the Pheasant", and he became the subject of an amusing poem written and read by our chaperone, Rob, at the master's dinner. At another dinner get together, the teams were each assigned a different country and told to do a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of that country's hunting. This provided many laughs as our American team galloped across the room, posing as the Irish shouting, "Give 'im plenty o' wavin and drive on!" or the Irish pretending to be posh English ladies and gentlemen out for a days hunting. Not to be outdone, the British team mocked the American's peculiar ways out in the hunt field. At the closing dinner, small awards were given out to each of the exchange members. We then provided the entertainment by singing, or shouting in some cases, our own rendition of "Molly Malone" which we learned on the 6-hour coach ride from York to Dorset. All in all, the 2008 Foxhunting exchange led to many international friendships and was an amazing experience for everyone

Congratulations to the members of the 2007 International Foxhunting Exchange!

The 2007 International Foxhunting Exchange was held in England February 3rd-14th, 2008. Members from Ireland and the United States will flew into Manchester Airport and joined the GB contingent in York.  The MFHA and FCNA each donated $1500 to the 2007 Fox Hunting Exchange.  THANK YOU! To both organizations.  Below is a write up from one of the Foxhunting Team members, Claudia Romeo. 

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2007 Hildegard Neill Ritchie Foxhunting Writing Contest!

The annual Hildegard Neill Ritchie Writing Contest is open to all D- or C-rated Pony Club members. The first place winner receives a $200 check, the second place winner receives a $100 check, and the third place winner receives a $50 check.

The contest award is from a memorial fund established by friends of Mrs. Ritchie, who was a long-time Pony Club supporter and volunteer. She founded the Colorado Springs Pony Club in 1958 and was its District Commissioner for 30 years. She was Regional Supervisor of the Colorado (now Rocky Mountain) region for 12 years and hosted regional Pony Club camps on her ranch for 20 plus years. She served several terms as a USPC Governor and received the USPC Founders Award in 1989.

The judges for this year's contest were Cindy Piper, MFH, Long Run Hounds, and Daphne Wood, MFH, Live Oak Hounds. Cindy Piper expressed the following: "Overall, I am very impressed with the submissio... There is one common theme that came through loud and clear in all the submissions and that is the excitement each young person experienced. Whether they were seasoned foxhunters or first timers, it was clear their blood was up and they were paying rapt attention to their surroundings, something that does not happen much in the show ring. I am thrilled to see this in our Pony Club members."

The results were:

First Place: 

Nikki Surrusco, 20, Ellijay, Georgia, a C-3 member of Horse Sense Pony Club "The Thrill of Discovery"

Second Place:

Katherine Sunderland, 14, Dunkirk, Maryland, a C-3 member of the Marlborough Pony Club, "A Day at the Hunt"

Third Place:

Amy Brown, 19, Falls Church, Virginia, a C-1 member of the Rocky Run Pony Club, "Reunion"

 Click here to read the winning essays.

Click here to see previous year's winners.

 
Following are the winners of the 2006/2007 Challenge and the prize money the club will receive:
 
First Place - $2,500
Elkridge-Harford Hunt Pony Club - Maryland Region who hunted with Elkridge-Harford Hunt

Second Place - $1,500
Radnor Hunt Pony Club - Eastern Pennsylvania Region who hunted with Radnor Hunt

Third Place- $1,000

Aiken County Pony Club- Carolina Region who hunted with Aiken Hounds

Fourth Place - $750
Long Green Pony Club - Maryland Region who hunted with Elkridge-Harford Hunt

Fifth Place - $500
Two Rivers Pony Club - Northern Lakes Region who hunted with Long Lake Hounds

Sixth Place - $250
Council Oaks Pony Club - Cimarron Region who hunted with Harvard Foxhounds

Honorable Mention

Marlborough Pony Club - Capital Region who hunted with Marlborough Hunt

Walnut Creek Pony Club - Midsouth Region who hunted with Miami Valley Hunt

We would like to extend a very big Thank You to all of the Hunts who so graciously opened their doors to Pony Club members and their families and made their foxhunting experience so memorable:
  
The MFHA web site has lots of timely information about foxhunting that might be of interest to all Pony Club members. For additional Foxhunting publications, check out the USPC Bookstore, which can be accessed from the front page of the web site at www.ponyclub.org.
 
The Live Oak Hounds USPC Foxhunting Challenge Award was made possible through the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. C. Martin Wood III, Jt. MFHs of the Live Oak Hounds.