WELLINGTON-WATERLOO HUNT AT THE ROYAL WITH THE ROYALS

Wellington-Waterloo Nabob and HRH Duchess of Cornwall share a light moment. Photo courtesy Jodi Grey, Beaver Meadow Hounds.

by Paul Sherman, MFH

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (The Royal) has been held in Toronto annually since November 1922 and has become the World’s largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition. According to their website, The Royal draws more than 300,000 visitors to Toronto annually to see thousands of unique entries from elite Canadian and International breeders, growers and exhibitors, over 4,500 large and small animals, shows, activities, shopping, dining and – of course – The Royal Horse Show.

Last November The Royal was honored by being officially opened by HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

Since 2004, Wellington-Waterloo Hunt has spent a day at The Royal displaying hounds as well as setting up an information booth by invitation from the Ontario Equestrian Federation’s (OEF) “Spirit of The Horse”: 2009 was no exception.

Each year, many of our members volunteer to spend a day at The Royal helping man the booth and meet fair visitors, answering questions about our sport and introducing them to a few hounds. Over the years, we have been helped at the booth by members of other hunts and so it was last November. We were delighted that friends from our neighboring hunts in Southern Ontario joined us to lend a hand. It was also good to welcome like-minded folk from hunts further a field who were in Toronto visiting The Royal and dropped by for a chat.

In addition to the booth, we take hounds into OEF’s Spirit of The Horse ring two or three time during the day for a demonstration of mounted exercises accompanied by a commentary explaining riding to hounds generally, and the Wellington-Waterloo Hunt in particular. At the end of our demonstration, the audience has an opportunity to ask questions. Over the years we’ve had some interesting ones, such as “How many bones does your horse have?” (Fortunately that year I had been reading up on that just the previous evening and was able to answer accurately “All of them!”)

When Wellington-Waterloo Hunt began doing our stint at Spirit of The Horse we were able to arrange for it to be on the same day as Hunt Night in the main ring at the Royal Horse Show. This used to be a full evening of social and competitive events, including Hunt Teams and a Parade of Hounds by one of the professionally hunted packs from Canada. Sadly for the hunting community, over the last dozen or more years this has diminished to virtually nothing. This is one of the reasons we at Wellington-Waterloo Hunt are proud to help our sport put on its public face at The Royal each year and sincerely thank OEF for continuing to invite us to do so. We also hope that other hunts will continue more and more to share this honor in the future, particularly since Hunt Night seems to be a thing of the past.

For the 2009 edition of Spirit of The Horse, we had requested the second Friday of the fair to put on our exhibit. Past experience had shown us that this is usually a “good traffic” day at The Royal, being the beginning of the closing weekend, affording good-sized audiences for our displays in the ring and keeping our volunteers at the booth fully occupied with visitors. Understanding this, OEF was very obliging and we had everything planned accordingly.

However, with just about a week’s notice, I received a call asking if we would be willing to change our day to the first Friday – Opening Day – as it was felt that HRH Duchess of Cornwall might like to see some hounds during her walkabout. (It was planned that Prince Charles would visit livestock and agricultural exhibits after the official opening ceremony, while the Duchess took in Spirit of The Horse and other areas.)

When our many volunteers heard this request there was immediate agreement to the change. In fact, I’m not sure that we didn’t receive even more offers of help! I remember Pat van Esch-Dussault, who was taking care of setting up and manning the booth, telling me not to worry – she had it covered “and some.”

Many of our volunteers had the opportunity to meet HRH Duchess of Cornwall, who seemed to enjoy talking about our hounds, and asked about our hunt and the country we covered. We were honored that Her Royal Highness chose to spend more than a little time with us discussing foxhunting in this part of the world.

We look forward to continuing our association with OEF’s Spirit of The Horse at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair as ambassadors of riding to hounds but will always especially remember 2009 as the year of “Wellington-Waterloo Hunt at The Royal with The Royals.”

FOXHUNTING KEEPS YOU YOUNG

Three venerable foxhunters celebrated their 80^th birthdays – and many more than 100 combined years of foxhunting – at a hunt breakfast held on March 13, 2010.  Pictured here (left to right) are G. Kenneth Baum (ex-MFH), Arthur Stern, and Mrs. Fran Baker, long-time members of the Mission Valley Hunt.  All three turned 80 years young this year, and all three are still actively hunting in the field.  The celebratory breakfast was held at Mission Valley’s Fin & Feather clubhouse in Louisburg, Kansas, after a roaring hunt enjoyed by a field of hunters just coming off a long, cold and wet winter.

In recognition of their longevity – and their many contributions to the Hunt – the birthday honorees received red jackets emblazoned with the Mission Valley Hunt logo.  In response, all three agreed that the joy of the hunt, camaraderie in the field, watching and working with the hounds, and a love of horses have all contributed to the good health and long lives that these hunters continue to enjoy.

Kenny, Fran and Art, you are examples for us all!