IN & AROUND HORSE COUNTRY • JUNE/JULY 2013
“I started hunting two years ago, but my riding began in college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” explained Dr. Chris Gudger, a dentist who makes his home in North Carolina. “Between college and starting to foxhunt, I jumped on a horse every chance I got. I went elk hunting in western Montana, rode western in the Bob Marshall wilderness. My young daughter keeps me closer to home and two years ago when I started taking English lessons, I knew what I wanted.” Gudger was aware that Tony Phillips, a local Irish Draught breeder, had bred his stallion to Rowdon’s mare. Declan was born and eventually bought by a lady in Tennessee. “Tony knew I was looking for a foxhunter and that I wanted to event. I needed a good level-headed horse and all my research led me to Irish Draughts and Irish Draught Sport Horses,” Gudger stated. Last year Snowford Bellman RID passed away, making Ballygrace Rebel one of his last foals. When the gray gelding came up for sale about 13 months ago, Gudger leapt to buy him. “We’ve had one season with Red Mountain Hounds. We went hilltopping a couple of times, then second flight for most of the season, and then first flight a few times,” he recalled. “Declan’s the perfect horse for me and for the environment. The footing here is rocky, red clay – it’s pretty tough. There are stone walls, a lot of coops, several natural downed trees and the jumps are 2’6” to 3’6” and one pushes 3’9” – Declan has gone over all of them brilliantly every time.” Towards the end of the season, Gudger was asked to lead the second field. “I led second flight in the first snowfall and Declan did brilliantly,” Gudger said. “He has a ton of personality. He’s very friendly, very playful when he’s turned out, but under saddle he’s very business-like, very willing. He has never spooked or done anything terrible. He has a very steady head, even when other horses near him are wigged out. We’re training with event rider Holly Hudspeth and this summer we will make our debut at Beginner Novice.” Enthusiasts Testify Yet, when summer yields to the onset of autumn and cub hunting season, Gudger and Declan will be back out in the hunt field. So will the Greenwells. “I have to give my mother, Brianne Sells, credit for introducing me to Irish Draughts,” acknowledged Greenwell. “In the ’90s she was looking for a new foxhunter and wanted something bigger and steadier than the Arab Cross she had been hunting 20-some years. That’s when she found her first Irish Draught Sport Horse, Mary Margaret O’Brian. That mare launched an entire breeding program of purebred Irish Draughts 15-plus years ago and my mother and I founded Bridon Irish Draughts in Round Hill (VA). We’re breeding every other year, producing two or three. We do everything with them in hand and on long driving lines, plus get them accustomed to farriers and vets, etc. To be honest, it’s pretty hard to let them go. I have chased trailers going out of the driveway, screaming, ‘bring them back!’” Linda Cowasjee has hunted with Piedmont Foxhounds since 1988 and started breeding Irish Draughts in 1999 at her Kilkelly Farm in Delaplane (VA). Her stallion, Kilkelly All’s Well, was Champion Partbred Irish Draught at Upperville in 2011 and 2012. His daughter, Kilkelly See The Difference, was Champion Yearling at the Future Event Horse in the finals for the Grand Championship in 2010 at Virginia Horse Center. Hennessy (RID) became a very special horse for Cowasjee in the Piedmont field. Imported
from Ireland as a six-year-old, Hennessy came to her by kismet. His owner Patty Motion lived to ride, and to this day Cowasjee remains very close with the rest of the Motion family because of the horse. “Patty asked me if I wanted to hunt Henny while she recovered from back surgery,” recalled Cowasjee. “I’ve had some really nice horses, but this one was so careful and safe I felt I could really just go out and enjoy myself. No fence was too big or too trappy and nothing fazed him. We led the field several times with Piedmont on Thursdays where the fixtures are our most daunting country. It was nothing to have a fourmile point over grass and jump big, stiff fences at speed. Henny was my horse of a lifetime.” Whitney McWhorter Williams will be gearing up for riding to hounds and helping to whip-in at Belle Meade Hunt (GA) with her 19-year-old mare, Adare (Master Imp (TB) –Trump Diamond (RID), by Diamonds Are Trump – Tudor Rose), imported to the USA 15 years ago. She is an Irish Draught Sport Horse, but also qualifies to call herself an Irish Sport Horse, which means that she was bred and born in Ireland. “Adare is my hunt horse of a lifetime,” enthused Williams. “She can whip, go first flight, third flight or whatever I ask of her. She has never refused a jump. She was bred to an Irish Draught and now her baby can be ridden anywhere in the hunt field, just like Adare. In my opinion Irish Draughts are levelheaded and you always know what you’re going to get on hunt day. They are reliable and dependable. Coyote chases are long and tough, but she loves it.” In addition to stamina and that Irish Draught longevity, Williams noted that Adare is always mindful of the hounds even if they gallop alongside them and added, “As a whip horse, she occasionally spots quarry before I do and will alert me by a swift turn of her head towards it.” Willing and Able Irish Draught and Irish Draught Sport Horses boast bloodlines endowed with the most desirable qualities attributable to any modern breed: temperament, soundness, and uncanny jumping ability. They come by their genetic inheritance naturally, thanks to centuries of galloping across the Irish countryside, pulling the plows, and harnessed to the family wagons for a run to Sunday church. They are capable of whatever you are willing to ask them. Skip Crawford, Senior Jt-MFH Potomac Hunt (MD), leads whichever field he is assigned with Dandelion Diamond Rebel (aka Irish Conor), his Registered Irish Draught stallion. The master sometimes whips in on his hunting partner, too. Crawford bought the six-year-old in November 2007: talk about a match made in horse heaven. “Conor goes wherever I want to go, although he’s happiest in the front because that’s where hounds are,” Crawford said. “He knows where the hounds are, even if he can’t see them, and his intention is always to go with the hounds. Yet, he does understand when the field is just galloping on and comes to a halt. If he sees a field is checked, he doesn’t feel compelled to run up and slam into them. He’s very smart. He’s not going to waste his energy unless hounds are screaming on, running a fox. Then he’ll be in the bridle, because he knows it’s time to get serious.” Keep in mind that these horses are bred with hunting genes. No doubt, they are savvy enough and, if they could carry the horn, quite a few would be willing and able to hunt their pack of hounds.
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Chris Gudger and Declan. Photo courtesy of Chris Gudger
Linda Cowasjee and Hennessy. Janet Hitchen photo
Whitney McWhorter Williams and Adare, Belle Meade Hunt, Georgia. www.bellavitaequestrian.com photo
Skip Crawford, MFH Potomac Hunt, and his stallion Conor. Janet Hitchen photo